Christ is our hope in a world of fading hopes

Some people are cynical about hope. Perhaps it’s because they couldn’t find it in the places where they looked. But for people who know the Lord, hope is not elusive.

The New Testament epistles repeatedly encourage believers to hope in the Lord. These letters, written to Christian communities facing internal and external difficulties and pressures, remind us again and again that trusting in the God of hope is how we find peace and joy in this life.

As we watch the world quake in the throws of global conflicts and feel the extreme fragility of our own lives, we may feel destabilized by the current of events. But Christian hope transcends this world and does not depend on it.

For people without a biblical worldview, hope is tenuously tied to the frailty of the world and to promises that collapse under pressure. However, if we make our home in the word of God we experience another kind of hope. This kind of hope stabilizes our soul like an anchor by linking it to God’s faithfulness. Our capacity for endurance and perseverance grows and we find strength for the journey.

How we think about this life is connected to the worldview that we hold. When Paul the apostle was released from a brutal Roman prison, he began his first letter to Timothy by saying that Christ Jesus himself is our hope. Through beatings, trials and imprisonment, his hope never faltered. He remained hope-minded and on mission when politics and culture were shaping other people’s view of life.

Nothing deterred Paul—no social or religious chaos, no injustice, no suffering, no cultural stronghold, no political opposition. His hope was tied to God who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or think.

We all need a similar hope, one that is soaked through with the living word of God. We find strength and clarity when we take time to listen to the voice of God in the sacred pages, ponder its message, and receive it into our hearts.

What about the need for patience when we hope and pray? Dr. J. I. Packer, author of the book, Knowing God, said something that has been profoundly encouraging and comforting to me in the valleys of my own journey: “When we pray, we must believe that God will act”.

So, we continue to bring our needs and burdens to the Lord with faith in his love, goodness, mercy, trusting him to act in the way he chooses. He cares, he hears, he sees, and he is with us in every detail of our lives.

It may be helpful to remind ourselves that many answers to our petitions will unfold over time because they require a deeper work of God, whether it be in our own life or in someone else’s life.

Perhaps this is why the Bible associates prayer with perseverance and patience. And let’s not forget one of the brightest words connected to prayer in Scripture—promise. God our Father has promised to never leave us without his help. We can count on this.

Through the changes in our lives, big or small, we do not neglect prayer. We bring all our burdens to him — strained or broken relationships, breakdown in families, illness, lost loved ones, the desperate need for clarity on matters we can’t seem to resolve, all of it.

We also protect our hearts and don’t allow discouragement to camp there for too long. Circumstances and conversations can easily lead to speculations and considerations that lead nowhere good. But if we keep the good practice of pondering the word of God our hope will have the best and strongest of allies, and we will be able to withstand the storms.

Our hope is not filled with speculations about what tomorrow may bring. It is firmly tied to all that is ours in the resurrected Christ. No other hope is established on such a sure foundation.

In the end, we are transients in this transitory world. One day it will all pass away. Those whose faith is in Christ will be resurrected to a new life in a real place where there will be no more tears, no more fears, no more suffering, and no more wars. Christ our hope will lead us there.