Hope

By Bud Fickley, Director of Student Ministry

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. – Philippians 4:13

God works all things together for good… – Romans 8:28a

“I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you…” – Jeremiah 29:11

We all love a good, uplifting verse from Holy Scripture.  The more it seems like it guarantees us health, happiness, and wholeness in this life, the better…

As I write this blog post, I’m anticipating a call from my mom telling that will tell me my Gramie has taken her last breath and gone home to be with God. 

Sitting by her bedside, looking at the beautiful matriarch of our family, the woman who has lived an amazing 94 years, it’s easy to think, “This isn’t fair for her life to end this way.  This can’t be what God wants for us.”

The simple truth? IT’S. NOT.

When we look back at the story of creation in Genesis 1 and 2 (and even the beginning of Genesis 3) or at the re-creation that happens in Revelation 21 and 22, we see a very different picture that is painted for us.  We see the kind of world we expect to find in this life but don’t, and we wonder where it all went wrong.

Where is the strength that lets me do all things?

Where is the “good” that God is working together for those who love God?

Where are these plans to prosper and not be harmed?

So often, these and other God-Breathed pieces of scripture turn from words of hope to seemingly false promises because we forget the rest of the book.

We forget that when Paul writes “I can do all things…,” he’s sitting in a Roman prison, talking about how he has been able to continue to be God’s messenger of hope in spite of the many trials he has faced.

We maybe have never read the paragraphs leading up to the words, “God works for the good of those who love him.”  If you go back and read verses 18-27, you’ll read of pain and suffering that is related to childbirth, which I’ve not experienced personally but have watched my wife go through twice.  It is not an easy process.

We may not know the context of the “plans” God is talking about.  Plans that leave Israel, God’s chosen people, in captivity and once again away from the promised land—many living as slaves and prisoners for decades before prosperity returns to them. 

I cannot begin to grasp at the eternal view that God holds, but as Romans 8:24 says, “Hope that is seen is no hope at all.  Who hopes for what they already have?”

I know God is working good in my Gramie’s life right now.  And when she sees Jesus, face-to-face, and knows the glory and splendor of eternal hope, the things of this world will mean nothing.

We aren’t living as God intended for us to live.  Our sinful nature, all those things that we talked about in our Turn Around series just a few weeks ago, have made certain of that.  But our hope isn’t in the things of this world – as pithy statements on photo frames and out-of-context scripture might suggest.

Our hope lies in things yet unseen.  A God who views all of eternity in the blink of an eye.  A Savior who gave his own life so you and I can experience that eternity.  A Spirit filling us with strength in times of need and leading us toward the life God created us for.

That’s my hope.

That’s the hope I seek to share.

That’s the Gospel message of the church.