Living Hope trumps False Hope Any Day!
What did you get for Christmas last month? Do you remember? Do you recall who gave you each gift you received? I am sometimes surprised at how quickly I forget who gave me what gift. You? I am usually very thankful at the time, but how soon I move on. Were any of those gifts life-changing or hope-inspiring? No, I am not taking on the role of Mr. Scrooge or the Grinch that stole Christmas. I am simply, profoundly struck by the hope that I have in Jesus Christ and by no other gift, person, or power.
My wife and kids/grandkids have been so kind over the years to give me wonderful gifts and make my heart happy…mostly because the gifts were given in love. I enjoy the gifts, I use the gifts, I eat some of the gifts…food items, of course. But the greatest gifts I have received don’t change my life any more than my gifts to them change theirs. I hope they are blessed by my gifts to them as I am by theirs to me.
The greatest gifts I receive are time spent with them, phone calls, Marco Polos, texts, emails, and any and all other ways I can either see, hear, or be with them. I have hope that I will see them again, and perhaps even spend a few days with them. I have hope that Carol and I will spend many more years together enjoying being friends, lovers, and brother/ sister in God’s family here on earth.
The idea that any of the things mentioned thus far will give me eternal, ultimate, or living hope is short-sighted and false. I am going to enjoy these wonderful gifts from God while I am here on earth for as long as I can, but I have a greater hope, a permanent hope,… a living hope.
In my position as a minister of the Gospel, which is a calling from God to help spread the Good News of Jesus to as many people in as many places for as long as possible, I am now recognizing that the greatest gift I have been given is the sure hope, the living hope that will not die, of an eternity with God in heaven secured for me by Jesus Christ. That hope is a living hope that cannot “perish, spoil, or fade”. (I Peter 1: 3-5— Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.)
Did you catch that? No matter what happens to me or to this world system, my living hope is permanent because of what Jesus did for me and is procured by grace through faith. He keeps my inheritance safe and secure. I don’t keep it. You don’t keep it. Jesus keeps it. That, my friend, is living hope….not dead hope, hopeful hope, maybe hope. He offers Living hope. Do you have living hope? Jesus already came once, already died once for all, already rose again victorious over sin and death, and now offers eternal life to you and to me.
What I am saying to you is that every other form of hope, or all other things for which we hope will come and go; but Jesus and His promises are in an entirely different category. Jesus is real. Heaven is real. Forgiveness is real. Sin is real. Eternity is real. Hell is real. Spending eternity someplace is real for each person. Do you have living hope? Don’t wait. Living hope in Jesus Christ is for you. He is for you. He is coming back. That, friend, is sure hope and living hope.