“In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Over the years I think I have felt pretty much every feeling a person can have.
On the positive side, I’ve known love, happiness, compassion, patience, joy, contentment, pleasure, fulfillment. In fact, I can’t think of any positive feeling I haven’t felt.
My feelings on the negative side have also run the gamut: stress, fear, anger, rage, guilt, shame, lust, grief, jealousy, helplessness, depression, even paralyzing terror.
But the other night, as I was praying and meditating, the thought came to my mind that there is one negative feeling I have never experienced: hopelessness. I can imagine what it’s like to be hopeless. But despite the trials and tribulations I – like all other people in this world – have experienced, I have never actually been without hope.
As I continued praying and thinking about this, it came to me that I have always had hope, no matter how bleak things may be, because I have been a Christian since I was a child. Consequently, I have never experienced a trial, test, or temptation without Jesus Christ. I have always known that God, in Christ, loves me and is in control. Even better, I have always known that no matter how bleak things may be, he is with me right now. And even better still, there has never been a time when I wasn’t conscious of the fact that God, through Christ’s death and resurrection, has defeated sin and evil and even death itself.
Hope is the Christian’s immune system for the tribulations of this world. With it, we can face anything. Without it, we stand naked and exposed to every element this world throws at us.
“The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him. It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” Lamentations 3:25-26
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
For the past sixteen years New Commandment Men’s Ministries has helped hundreds of churches throughout North American and around the world recruit teams of men who permanently adopt their widowed and single parents in their congregations for the purpose of donating two hours of service to them one Saturday morning each month. We accomplish this with a free training site called New Commandment Men’s Ministry
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