Hope helps you cope!

Do you ever listen to a sermon and want to pump your fist in the air and say "yes!" when the speaker says something really pertinent?

No? Hmm, just another of my wee foibles then, but seriously...

I worshipped this morning at my daughter's church and shared in the joy of two Baptisms - messes made, God forgiving and lives given over to His leading... Fab!

But also, some words that really made me think (thanks James).

Hope helps you cope, cheesey but true... and NOT my idea at all (thanks again, James!)

Put simply we were thinking about what Christians hope for, not the superficial stuff, but things that, deep down, make a fundamental difference to those of us who desire to live authentically wherever we find ourselves.

Firstly, the hope to become the person we were designed to be.
Okay, we might try to be kind and gracious and patient and full of self control etc. etc. and this isn't wrong but its only when we're totally surrendered to God and focused on what HE wants for us that real and lasting changes take place. I want to be that version of me, don't you?

One of my favourite verses says:
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.                                                                               Jeremiah 29:11



Second, the hope of Jesus coming back to bring everything together and complete God's perfect plan. We only have to look around us on a daily basis to see some of the messes we've made... individuals, politicians, rulers, media... no-one gets off scott-free, we're all, in part, responsible BUT Jesus is coming back, the story ain't over, God is the master Restorer and one day, we don't know when (only He does), He'll sort it all out. Yay!

I know a lot of Christians who find the book of Revelation somewhat complex (me included) but it is a book of HOPE... consider these words:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”                                                                         Revelation 21:1-4

Yes, it's heavy on symbolism and that takes a bit of working through BUT how can we not be encouraged? The world is not always going to be this way :)

Thirdly...
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.                                                                                                    John 3:16

Eternal life... no need to fear bodily death because we will be, as we are now, forever in the hands of God. Now, the previous sentence is easier to write than to hang on to sometimes because the whole idea seems totally mind-blowing but I remember something that drove me, more than twenty years ago, to seek God... the feeling of absolute certainty that life was about so much more than just being here for a number of years, doing a bit of good work, a little repopulating, then shuffling off this mortal coil to nothingness. Life is so precious it has to have more value than that. For me, the only sense was, and remains, God.


Hope is a wonderful thing. It's what makes life worth living. It's what gives us strength to carry on!

May God fill each of us with His amazing Hope!