Hope — that short word is important in all of our lives. For example, we hope life will get better, or hope we can become a better person, or — let’s face it — we hope we’ll get that one album we’re practically dying for. We use the word ‘hope’ in the smallest to the most critical of situations. Sometimes what we hope for comes to pass, and… well, sometimes it doesn’t.
Raise your hand if you get your hopes up easily. Yeah? I’m raising my hand! I overhear or think of something that has at least 2% chance of happening, and suddenly I’m envisioning my future as if whatever I’m hoping for definitely is going to come to pass. We all hope for a huge variety of things, and some of us can grasp onto the concept of something we hope for and run with it. Obviously, there is a steep downside to this, which occurs when that thing we put so much hope into doesn’t happen. If you struggle with always getting your hopes crushed, then have we got a show for you! (Kindly excuse my VeggieTale vibes). Seriously though, of all the hopes that come true and all the ones who don’t, there is only one that we can have complete and utter assurance of its fulfillment.
You guessed it! Our hope in Jesus! Seems simple, a tad bit cliché — it doesn’t really matter how you choose to label it. At the end of the day, all we have is Jesus. All we need is Jesus, yet we all seem to ironically forget that, at least sometimes. The point is that we can have hopes and fantasies of our ideal days, years, and lives, but when reality kicks us in the gut, they are all gone in a flash. However, we can always stand on our hope in Jesus.
Now, maybe it’s just me, but does anyone else get tired of having their hopes never come true? It can be pretty hard to have hope in an invisible Savior when the small things we wish for on earth hardly ever come true. The funny thing is that we actually have more reason to trust in Jesus: He isn’t of this earth! I assume that everyone has experienced at least once or twice that people, circumstances, and pretty much life in general will let us down or crush our hopes and dreams. However, our gracious Savior is not of this disappointing and dismal world; He is our Creator and will never forsake us. In fact, the out-of-this-world (and I mean that literally) Son of God came down to His Creation, which the human race defiled, and suffered tremendously to free that same human race of their (or rather ‘our’) deserved punishment.
If salvation from sin, unending mercy, and unfailing love isn’t something we can have hope in, then we might as well stop hoping in anything at all. Right? Fortunately, God’s sacrificial love is a firm foundation we can have hope in. Hebrews 6:19-20a (ESV) really assures us in this: “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf…” Jesus came down and suffered a cruel death on our behalf, making accepting salvation possible for all.
All in all, Jesus won’t let us down. He won’t fail us like the world does. No matter what trials we are confronted with, we can be rest assured that Jesus is right beside us. Even when life knocks us down, He’ll be there to catch us.
Taking it one day at a time,
Janelle
