Where do you hope?

I thought about making today’s WFTD titled Cling to the Cross.  It flows better, it’s more catchy, but ultimately it can be unhelpful.  Why?  The answer highlights how we can take a good thing, and make it an ultimate thing.  Where we can shift our hope even slightly away from Christ, and make an idol out of a blessing.  The physical cross never saved anyone.  I often wonder why we have crosses in churches, but no Jesus?  Do you know what I would do if someone gave me a piece of the actual cross to have?  I would throw it away.  Why?  Because Christ doesn’t want you looking towards a piece of wood or anything else, He wants every ounce to be focused on Him.  It was Jesus Christ who was crucified, it was Jesus Christ whose blood was shed, it was Jesus Christ who alone reconciles you to God.  Compared to His infinite value, what is a piece of wood?  So today, for your encouragement, I want to ask you to ask yourself where your hope is found.  If you’re hope in life rests on anything other than Christ, your hope is folly.

Each of us has struggles in life.  Each of us have times when things do not go our way, when people disappoint or hurt us, and when seemingly nothing is going right.  In those moments, and in those periods of life, where does your heart turn?  The default mode of many of us is to try to “manage” life’s obstacles.  This ultimately leads only to despair at being unable to do so, or a false hope from temporary success.  The reality is, none of us knows what is around the corner good or bad.  Rather than being reactive to struggle, we should proactively pursue the peace and joy of Christ.

Luke 12:16-21 – “And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’  But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’  So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

     Do you hope in your job?  Your marriage?  Your retirement account?  Your family?  What happens when you lose your job?  When your marriage struggles?  When the stock market crashes?  When a family member dies?  When you take something that was meant by God to be a blessing, and make your joy and hope terminate on that thing, you are lost.  Ironically, the most loving thing God can do for you is to remove that thing from you, and he often does.  Hold everything loosely, knowing where your Hope is found.

So, our encouragement is in nothing more and nothing less than Christ crucified.  He has made us a new creation in Him (2 Cor 5:17), He has purchased for us an inheritance (Eph 1:11-12), He has given us a new name (Rev 2:17), and nothing can separate us from the love of Christ (Rom 8:35-38).

1 Peter 3:5 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

     My eager expectation is not that we as brothers and sisters in Christ would have lives absent from struggle or pain, but that our joy in Christ in those times would cause many to glorify God.  If you have been called by Christ to know Him, and enjoy Him, your inheritance is eternal.  Cling to Him, and the passing treasures and struggles of life will slowly fade, until nothing is left except joy in the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  Grace and Peace be with you.