There's always hope in God

There's always hope in God. Think about it: 'The hope' of the Gospel is being raised from the dead to immortality when Jesus returns from heaven to this world (Eph. 4:4; Acts 23:6). There is no greater problem about this life than the fact that we have to die and leave it all behind. Neither is there any hardship that we could incur in this life that compares to the finality and cruelty of death. Yet even in death there is hope, and it is in fact a sure hope and an absolute certainty that if we die in holiness, which is to say without sin; then we will be resurrected to a far greater life than what we have ever known (Rom. 6:23; Rom. 8:18). So having that sure hope even in the face of death, it is certain that we have hope in the difficulties and adversities that we face while we are still alive. In fact it is the same rule of hope that we have for the afterlife that we must also apply to our adverse circumstances while we are in this life: "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it" (Rom. 8:24,25). It is evident that we do not 'see' the resurrection and transformation of our physical bodies at this point in time, yet it is the certain hope and knowledge of the same that keeps us persevering in holiness. By the same token we cannot see the outcome of the hardships and difficult straits that we must sometimes navigate, but we do have a very powerful promise about those outcomes if we remain faithful: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose... What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Rom. 8:30,31).

What we have just read is that there is no possible outcome other than good for anything that we have to deal with in this life, as long as we continue to love God and let him fulfill his purposes in our lives. The beloved apostle clearly tells us what it means to love God: "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous" (I Jn. 5:3). Jesus left us with the exact same sentiment: "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Jn. 7:21). The apostle Paul loaned his input as well and clarified for us just what the will of God for us is: "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification" (I Thess. 4:3). To be sure, 'sanctification' is the same as holiness, which is to be without sin or pure in heart. So if we keep our hearts pure from sin, no hardship has any choice but to work out for our good. That is a wonderful promise, and even though we may not know exactly what good things will work out, we can know that they won't be bad, like the demon spirits that tempt us try to make us believe. That is where the real test is at, overcoming the demon spirits that want us to believe that no good outcome from a bad situation is possible. The feeling that these spirits cam impress onto our spirits and the thought they can inject into our minds are very real, and sometimes those feelings and thoughts can hang around quite a while. In fact there are circumstances that can come upon us that can feel and seem absolutely impossible to get through, or to recover from. Those feelings and thoughts are from the demons that see our difficulties and try to take advantage of them to steal our hope. As Jesus said, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy." But as he also said immediately in the same breath: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (Jn. 10:10).

That is the part we must remember when these demon thieves come to steal our hope from us in the narrow straits that we often find ourselves in. They work overtime to "steal, and to kill, and to destroy," but Jesus is with us at the same time to deliver the victory to us through our faith, which will always result in "life.. more abundantly" (I Jn. 5:4). I know that things can get bad at times, in fact they can get really bad. But things can't get any worse than than they did for Lazarus, who had been dead for four days, and for his sisters Mary and Martha, who had grieved his death for four days. Yet Jesus came and raised Lazarus from the dead and restored him to his sisters (Jn. 11:17-44). While it's true that this is an example of something that has never happened to that extent before or since, it does demonstrate the nature of God and how he feels about our heartaches. Not only so, but it was also a bold example of the hope that we have of the resurrection of the dead at the Lord's coming. Jesus said the same in no uncertain terms: "Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" (Jn. 11:24-26). So the example of Lazarus shows us that there is always hope in our present distresses, as there was for Mary and Martha; and it shows us that the constant, long term hope that we all have in common is a sure hope that is bound to take place when the physical presence of Jesus, who IS "the resurrection and the life," returns from heaven. I don't know about you, but to me that sounds pretty hopeful. Good thing, because I can use all the hope I can get. Amen.