Where Do You Find Real Hope?
There shall be a sowing of peace. The vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its produce, and the heavens shall give their dew. Zechariah 8:12
When your day is challenging, your year crashing, or your life is crumbling, where do you find hope? If you're in the midst of challenges, perhaps these words will bring hope to your heart today.Personal Hope
We are ambassadors, image-bearers, ones through whom the beautiful light of Christ can shine. As we sit in God's word and in his presence, he does beautiful transformational work in us. We are changing, from the inside-out. And though this work won't be complete until the day we see Jesus face-to-face, we can have confidence that Christ has begun a good work in us and will see it all the way through to completion. We can have personal hope.
Relational Hope
Not only are we image-bearers, but so is every person we encounter. We can see every single person in our path as image-bearers as well. With this idea in mind, we can look for the glimmer of beauty and celebrate. We can view people as image-bearers and gain relational hope.
Present Hope
This life can be pretty stinky. It just can. Certainly the world stage is filled with pain, and trauma, and general stinkiness. But often our own lives are as well. We can certainly look for the beauty and blessings in the day-to-day. But we can also look and work for Christ's love to advance in the world. "Thy Kingdom come," Jesus prayed. And when we are working to advance his hope, his light, his love in the world, we are an answer to his prayers. We can have present hope.
Future Hope
A better Day is coming. A Day of no more tears, no more pain. A Day of no orphans, or child soldiers, or children abandoned on the street. A Day of no more chemotherapy, or radiation, or amputation A Day when Jesus will return and make all things right. When the terrible curse will be totally reversed and Creation will cease to groan. A future hope.
Do you need hope today? Feel free to reach out to me on FB. If you'd like prayer, let me know. If your more comfortable PM'ing me, feel free.I'm praying for you today to find real hope.