THERE’S ALWAYS HOPE

No matter where you are in life, there is always hope. Why? Because Jesus lives. He has been raised from the dead and is seated at the right hand of God, representing a finished salvation for all who will come to him in faith. That will never change. And so, in a world of uncertainty, in a world where there often appears to be none, there’s always hope. Hope’s name is Jesus.

Peter wrote, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has given us new life, to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (2 Peter 1:3). Hope rests on the “abundant mercy” of God and “the resurrection of Christ from the dead.” It is finished and settled. Christ has been raised, never to die again (Romans 6:9). And God does not change—his mercy endures forever (Malachi 3:6; Psalm 136).

Hope in the Bible is not the kind of hope people are usually describing when they use that word. “I hope I win the lottery.” That is not the kind of hope Jesus offers, because you don’t really expect what you are hoping for. But biblical hope is a certainty. It is both desire and expectation. We hope for heaven, which means we desire it and we expect it.

Here is Biblical hope: “For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. Because why would we still hope for something we have already seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it eagerly with perseverance” (Romans 8:24-25). We “eagerly wait” for eternity with Christ because we know it is coming. And this is something that is with all the time.

Even if you have never had the hope of Christ in your life, you can have it at any time. He always receives those who come to him. He always helps those who ask for it. The only real hope there is, is Christ. Take hold of him. Everything that threatens us in this life, he has already conquered. Say yes to Jesus and keep your focus on him. That is what real hope is.

Peter calls it a “living hope” because it will never die. There is great truth in the statement, “there is always hope.” The living hope of Jesus Christ is something that the world cannot offer—and it is something that the world cannot take away.

Dewayne Dunaway