Where is the hope?

We live in a time that seems to be different than other generations. News that would take days even weeks to reach us is now almost immediate. The decay of morals and the corruption of governments seems to be getting worse. We seem to devalue life and care more for personal agendas or personal rights.

Yet, with all of the badness of our world, its not new. When you look back at history, we see the same evil, selfish acts of terrorism and the murdering of innocent lives. The Preacher of Ecclesiastes states in chapter 1 verse 9 "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."

In the midst of all that is happening in our world there is hope. Our hope is Jesus Christ. He alone is the source of true hope for now and for all of eternity. But we often lose sight of this reality. We take our focus off of the Lord and put it on things around us. If we are not careful, we will put our hope in the political process. We will strive to legislate morality. We will fight for personal rights, when the reality for followers of Jesus is that we are slaves to Christ.

The Good News of the Gospel is that Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for our sin, was buried and arose on the third day. We need to share this good news. We know the world is corrupt, we know that people are sinful and selfish; what is right is called wrong and what is wrong is called right. What we all need is a change of heart. Only God through Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit can this change happen and this message of good news is ours to share.

The Psalmist states "Why are you downcast, O my Soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." Psalm 42:5

We can look around us and become hopeless and defeated or we can put our hope in God and praise Him and "... be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have". (1 Peter 3:15)