Do you have HOPE?

Hope. Do you have it? In the midst of the media bombarding us with negative outlooks on the housing market, the political scene, world crisis, and natural disasters it can be difficult to find a positive voice offering hope. Sure, each politician running for election is promising that they have the solutions to all of the messes that previous politicians have supposedly made, but that’s nothing we aren’t accustomed to hearing every four years. No, real hope is what I’m talking about. I’m talking about a hope that doesn’t disappoint, doesn’t fall apart after someone is elected, doesn’t leave me thinking that there must be something more than what I’m seeing.

Real hope isn’t more finances. If having a lot of money equalled hope than Americans as a whole should be the most hopeful people in the world, but we’re not. Real hope isn’t limited to something we can manufacture or produce on our own. It takes something, someone bigger than oneself to give us hope that lasts and endures through good times and the bad. A statement like this stands in the face of today’s secular thinking which would suggest that we have everything we need to be a whole person. That we have no need for an outside source for strength, hope, love, encouragement, direction, guidance, wisdom, truth, peace, or salvation. But the truth is that to really experience and keep all of the those needs just listed we do need someone bigger than oneself to give them to us. One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Romans 5:3-6 which communicates where to find real hope:

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us – they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation (hope) of salvation. And this expectation (hope) will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” (New Living Translation)

As people, we have a natural tendency to take all the credit for when our life is going great, and to point the finger of blame towards everyone else when it’s not. It takes a honest person to admit that real success and strength in the tough times comes from beyond themself. The verse in Romans paints that picture well. What am I saying in simple terms? If you want real hope, something that isn’t an illusion and doesn’t changes with the seasons, then you need the One that created hope in the first place for all of us. His name is Jesus Christ, and I would challenge you to get to know Him.