“In Christ, There is Always Hope”

  “I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason ¹⁶ I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. ¹⁷ I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, ¹⁸ so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, ¹⁹ and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.” Ephesians 1:15-19

“Some persons look around at the present condition of things in this world, at sin abounding on every hand, and say, “There is no use for me to try to be a Christian or to be different from the others.” There are many who look at things in this way. They think it useless to try to be righteous under present conditions. There are many other people today in various situations who say: “There is no hope for me. There is no use for me to try.” It is not so much a change of environment that people need as a change of heart and of character. Diamonds are often found embedded in volcanic mud; mud surrounds them on every side, and yet they have lain there for centuries and are still diamonds. What is the secret of it? Why have they not become contaminated? It is because the mud never entered the diamond…” (C.W. Naylor, “Heart Talks”, p. 176-177)

I am sure you have heard someone say “All hope is lost”. People make such a statement when it appears the odds against them are so great, there is nothing that will change the course of their journey. I once saw this quote: “When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope. (Pittacus Lore).

There is nothing more insidious than despair – than the loss of hope. I often think of the three women who had been kidnapped by Ariel Castro in Cleveland between 2002 and 2004. In 2013 they were rescued when one of the women escaped the home they were being held captive and contacted the police. Two of the women wrote a book about their ordeal titled “Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland.”  To believe that these women survived this ordeal is possible when we consider that they never lost hope that one day, someone would find them. It is a reminder to us all that this world can take so much away from us, but it can never take away our hope that comes through Jesus Christ. After all, without hope, what do we have left? When it comes to Jesus Christ, we should never, never utter the words “All hope is lost.” As we hear in Philippians 3:8: “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”

Pastor Dave