Choosing Hope in Christ

Throughout my life, I have been through many dire circumstances, many of which were my own doing. I have lived through days when I had no hope of a better future, and I felt hopelessly lost and miserable. I have felt deep pain and I have endured poverty, sickness, loss, depression, heartache, failure, and a never-ending stream of bad circumstances. This characterized my former life before Christ. It was one mistake after another, and I say this...not to dwell on the past, but to make a point to you today. Even after accepting Christ as Lord and Savior, life has had some difficult twists and turns. In the past two years, as I have said before, I endured marital problems, my son's enduring illness and sleepless nights, the loss of two pregnancies in three months, and the loss of my grandmother this past Christmas. I have had financial ups and downs, but mostly skating the edge of not having enough. Our country is currently in a time of financial hardship, our families are seeing hard days with increasing rates of divorce, abortion, and homosexual unions becoming the norm. Our country is at war, and we are seeing unemployment rates climbing and more heinous crimes. Quite honestly, reading the news every day is quite depressing to me because it reminds me of how much evil exists in our world today.

You may ask, why am I telling you what you already know?

I am telling you because in the last week, the Lord has reminded me of a very important fact about being His child. We have a decision to make each and every day about our attitude toward this world and its current state. A couple of weeks ago, I was at the hospital and I ran into an acquaintance of mine. She was there to get a dating ultrasound for her first pregnancy. She was sharing with me how she was anxious over her pregnancy and just wanted to make sure everything was going well. She began to tell me how her sisters had miscarriages and she was afraid it might happen to her. It was the perfect opportunity for me to share with her what I had been through this year with having miscarriages, and how we have to put our trust and faith in God alone. Then these words just jumped out of my mouth (I didn't feel like it was me talking).

I said to her, "The way I look at it, I have two choices at this point in my life, I can live my life in fear, worry and anxiety over what is going to happen next, OR I can CHOOSE to have hope and be a fool for Christ."

After I said those words, I began to think about what I had just said. The rest of that day, and the day after, I meditated on those words. I CHOOSE to have hope, rather than despair. I realized that I am enabled to hope because I know that my Lord is coming one day to bring me to be with him forever. He says He will wipe away ever tear from their eyes.

Revelation 21:4 (KJV):

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away."

This scripture gives me something great to hope FOR. When I am with my Lord someday, I will not have the worries and cares that I do today. I will not be worried over having a miscarriage, or going into poverty, or feeding my children, or disease, or death. In these times where life can be so difficult because of so many different twists and turns in life, we are forced to make a decision:

DESPAIR OR HOPE?

If you have nothing to hope for, then I pray that you will allow your hope to rest securely in the salvation that can only come through Jesus Christ and his death on the cross for your sins. Without Him, and His promises found in God's Word, there is no hope.

Psalm 31:23-24 (KJV):

"O love the Lord, all ye His saints: for the Lord preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord."

Psalm 71:14 (KJV):

"But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more."

Psalm 119:114-117 (KJV):

"Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word. Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of God. Uphold me according to thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope. Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually."

Proverbs 10:27-29 (NKJV):

"The fear of the Lord prolongs days, But the years of the wicked will be shortened. The hope of the righteous will be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked will perish. The way of the Lord is strength for the upright, but destruction will come to the workers of iniquity."

During these trying times, the only safe place to be is resting securely in God's salvation through Christ. We can always have hope because God never goes back on His Word, and He has promised to save us from this world and bring us into heaven for all eternity. That makes life on earth much more bearable, and we are even able to have joy during tribulation.

Now that is amazing.

I pray today that if you have not found the security and hope found only in Christ, that you would pray today to receive Him as your Lord and Savior. After you have found security only in Him, you will no longer be shaken by the circumstances surrounding your life, because His mercy and truth endures forever. There is nothing left to fear because God is with you. I pray today that God would open your eyes to see, and your ears to hear the truth of His gospel of salvation. I pray that joy and peace would be with you in the Holy Spirit. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Resting securely in Him,

Sarah