We all need hope!
For many people, this life is filled with suffering, hardship and disappointment. Some have given up and lost hope for their lives, their marriages, their children, and their futures. Many have worked hard and tried hard to find hope, but it always seems to be just beyond their grasp. In this messed-up, mixed-up world, where can we find hope? The best place to find hope today is in the God of Hope.1
God is hope because of His great love.
You are not an accident of random chance or time, but the creation of a loving God who wanted someone just like you to love and to love Him back. God declares in Jeremiah 31:3, “…I have loved you with an everlasting love…” Everlasting means forever. There has never been a time when God has not loved you, nor a time when He will stop loving you. Everything that is truly good in your life is God’s love gift to you. God is our hope because of His great love for us!2
God is hope because of His great mercy.
God created a good and beautiful world, but His good creation was broken, bent, and distorted when the people that He loved and created turned away from Him in distrust and disobedience. The Bible calls this rebellion sin. Sin is the source of the great brokenness in our world and lives. We have all experienced the brokenness of this world, and most of us know that we are broken too. Our sin is a spiritual barrier between us and our holy, loving, God. Our sin and disobedience prevent us from receiving His blessings and places us squarely on the road to hell. To choose to go our own way instead of trusting and obeying God is to choose suffering, pain and hell. We are doomed by our selfish choices, and are without hope3 to save ourselves from our guilt or the suffering that it causes. While it is useless to hope in ourselves or our good works to gain eternal life, we can place our hope in God’s love and grace.
Despite our distrust, disobedience and brokenness, God still loves us and has, at great cost to Himself, made a way for us to be saved from our sin and brokenness. The Bible says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) It is because of God’s holy love for you that He desires to save you and have a relationship with you. That is why God allowed His Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for your sin and disobedience in His own holy body by dying a horrible death on the cross. He took your sin, guilt, and penalty on Himself so that you could receive His cleansing, forgiveness and eternal life.4
God is hope because of His great power to save and to help.
The same God who is mighty enough to create the world is mighty enough to raise the dead back to life. That is what He did for His Son, Jesus. The Father raised the Son from the dead so that Jesus could be the Savior of all who would trust and believe in Him. His miraculous resurrection is a sign of God’s great power over death.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).
To receive that living hope, we must place our faith and trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior.5 To trust Jesus means that we will make the commitment in our hearts and minds that, with God’s help, we will turn from sin and selfishness and turn to the Savior in faith, obedience, and trust.6 Our good works or devotion to “religion” can’t save us, only faith in Jesus and what He has done for us can truly save us.7 Our obedience to His Word and will demonstrates that we truly trust and love Him, but it is our faith in the work of Christ that saves us. Inviting Christ into our life by faith and making the commitment to turn from our sin and selfishness and to turn to Him in faith, trust and obedience is the beginning of a new life, a life filled with the hope that only God can give.
Will you place your faith and hope in God?
Will you confess your sins to Him and turn away from sin, selfishness, and trying to save yourself through good works or religion, and trust Christ to forgive and cleanse you? Will you trust Him to give you new life today and heaven in the next life? Will you pray to Jesus a prayer like the one below?
Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me enough that you suffered and died on the cross for my guilt and sin. Thank you for rising from the dead and giving me the promise of eternal life. Lord Jesus, I trust in you as my Savior and Lord. Come into my life through your Holy Spirit and wash away my guilt and give me your goodness and righteousness. Help me to trust, love, and obey you. Help me to live my life in a way that will honor you.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jer 29:11 NIV)
Those who follow Christ can have hope in any situation because God lives in them! There is no situation that you will go through, that God in Christ will not go with you, and when the Lord is with you, He will make a wonderful difference in your difficulty. You now have hope for a better life today and eternal life with Jesus in heaven. Those who trust Jesus have hope.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” (Rom 15:13 )
Congratulations on starting your new life of faith in Christ!! If you prayed the prayer above, would you contact us so that we can share some resources to help you grow in your faith? Being a Christian is living in a faith relationship with Jesus every day, so spend a few minutes every day praying to Him, and then letting Him speak to you through His Word the Bible. The Gospel of John is a great place to start learning more about Jesus and the Christian life. Join a good Bible teaching church where you can grow in your faith and have opportunities to serve the Savior who sacrificed so much for you. Please get in touch with us at:
Hope For Today
PO Box 958
Wadesboro, NC 28170
Phone: (704) 694-2790
Email: ansonbaptist@gmail.com
1 Romans 15:13
2 John 3:16, John 15:13; Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:9-10
3 Ephesians 2:12
4 Lamentations 3:21-25; Romans 6:23; 1 Peter 2:24
5 Acts 16:31; John 1:12
6 Acts 3:19; Acts 2:38; Acts 17:30; Matthew 3:2
7 Ephesians 2:8-9; 1 John 5:11-12