Week 36 (31 Aug - 6 Sep): Put Your Hope in God

All of us have hopes, dreams and aspirations. Hopes allow us to look forward to something good that can happen in the future. It can even give us energy and motivation to work towards an outcome that we want for ourselves. We can work diligently at our job in the hope for a promotion or  an expatriate posting that we are wishing for. Many of us have “beautiful hopes” for our loved ones that they will recover from a serious illness or a wish that the difficult times they are going through will end.

However, when we place too much importance in these earthly hopes, we can be left devastated when things take a wrong turn. It could even shake our faith especially when we have prayed earnestly for a certain “good outcome”. But what is good and who gets to define it? Is it us or God? In Jeremiah 29:11, we are reminded that it is the Lord who knows the plans He has for us, plans to proper us, to give us hope and a future.

Thus it follows that if we have faith in our Lord, we should place our hope in Him. Our earthly life is not a bed of roses; we will encounter difficulties. Mathew 6:34 says that we should not worry about tomorrow for each day has enough trouble of its own. Our hope in Him will carry us through difficult times.

Psalm 42:2 says “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God”. It shows that his deepest longing is for God. Thus we ought to put our hope in God and not the outcome. If that is the case, do we know the One that we are placing our hope in?  Isn’t it paramount that we not only know Him but have a relationship with Him? Our hope has a name and that name is Jesus, the risen Son of the living God who died for our sins. Suffering and death do not get the final word. Jesus does. He holds our future.

We may continue to face setbacks in this earthly life but our future is secured with Jesus. Because of this, we can face tomorrow. Jesus walks with us in good and bad times. Le us rejoice and be glad in it. Let us be steadfast in our walk with Jesus, not turning to the right or left even in the face of persecutions. Jesus is our future; He is all we need! Amen.