Hope

“We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance

inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

I Thessalonians 1:3

 

Perhaps one of the greatest understatements I can make is to say that we are experiencing times of great despair and for so many a sense of hopelessness unlike any other time in our history.

I am very aware that most readers of this blog are believers so all the more reason that I should have agreement on this point.

The world, without God, is lost and without hope.

Certainly this planet has known difficult times before.

Some may have lived through the Great Depression, WWII and the Holocaust.

Centuries ago the planet was rocked by the Plague. More recently we have seen Tsunami’s, terror strikes, Hurricane Katrina, to name just a few.

It even seems there has been an escalation of hopelessness as we see marriage and the family redefined by our culture, gender confusion issues, mass shootings in our schools and elsewhere.

Crime, suicide, violence, and depression all seem to be rampant and people are looking in all the wrong places for answers. Our leaders have failed us, genuine solutions to severe problems seem to allude us and we try to numb our hopelessness through everything that gratifies the flesh.

The week’s headlines include rumblings of WWIII as Turkey shoots down a Russian jet and the US leadership seems to be asleep at the wheel.

We find ourselves at a point when so many just seem to have no reason to hope or believe in tomorrow being better than today. Especially the next generation! But lest you think it is only gloom and doom – there is hope!

As believers, we dare not buy into the attitude of despair and hopelessness no matter how widespread its’ influence. Especially if we want to be part of the next great move of God!

This week let’s examine how hope should impact our lives and how that same hope working in each of us can impact the lives of others. Let’s finish the week understanding how essential hope is in the lives of believers in the days ahead.