Colin Dye
It is said that you can live 6 weeks without food, 3 days without water and only 4 minutes without air, but you cannot live one second without hope. Hope, vital as it is, is failing in today?s world. The youths who perpetrated the acts of looting and vandalism in London last month were said to have acted out of desperation, having no hope. They were described as victims of a society that has given them no future, nothing to look forward to.
For us Christians, hope is an essential part of our relationship with God. Jesus is our hope and he gives us a confidence to face the future. We can be sure that he will never leave us nor fail us. We are persuaded that nothing can separate us from the love of God. We are convinced that God is working out all things for our good and for his glory.
Hope in the Bible is ?a certain expectation of a positive future event?. We speak of the hope of the return of Christ, the hope of the resurrection from the dead and the hope of heaven. All these things are guaranteed us because we belong to Jesus, the source and ultimate reality of all things. By him all things consist and are held together.
You would think that such comforting ideas would be snatched up at once by politicians, sociologists, psychologists and educationalists. Imagine if all these people incorporated Christian hope in both their private and professional lives. Think of the difference it would make if such spiritual confidence lay at the heart of every personal and public decision in our society. Hope in Christ gives us stability in this life and the motivation to make a difference. It is a solid foundation to live for God now as well as confidence for the hereafter.
However, not everyone is persuaded that such hope exists, least of all in the Christian gospel. There are many reasons for this. One of these is that the world is governed by its senses. It is dominated by the natural and is blind to the spiritual. Spiritual truth is not innate. God has put eternity in our hearts and we all have the remains of a once-perfect image of God in our hearts. That?s why humanity is incurably religious. However, we are totally dependent on God?s revelation to find our way back to him.
?Always be ready to give a defence to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you (1 PETER 3:15)