3 Reasons For Hope Today

What are reasons that you can claim today that offer you hope? Here are three that I think you can use right now!

The Assurance of Your Salvation

The Christian faith, unlike other religions of the world, is not a hope-so but a know-so. The biblical definition of hope is drastically different from that of the world. Someone might hope their team wins the Super Bowl, they might hope that they get a raise in pay, or they might hope that their car doesn’t break down before it’s paid for. The Christian has every reason to hope because Jesus said that “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out… And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:37, 39-30). Furthermore, He said “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10:28-29). What greater hope is there than that!? You have a better chance of swallowing the entire universe than God ever breaking His promise.

Death is not Final

When we die as a believer, we really don’t die in any sense of the word because the moment we close our eyes in this physical life, we shall awake in the presence of the Lord. If we live with the end in mind, we can better endure today. Paul tried to reassure the Corinthians of this when he wrote “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor 15:54). D.L. Moody said “Someday you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield is dead. Don’t believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now!”

God is in Control

I once heard about Shirley McLain running down a beach shouting “I am God. I am God.” Aren’t you glad she was wrong? Another reason that we have hope is that nothing catches God by surprise, not even Shirley McLain. Everything that happens works out for our good (Rom 8:28 but that doesn’t mean that everything seems good at the moment. That means that even bad things happen for our best. One famous speaker was about to take the stage when he slipped and broke his leg. He had just missed his biggest chance to preach to the biggest audience in his life, instead he had to go to the hospital to have his broken leg set. He thought, “Why, why God? This was my chance to preach the gospel. This is what I was made for. Why did you allow this to happen?” When they x-rayed his broken leg, they found a huge blood clot that eventually would have found its way to his brain and he would have suffered a massive stroke. What seemed bad actually saved his life. God is in control. Relax.