A Hope And A Future

Read: Proverbs 23:18

There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

What other religion can make the promise of a certain future for you?  What government or president or member of congress or politician can guarantee the hope of tomorrow for you?  What other institution, world system, or important person in your life can promise that your hope will not be cut off?  The answer:  There is none, for only God can give you a hope and a future.

You’ve got to love that about our Lord.  By virtue of his death and resurrection, he alone is qualified to make that promise—and promise he does.  He says to you and me that no matter what the track record of our past, no matter what we are facing today, no matter what we may think tomorrow will hold, his victory over sin, hell and death puts him in the unique position of commanding all of our tomorrows.  And his irrevocable and unassailable plan for you is for a bright tomorrow!

Some might think that this is just a typical pie-in-the-sky mentality all religions use to pacify their adherents.  But that is not what it is at all for those of us who follow Christ.  This is the hope of the Gospel, the promise of the cross, the guarantee of the empty tomb, and as Romans 5:5 says, this is “a hope that will not disappoint.” This hope, Hebrews 6:19 says, serves as our “anchor of the soul, firm and secure.”

Now, of course, this hope doesn’t mean you and I will have a problem-free future.  That is not the guarantee Biblical hope makes.  Jesus never promised to keep us from the storms of life, but he promised to be with us in those storms, bringing us to the other side.  At the end of the day, he has not guaranteed us a life without scars, but a life without stain.  The future hope that he has promised means that one day we will stand before his glorious throne without fault (Jude 24), and that is the hope that cannot be cut off!

So wherever you are in the hope department today—and perhaps your hope is running a little low—lean into the words of the psalmist:

Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
And why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope thou in God: For I shall yet praise him,
Who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
~Psalm 42:11

Your Assignment, Should You Choose To Accept It:

Read Jeremiah 29 in context, and memorize verse 11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

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