View Blog Entry

Welcome to hope.

I want it. I search for it. I hold onto it when I find it. I sing, teach, greet, write, and listen to pastors speak words of hope. Yet hope has proven elusive from the beginning of time.

Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and God drove them from the Garden of Eden. Cain killed Abel, and God banished him from his homeland. Joseph’s brothers betrayed him and sold him into slavery. The Hebrew people endured years of Egyptian bondage. Old Testament prophets warned God’s people time after time about their unfaithfulness to the one and only holy God.

If I read, watch, or listen to the news, I hear about a world devoid of hope. People destroy one another with whatever weapons they possess, including hate-filled words. Disease, disaster, death, political unrest, and economic upheaval cross our screens in an endless litany of woe. Children live in homes lacking direction—filled instead with addiction, pain, hunger, and distress. People of every age suffer abuse from both strangers and caregivers. Persecution of Christians results in demolished homes and churches, imprisonment, and death. Hatred, prejudice, greed, and a me-first attitude dominate the pages of history.

But do I throw up my hands in defeat? If not, how do I fight this never-ending battle against evil? Where do I find hope, and how do I offer it to a world in despair?

If I look within, I find no hope. If I trust those in authority, they eventually let me down. Instead, my hope first appeared in the most unexpected way and place—a baby in a feeding trough in the small town of Bethlehem. In Jesus, I find the hope I so desperately desire.

Jesus left His home in heaven and entered the earth’s turmoil as an infant to provide hope for the world—the only genuine hope that lasts. His gift remains available to all who turn to Him in repentance and faith, including abusers, drug users, murderers, and persecutors. Romans 5:8 (NKJV) reminds me, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

What are some ways you find hope?

(Photo courtesy of pixabay and ZigmarsBerzins.)

(For more devotions, visit Christian Devotions.)