How important is the quality of hope in human experience? Well, it ranks so high that the Apostle Paul listed it in the big three:
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love..." (1 Corinthians 13:13).
As valuable as it may be, Christians don't always score well when it comes to hope in daily experience-or at least it seems to me. Many of us live with a sense of foreboding, dread, and hopelessness. There are those among us who are kind of like Charlie Brown in the old Peanuts cartoon strip. As imagined by Charles Schultz, Charlie Brown had low expectations at the beginning of baseball season. Linus sought to encourage him, "Remember Charlie Brown, you win some, and you lose some." Charlie responded, "That would be nice."
The truth is that life is filled with both wins and losses. We all have successes and failures. And we all have our appointments with disappointments. The important thing is that we never lose our hope in life.
The secret to holding on to hope is to build a great faith. Remember what we learned this past Sunday: Hope is faith turned to the future. If you want to grow in your hope, grow in your faith. As you learn to trust the Lord in times of trouble it gives you hope for tomorrow.
As Christians, we have every reason to have hope in our life. Let it be your consuming desire to find hope in God wholly by learning to trust Him completely. This will not only be a source of comfort but a platform to witness. Peter said, "Always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have" (1 Peter 3:15). So live with hope and spread it around!
See you in church tomorrow-hopefully!
Have a blessed day,
Pastor Ron