A Message of Hope

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Troubles are inevitable in this life but one thing we can always hope for when we go through those troubles is God’s constant hand guiding us through them as He has promised us through His Word, “Never will I leave you or forsake you”. Hope nowadays seems to be a foreign concept to those who have not found theirs in Jesus. But hope for the believer is only found in the person of Jesus Christ. For many of us, we have suffered through many hardships in the last year. For some this may have been struggles with finances, some with mental health and maybe for some of us we may have struggled spiritually. However big our struggle has been may we never lose sight of how even bigger our God is. This month we celebrated the death and resurrection of Christ and while to many Easter may be just another holiday or another day off from work or school, to the believer, to the one who has put their hope and trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, this means everything. It means their hope is no longer found in the riches of this world but in Heaven, where Jesus tells us that “neither moth nor rust will destroy it and thieves would not break in and steal.” It means that although they may have trouble in this world, they trust and rely on the finished work of Christ that neither height nor depth nor anything else in this world would separate them from the love of Christ.

“while to many Easter may be just another holiday or another day off from work or school, to the believer, to the one who has put their hope and trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, this means everything.”

This world can be a crazy place, but for those who have put their trust in Jesus their hope is no longer in the things of this world but in Him. In His word we have found meaning and in His life we have found ours. We hope in Jesus because while other religions and mantras tell us how to become our better selves now, Jesus promises an eternal life later. In this world we will have many troubles but if we hope in Jesus and the life he promises to give us, the troubles that try to hinder us will only cause us to have greater joy for in His word we know that we should rejoice in our sufferings. For as the Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”