Jesus, Our Hope

15 Apr Jesus, Our Hope

 

Jesus our hope (1 Tim. 1:1)!Without Jesus it does not work. I am sure we agree on that. Our life is wonderful, never boring but also quite often challenging.I, for example, am a mother of a stepdaughter, two adopted sons and three smaller foster daughters. Especially in this pandemic with all the lockdowns, I sometimes feel like a floppy balloon, hanging wobbly upside down and being squeezed and squeezed… 

Then, most recently my father and my mother-in-law died and in between, my pubescent daughter threw her faith in God overboard. Well, it’s not always easy.So many things happen in life that sometimes shake us.  I’m sure you know it like that as well. Things don’t always go easy.But how can we live our life out of the hope in Jesus?

1. Be prepared: Challenges are part of life
Arm yourself: Unfortunately, temptations are part of our life. I write “unfortunately.” Things happen. James, on the other hand, urges us that temptations should be a joy to us (James 1:1). 

Okay, I still feel a long way from that. But the principle is important. He doesn’t even question whether problems and hardships will come, but how we should handle them.So, we shouldn`t be surprised when they come. We should focus on Jesus. He gives us confidence in it and makes the situation a pleasure for us. But, really pleasure? I do not think that an euphoric joy is meant here. But instead let’s look at a spiritual understanding. Perhaps, imagine an athlete in training, he becomes more joyful the more his trainer expects and challenges him. Why? He knows that he will be able to meet future challenges all the better as a result of the training he has gone through. This is how we can understand it spiritually. 

Challenges will help us grow in our life journey with our coach, Jesus. But our coach will never allow more than we can bear. (1 Corinthians 10:13) And he will lead us to the goal (James 1:12).The important thing to remember is: Be prepared in your life that hurdles will come. Provide for yourself – like an athlete – with the water (of the Holy Spirit), nutrients (from the Word of God) and stay by the hand of the coach who will bring you through. 

2 Jesus is our hope
For surely there is a future for you, and your hope shall not be destroyed. (Proverbs 23:18)No matter what may be troubling you, no matter how over-dimensional your problem may seem. God’s dimensions of problem solving are greater. Should anything be impossible for your God? He is the one who rose from death and reigns in authority.  In him lies our hope. Jesus makes us look beyond the horizon of our towering walls. For it is he who can break down our walls, or simply lift us over them (Psalm 18:30). 
He is our hope-bearer in so so many ways. *When illness plagues us, there is hope of healing.

*When we feel abandoned by people, there is hope in the love of Jesus. It whispers to us that Christ remains by our side. 
*When we have to say goodbye to loved ones, His Spirit of hope assures us that these people are in good hands with God and that we will one day see them again. 
Thanks to Jesus Christ, we can see beyond the horizon of our need. 3. Jesus’ hope – our privilegeHallelujah, Jesus reigns as victor in our lives. In every circumstance, we may look to Jesus for our hope. (Micah 7:7) In joy and sorrow. When my soul has had to bear heavy burdens, it helps me to sing the truth of God’s word to myself. There is a song that says: “Waymaker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God, that is who you are.” It feels so good to replace the self-destructive thought patterns of despair with such truth. He is the Waymaker. Jesus is still greater than anything that weighs me down. And your Hopebearer has ever and always loved you. He will not allow you to be crushed.I would like to leave this on your heart, as Psalm 121 says: Look up to the Lord. Like the saved Israelites didn`t look at the poisonous snakes on the ground. They looked at the uplifted one. 

Lift your eyes -away from the figurative snakes- to the one who will help you: Jesus! It is so important that we keep ourselves from having self-pity parties. We must forbid hardship to settle in our hearts.  Jesus is your hope and confidence. Look to him. From him alone will come help just at the right time. 

 

THE AUTHOR