In reading through the Letter of James, in journaling my thoughts, in my conversations with others, and in my time spent in God’s beautiful creation, God continues to whisper His truths over and over again. Truths that we all need to be pointed to daily.
There are days when I am constantly reminded of the brokenness in this world.
Every time I see the riots on the news, smell the smoke from the wildfires burning across our country, hear my neighbors screaming at one another in their garage across the street, put on my mask as I enter the store…
There’s been one thing after another in 2020, as if we need the reminder of the amount of sin in this world. Do you ever start to wonder what terrible thing will happen next? Just thinking about that makes the world start to seem hopeless.
And the world is hopeless. Without a Savior to believe in.
Could you imagine how hopeless, how dark, how bleak a world without a Savior would be? If this life was all there was. If we didn’t have the promise of redemption and eternal life to look forward to. If we didn’t have an anchor for our souls.
But we have Hope.
Hope in the One who is redeeming. Hope in the One who brings good into this world amidst all the bad. Hope in the One who will remain when all else fades away. Hope in eternal life with no more riots, no more sickness, no more pain, no more masks, no more fires. Imagine how amazingly beautiful that new creation is going to be!
He is the Hope we can cling to. The Hope and light we can share with those around us. The Hope we need to remind each other of every single day.
So let’s focus our eyes on the only One who can save us. On the One who is always at work even when we can’t see past all of the darkness.
I was reminded during last week’s James reading; “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” – James 4:7-8 (ESV)
The devil wants us to focus on the darkness instead of God’s truth. We have to draw near to God and hope in His promises in order to resist believing the devil’s lies.
It is when we trust that God is and has always been at work restoring what’s broken, that we find the Hope and the strength we need to persevere in this unpredictable world.
