“Where is the hope? I meet millions of people who feel demoralized by the decay around us. The hope that each of us has is not in who governs us, or what laws we pass, or what great things we do as a nation. Our hope is in the power of God working through the hearts of people. And that’s where our hope is in this country. And that’s where our hope is in life.”
— Chuck Colson
Our hope lies, not in the man we put on the moon,
but in the Man we put on the cross.
–Don Basham
“The LORD will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; the earth and the sky will tremble. But the LORD will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.”
— Joel 3:16
Yeah, stuff is getting a bit weird in our world. It would seem that things are coming apart. Creation’s groans are getting louder by the day. What are we to do?
Beloved, we simply must stay plugged in to the Source of hope. Wait. Pray. Trust. Obey. Hope in Him alone. And in doing this, we can flee all the shiny, crunchy, curvy, and good-smelling lies that the world is trying to foist on us. G_d has unalterably promised that He will provide all we need – even in the midst of the worst of times.
The cosmos screeches that it’s trinkets are the answer. But, deep inside, we know that these things are as empty as the buildings that don’t exist behind the facades at an amusement park. We know that the answer is Jesus. The answer is Jesus, and His Spirit’s power to actually live an abundant life on this fallen plane.
There is no storing up enough Jesus to then go a get through a crisis on our own. Like the Hebrews in the wilderness, we’ve go to collect our manna daily from the Great Provider. If we try to keep any extra for ourselves, it just goes rotten.
A weak shadow of this truth is seen in how we now do much of our computing and communicating. We live and work on “the cloud.” Our programs, files, images and music exist in a very safe place, but that place is entirely separate from our computers. We absolutely have to be securely connected to the net for them to work for us.
Oh by the way… In all of this connected reliance on Him comes a great sense of freedom. We no longer have to worry about tomorrow. G_d is the One who is the designated Provider. And – being in all ways infinite – He doesn’t ever run out of anything. How very cool is that?
“Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God,”
— Psalm 146:5
