An angry voice cried out "How can you have hope when this world is so corrupt? When children are abused and killed? When the elderly are put aside, treated with contempt and left to die alone and afraid? When there is so much inequality that some nations die of hunger and thirst while others banquet on their riches? What hope can we have as a species if we destroy our own inheritance?"
When you think that there are enough resources around the world to feed, cloth, look after, and sustain every human being on this planet, but because of our greed, and the fact that we refuse to share equally what we have with others, hope for many is a distant dream floating ever further away from reality.
The answer then to the question of what hope can we have (if we are left to our own devices), is 'no hope'.
Hope - Bah humbug.
Like Scrooge, thinking only of his profits and how to make more money from his already overworked and underpaid employees, we live centered on our own wants and needs regardless of the consequences.
That is why God's hope is so revolutionary.
That is why ministers of churches need to shout from their pulpits (or wherever they preach from) the benefits of God's Hope and implore us to pray it into our own lives so that everyone benefits from the wealth of Divine Hope, as the world's hope is sinking in corruption and lies.
Divine Hope - Jesus
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade -- kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power. (1 Peter 1:3-5)
Depend on God's hope not on the world's.
Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. (Psalm 62:5-8)
Share God's hope with the world.
But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up (1 Thessalonians 5:8-11)
Build each other up, not just your church fellowship but the wider world, in the market place and where people do not know God. Share the greatest story of Hope with the hopeless.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)
Be the difference, so that other's will want to know what this Hope is that we have.
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope -- the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:11-13)
There will always be suffering in the world.
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5:10-11)
So be generous in your hope.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)
And in answer to the angry voice...
As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. (James 5:11)
Our Hope is in Jesus.
Jesus said, "Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:20)
He is our Divine Hope. Not the hope of the world that is tangled up in all it's sin of messiness and grief. In it's inequality and greed.
So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith." (Hebrews 10:25-28)
Be encouraged. Be Blessed.
Margaret
