hope

In Dante's Inferno, there is a sign above the entrance to hell that reads -  “Abandon hope all you who enter here.”

Many people today have begun to give up hope.

After an era of success and great progress, the last century brought us World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, Vietnam, the Cold War,  9-11,  and a war on terror.

We live in an era in which many people have a sense of despair, a sense of hopelessness, where they are not sure about what the future will bring.

We need to hear again the words from Romans chapter 15 -
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

The Biblical word, “hope,” means to trust that God has a future for you. To have faith means to trust God in the here and now; but to hope means to trust in God’s future. To realize that God is in control of your future.

Ask yourself - Has God taken care of you in the past? Has God taken care of you today?

If God has so faithfully taken care of you in the past….and if God is so faithfully taking care of you in the present, will not God certainly take care of you in the future? Of course He will.

There is always hope, even when it seems like our hopes are dashed. And because our hope is in the Lord,  we abound with hope. We are filled with hope. We are overflowing with hope that the God who has taken care of us in the past, and is with us today will indeed take care of us in the future. We are not afraid of what the future may bring. We know that the God of the past is also the God of the present, and of the future.

Christians are people who have hope, hope for this world, and hope for the world to come.
We have the absolute sure and certain hope of eternal life. We have the promise of forgiveness, life, and salvation through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. He came to live and die and rise again, so that we might also rise to newness of life. And He will come again for us, to keep His promise, and to fulfill our hope.

We live in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection.

It is the same hope found in a prisoner of a Nazi concentration camp. For scratched on the walls of one of the camps were these words, “I believe in the sun even when it does not shine. I believe in love even when I can't feel it. And I believe in God even when He is silent.”...

That is our hope today.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”