Hope: We All Need It

Sometimes we go through life and nothing causes us to stop and think. It is amazing what happens to us when life forces us to stop and think about the bigger issues. Right now, amidst all the craziness of COVID-19, our physical circumstances have forced us to consider the wrestling that is happening in our minds and emotions. What I mean is this: our souls are screaming and we can finally hear them.

I think the world is realizing that we all need hope. Dr. Caroline Leaf writes that, “Our minds need time to understand what our souls already know.” This is a profound statement, and certainly a piercing one. Our souls are screaming because our souls directly feel the void in our lives that we cannot fill ourselves. What our minds are starting to realize is what our souls have known all along--something is not right in the world. That something that is wrong is ultimately linked to sin. Because of sin, all is broken and everyone is hopeless.

We all have a God-sized hole in our lives that only He can fill. When we spend our days turning our wheels, loading up our calendars, and fulfilling our tasks, we can temporarily delay recognizing our desperate need for hope. However, when life slows us down and forces our minds to recognize that we are in need of something, we desire for something to tell us that everything is going to work out in the end. For most, they don’t realize that no matter how hard they work, how good they try to be, and how kind they believe they are to others, that it won’t change their eternal destiny. Additionally, all this trying will not bring their soul peace. The thing that they are missing is HOPE.

Romans‬ 5:2-5 gives us insight into true and lasting hope. It reads, “Through him we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

Here is what I know:

• Hope cannot be temporary.

• Hope cannot be found in something that can change.

• Hope cannot be found in something that can be taken from us.

Our world is realizing that good health is something that fits those categories. No matter how much money we invest into our bodies, no matter how disciplined we are to eat healthy and maintain a solid exercise routine, no one is exempt from the effects of disease. Anyone can get injured. Anyone can get cancer. Anyone can get COVID-19. The world is quickly realizing that hope is not something we can produce in and of ourselves. Anything that we build can be taken away in an instant.

The Bible teaches us that hope is available to all, but it came at a price. The Creator of the entire universe stepped down from His throne to become the Savior of the universe by lowering himself to be one of His own creations. Jesus became fully human, and as the god-man, He conquered death and overcame the effects of sin on humanity’s destiny. Jesus crucifixion and resurrection is the ONLY thing that we can find true hope in. Anywhere else that we turn to for hope will ultimately disappoint us. Today, I implore you to choose to trust in Jesus to be your source of ultimate and eternal hope! May this be our resolve as stated in Hebrews 10:23, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

Choose hope. Rep hope. Live hope.

Josh Lane