Think About Hope

This weekend, I was given the opportunity to teach a class that I love to teach, and that's a class we do here called Discipleship 101. If you don't know already. I love discipleship. I love making disciples. I love seeing disciples grow in their faith, and I love it when I see other people doing the work of disciple-making. But one of the things that we talked about this weekend is the fact that we live in a world where our perspective is based on what we know. For so many of us, it's hard not to focus on the temporary things of this world because it's all we know. It's so hard to maintain an eternal perspective because we don't see eternity with our own eyes right now.

We know it's there. We know that there's hope that waits ahead of us, but we just get so caught up in the things that are happening around us, and we can allow it to bring on anxiety, depression, and anger. And because of this perspective that we have, it makes it difficult for us to see past our noses. What I want to suggest today is to think about the hope that we have to come.

So many times, we get focused on what's here on Earth that we forget that when this is over, 5 billion years from now, what we're frustrated about right now isn't going to matter anymore. The difficulties we're going through right now, they are nothing when it comes to the grand scheme of time. One of my favorite verses, and I shared this with a Bible study group that I met with last night, is Romans 12:12. It just simply says,

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.
Romans 12:12

I love the verse because it speaks to me personally about things that I deal with. The first one is eternal perspective. Be joyful in hope. There's no reason a Christian shouldn't be joyful, because when we look around at this crazy world that we live in, we know that this isn't the end. We know that there's something far better waiting for us. And we really just need to make it through this and do our best to bring as many people with us to heaven as we can. Then we get to really enjoy the good life when we get to be with our Savior.

The second part is patient in affliction. Again, reminding myself in these times of struggle and trial and hardship, to be patient, understanding this is just for a time. And the final part is be faithful in prayer. It is so important. It is so important that we make prayer a priority in our lives.

I know for many people, prayer is maybe the hardest part of our faith. I can't tell you enough how much God wants to talk with us, how much he wants us to share with him our struggles, our triumphs, how he wants us to just simply share what's going on with our lives. There is something powerful about spending significant time in prayer. And prayer carries a power. When God's people come together and lift up prayers to him, he does mighty things through them.

Let's get back to this eternal perspective for a second.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Colossians 3:1–4

How awesome is that? I mean, really, take a step back and think about that. We have been raised with Christ. When we come to Christ, and we confess, we repent, we believe, we're baptized, we are given this new life, this new beginning, and no longer are we alive to our old selves; we're dead. Dead to that old person we used to be. We're brought to new life, a life that is hidden with Christ. And when Christ comes back, we get to spend eternity with Him. I hope that if you're struggling right now with anything that's going on in your life, whether it's finances, family issues, dealing with the crazy political landscape we're in right now, job issues, whatever it is, keep that eternal perspective.

This may be a hard time right now, but there's something so much better ahead. I hope you're encouraged. I hope you can find strength in that. And I hope that we can focus more on our hope than our problems. Because our God is a God who loved us so much that He sent Christ Jesus to this earth to live the perfect life, to die for our sins, be buried, and rise again, and make that hope tangible for us so that we have this ability to one day spend eternity with Him.