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The concept of a “God of Hope” reflects the human desire for optimism, resilience, and the belief in better things to come. Without hope, doubt can bring unanswerable questions that rarely take things at face value. Worse yet, a gullible mind can be drawn to unscrupulous scammers, dangerous politicians, and false teachings.
And as we live in the midst of this fallen world, we must have a hope about the future, and that hope is so strong that it becomes our source as we live in a world of trials and tribulations. We live in a time that is just a bleep on God’s screen. It’s just a momentary time we’re here in comparison to eternity. Yet, we have such a glorious future ahead.
God of Hope Is Our Ultimate Source!
Furthermore, God is love, and God freely created the world as an outpouring of love. We praise God for the vast diversity of creation and for fulfilling the promise to bless all the nations by including them in Christ. This is how God showed his love among us: God sent his only Son into the world that we might live through him.
Jesus Christ is God’s love for the world. In perfect humility and compassion, God became human to seek and to save the lost. God did not accomplish this from a distance. In Jesus Christ, God became part of creation to rescue creation (us) from the inside, by his saving grace through his blood, shed on the cross.
The Holy Spirit awakens us to the reality of God’s love for the world in Christ. When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father – he will bear witness about me. As the Son God into the world, so the Son who is Jesus the Christ sends believers into the world with the message of reconciliation. (John 16:13)
Well, as we look back, where we are, we also look at the hope that we have while living in this fallen world. And in this fallen world, we are surrounded by all kinds of suffering, and a lot of it in our own personal experience. Broken relationships, disappointments, people who break their promise, broken words, death, loss, ill health, financial hardship, emotional trauma, discouragement, etc. This is the world in which we live.
In one way or another we all stumble into life moments, but it is in our deeply personal conviction, readiness to serve, to reconcile, to restore and forgive. This speaks to the future with which we must live our present, living with a strong hope, a future glory. And that hope in the glory of God means that one day we will be in the presence of the glory of God. This life is temporary, and while it’s easy to be caught up in our daily experiences, we must remember to look forward to the beautiful future that God has promised.
Our hope is not of this world, but the next. Amen.
Rev. Carole
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