Good morning!
It has been said that, “We can live about 40 days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but we can live only one second without hope.”
Christian hope…what is it?
For most, it is just an emotion or positive outlook on a situation. When life hits hard and disappointment sets in. In spite of it all, people “hope” things will turn out well. As nice as this sounds, it is very far from the biblical meaning of hope.
Biblical hope is a divine gift that God offers the world through His Son Jesus. So how does a person grasp and receive this precious gift of hope?
The woman at the well thought that she was without hope.
The women with the issue of blood, thought all hope was gone.
Just when all seemed lost…
After Christ suffered an agonizing death, for our sin, it happened. The disciples did not expect it. On the third day after His death, “Hope” stepped out of the grave. Hope stepped from the darkness of Calvary, and hope now lives!
No longer do the chains of sin hold us, no longer does the past haunt us, for Christ has paid for our sin and we are now free. We live in hope! This hope does not come from words on a page, or somehow conjured up by our own will, this hope comes from within. When Christ comes to live within us, the Holy Spirit fills us with hope.
As Paul met Christ on that road to Damascus, so we too meet Christ and become new! Darkness is gone, the hold of sin is broken, the world and it’s hold is released. This world may steal our happiness at times, but never our inner joy and hope. We will endure suffering and heartache, but hope will still live within us. From now until forever – we live with hope!
No matter what you may be facing, know that you can have the hope that the Bible speaks about living in you! But only through believing that Christ died on that Cross with all your sins and mine, died and three days later rose from the dead! That He became sin, who knew no sin, that we might become righteous in the eyes of God. You can have Eternal Life in Heaven because of what Jesus Christ did for you! Will you trust Him? Will you call on His name?
<3 Sherrill Byrne