Hope for the Future

2023 was a rough year. It began with the loss of my mother, and we experienced several more losses throughout the year. As we entered this year, I purposed to pray to grow in hope over the course of this year. Hope is a powerful force, as long as it is based on evidence. It is only as strong as what we put our hope in.

When we put our hope in weak and worthless things, our hope will wither and fail. This could be a person, a group of people or the latest and greatest thing in our lives, like a technology. People want to be seen as our hope. They promise a better plan or vision for the future. They tell us that if we put our trust in them, they will make our lives better.

They might provide what they promise, at least temporarily, but human hope is destined to fail. Political parties are corrupt. Men and women fall and even relying on yourself is only as good as your own ability to serve good purposes with consistency. When you put your hope in yourself, you end up with double discouragement of failing and only having yourself to blame.

During the Christmas season, it is common to think about the hope that the birth of Christ brings. We often forget that the coming of Christ was preceded by a 400-year period during which God appeared to be completely silent, with no prophets or revelation to His followers. None of us can understand what that might be like. We’re not good at waiting and even a delay of several months can seem like a long time.

By contrast, the followers of God had been steamrolled by one empire after another and were currently under Roman oppression. They were poor, powerless, and without many of the basic human rights that we would consider essential today. Into that darkness, God gave the light of Christ, a Savior almost entirely different from what most of them were waiting for. The book of Hebrews talks about this unique form of hope God was about to provide:

17 Because God wanted to show his unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.

Hebrews 6:17–19 (CSB)

This transformative hope was not in the sacrificial system. It “enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.” It isn’t like a human hope, it is “firm and secure.” The prophet Isaiah looked ahead to this event:

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; a light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness.

Isaiah 9:2

This great light is not the light of Israel, not the light of a new coming earthly king. It is the light that is coming to guide them out of the darkness. It doesn’t lead them to follow a political party or an earthly hero. They are strongly encouraged to seize the hope that is set before them, which is a hope for eternity. That is the future Jeremiah promised as God’s prophet:

“For I know the plans I have for you”-this is the Lord’s declaration-”plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

Jeremiah 29:11

This promise was given to God’s followers when they were in exile, imprisoned in a land that was not their own. True hope doesn’t ignore the realities of the pain of life, but is grounded in God’s promises. Our hope renews in Him. It renews in our ultimate hope, which is in a place where there are no more sorrows and tears.

God has answered my prayer to grow in hope this year. It didn’t happen all at once and it didn’t happen because everything went right this year, or better this year than the year before. My hope has grown because it is more aligned with God’s reality. The evidence is all around us. We can see His sovereignty in the spiritual transformation of people from death to life. We can know our future is secure and our present is known to Him. As we remember the birth of hope with the first Christmas, trust in the creator of hope. He is the anchor for our soul, firm and secure.

Originally published at http://seeinggodclearly.com on December 4, 2024.