Hope or Nope?

Gò0dNews for Life

Hope or Nope?

by Janise Copeman

It is so easy these days to lose hope. It may seem overwhelming at times. Every day we are bombarded with news or events that can rob us of the joy we hold. As Christians, our hope lies not in the things we can see or the temporal but in the One who has saved us and has given us a future and a hope that no one can steal from us. Our anchor and hope are eternal, not someone or something that changes constantly. He changes not. He is the same yesterday, today, and always. Psalms 31:24, “Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.”

For example, the lesson about Peter walking on water— when we take our eyes off of Jesus and focus on everything going on around us, we start to sink under the weight of it all. When we cry out to Jesus in faith, He will catch us with His hand and raise us up above what seems impossible. When we are pulled to and fro by everything going on in the world, we lose our focus. This makes me think of Job and the testing and hardship he experienced, even his own family and friends turned on him. But he knew who His Lord was and refused to give up on that hope. In the end, when all seemed lost, the Lord blessed the latter end of Job’s life even more than his beginning!

When I was reading, I noticed three times what the Lord is trying to get through to us. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance” (Psalms 42:5, Psalms 42:11, Psalms 43:5). We are to praise Him in the midst of trouble, no matter what our flesh feels like or our emotions try to tell us. “You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your word” (Psalms 119:114).

Someday, this temporal world and its chaos, cares, and wickedness will be behind us, and our true destination will be before us. Daily struggle and war against the enemy will cease. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). “The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel” (Joel 3:16). In the meantime, we are to fight the good fight of faith. “Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer” (Romans 12:12). Our life here should not dictate who we truly are since this is not our home. We are just passing through. We are in the world but not of it. We are aliens and strangers here; we are not to be so entangled and at home here that we lose sight of our eternal destination, for this world is passing away. What awaits us is nothing our human mind can comprehend. “For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel” (Col. 1:5).

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

About The Author

Janise Copeman lives in Trion,Georgia, is 49 years old, and she is blessed to be married to her soulmate for 26 years. She enjoys reading, writing, and encouraging others by spreading joy and love in the Lord.

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