Hope is a fundamental need for most humans – it is a basic necessity! Every person needs some kind of “hope” to daily survive.
Because I am the superintendent of a school, I have seen students who have lost their hope.
Their grades are low or their family structure is failing or they don’t have any friends.
Young children who at an early age, through no fault of their own, have no hope!
Through the ministry, I meet many adults who have lost hope.
Sometimes in the hospital because of an illness or they have family issues or insurmountable financial issues.
The list is endless!
In the news recently, as I watch the tragedy of war in the Ukraine, I saw tens of thousands of people killed or injured in a single day as towns and villages are ravaged and destroyed – no hope!
I’ve watched the chilling videos of those in Shanghai, China. They have been locked up for so long they are out of food, and you can hear the cries of the hungry 23 million people in just one city! This story is so chilling. I watched them separate parents from children to enforced quarantine! I saw pets beaten to death in the street and people crying as they were pushed and shoved from one place to another against their wishes. I even watched the tragic ending of one young woman who jumped out of the window from a Shanghai apartment building, because she had no hope.
In the Bible, there are also cases of people who had no hope. One example would be the people in Noah’s day. Can you imagine what they thought when the flood waters were up to their necks, and they realized that they were going to die? I’m sure some of them tried to knock on the door of the Ark, begging Noah to open it.
But it was too late, there was no hope!
Think about the cry of the rich man who died and went to hell in Luke 16. He begged for Lazarus to bring him just one drop of water. He would never again be able to choose to enjoy the presence of God or even have one drink of water. He truly had no hope!
Think of the tragedy that will occur on earth when the Tribulation begins. Revelation 6 says it starts off with famines, diseases, earthquakes, wars and death all around. It states that even the wealthy and powerful men of the world will say to the mountains, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of God … for the great day of His wrath is come and who shall be able to stand?”
No hope! What about the Christian?
The Bible says in Titus 2:13 that we have a “blessed hope!” What an amazing contrast this is!
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing
of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ!”
What a hope we as Christians have! I Corinthians 2:9 says, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” The Bible is clear that our “blessed hope” will be realized in the return of Christ for the church before the tribulation ever begins! We have hope!
In I Corinthians 13:13, we are told “And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
Our faith will give away to sight!
Our hope will give way to reality!
And our love will be realized in the person and plan of Jesus Christ!
Do you have that blessed hope? Are you living in the hope that Jesus Christ could fulfill His plan and his promise to return in the clouds for believers? It could happen any day! Any time! Our hope will become reality in the person of Jesus Christ.
If you do not have this hope, I urge you to turn to Jesus today!
If you have Jesus Christ as your Blessed Hope, have you shared that hope with others around you who have no hope? Tell them today that there is hope, eternal hope in the person and plan of Jesus Christ!
I will end with Hebrews 6:18-19, “That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast …”