Daily Devotional

Hope, that is what this verse speaks to me. It is a hope for the future, that there will be an end to all the misery and pain, the sorrow and death, and all the other realities of this life on this side of Heaven. It is so easy to get bogged down in the pains and hurts of everyday life if we don’t focus on the hope we have through Jesus Christ.

We are bombarded almost every day with more bad news about the state our world is in. It comes in the form of financial crises, terrorism, wars and rumors of coming potential wars, corruption in our government and corporations, and lawlessness in our cities. How could anyone look around at the world today and think, yes I have great hope for the future? I don’t see it. Every year it gets worse, not better. That is a trend line that does not lend itself to a positive outlook for the future unless you are just delusional and ignorant. But as Christians we should have great hope, but not hope in this temporal world, but rather hope in Jesus Christ.

As children of God we often imagine that our life should be easy, pain, and worry free because after all God is on our side. But that is not what the Bible promises, in fact just the opposite. We are promised persecution because we are believers and if our hope is rooted in this life, we are doomed. Our hope is not found this side of Heaven, except for the help and strength to make it through. Our hope is found at the end, when Christ returns and sets everything right. Then there shall be no more death, or pain, or sorrow, for the former things have passed away and we shall reign forever with Christ! What a glorious hope to look forward to, if we will just keep our eyes fixed on Him, who will make all things new!

New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.