It is in the very nature of Christian hope to keep on hoping and longing for that day when there will be no more suffering, even when there is suffering amongst us. It is in the nature of Christ hope to yearn for that day when there will be no more crying, even when there are tears on our faces (Revelation 21:4).
As Christians, we continue to hope against hope, even when we confront the impossible. We continue to believe in God’s good purposes, even when all the evidence runs contrary to it.
Now, to be sure, the skeptic may scoff, and if so, that’s fine. Skeptics will be skeptics! But as Christians we continue to believe and have hope, and the reason we do so is because of what God has done in Christ, of how God himself took on evil and defeated it on the cross, entering our darkness and lighting the way, taking the bad and transforming it into the good.
Such is the source of our hope! Such is the reason we can have hope; for even amidst suffering and death, there is the evidence of God’s life and goodness and grace. There are people whose extraordinary lives, even now, are bearing witness to such a source of hope, to the truth of God’s love and compassion, as they display courage each and every day, despite the odds; their lives convey hope, even when there appears to be no hope.
Again, if such people can live in such hope, we can take comfort and live in such hope too, for we can live with the assurance that “God is working for good for those love him and who are called according to God’s purpose” (Romans 8:28). We can live in the hope that the future is not pointless: that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory about to be revealed to us; that God is able to take our pain and transform it; God is able to take whatever is facing us and bring about something we had not anticipated – a life filled with hope and light: the very goal of creation itself, the very the hope in which we are saved.
How may we continue to endure in hope?
Pastor Andy Kinsey
As Christians, we continue to hope against hope, even when we confront the impossible. We continue to believe in God’s good purposes, even when all the evidence runs contrary to it.
Now, to be sure, the skeptic may scoff, and if so, that’s fine. Skeptics will be skeptics! But as Christians we continue to believe and have hope, and the reason we do so is because of what God has done in Christ, of how God himself took on evil and defeated it on the cross, entering our darkness and lighting the way, taking the bad and transforming it into the good.
Such is the source of our hope! Such is the reason we can have hope; for even amidst suffering and death, there is the evidence of God’s life and goodness and grace. There are people whose extraordinary lives, even now, are bearing witness to such a source of hope, to the truth of God’s love and compassion, as they display courage each and every day, despite the odds; their lives convey hope, even when there appears to be no hope.
Again, if such people can live in such hope, we can take comfort and live in such hope too, for we can live with the assurance that “God is working for good for those love him and who are called according to God’s purpose” (Romans 8:28). We can live in the hope that the future is not pointless: that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory about to be revealed to us; that God is able to take our pain and transform it; God is able to take whatever is facing us and bring about something we had not anticipated – a life filled with hope and light: the very goal of creation itself, the very the hope in which we are saved.
How may we continue to endure in hope?
Pastor Andy Kinsey
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