To Encourage You

1 Thessalonians 4:13 “. . . others . . . who have no hope.”

As I’ve been thinking about all the sickness that has affected my family and friends of late, the verse above has come to my mind.  Cancer: no one wants to hear that word, especially as it applies to themselves or a loved one. Nor do they want to hear prognoses such as Cerebral Palsy, ALS, MS, COPD, SIDS and so many other infamous acronyms.  But it’s the world we live in.  These things face all of us sooner or later in one way or another.  

So, in the midst of these battles, where do we turn?  Of course, we turn to the doctors. We hope that they have answers, some treatment to either cure a disease or lessen its effects.  But the truth of the matter is that there are some people, in fact many, who the Bible tells us “have no hope.”  When the Bible speaks of “hope,” it’s not an “I hope so” kind of thing.  That’s what the world thinks of when it uses that word. We hope the doctor has an answer. We hope the situation isn’t as bad as it seems.  But often we don’t really know – we just “hope.” However, when the Bible uses the term “hope,” it’s a hope that is a sure thing.  The Bible calls it something we can hold onto with great confidence. It calls it a “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Hebrews 6:19).  This hope of the believer is a certain thing, because it’s anchored in the promises of God, the only being in all the universe Who cannot lie (Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2).  

Conversely, to trust in anything or anyone else is to trust in what is very uncertain.  Ultimately, if we lean on anything other than God and His perfect Word, we “have no hope,” at least in terms of the certain hope that the Bible speaks of.  A person without God, who has never placed their faith in Jesus Christ for the salvation of their soul, has absolutely no hope, i.e., no certain hope, for anything in life, whether it be for time or eternity.  They may think they have hope, they may be comforting themselves by the thought that “it will be alright in the end,” but the reality is, there is no certainty that it will be alright, and in fact the Bible tells us that those whose life is not based on faith in and obedience to the Word of God will see that whatever else they have been trusting in will fail them in the end.  

The Bible uses such metaphors as a house built on the sand, which the wind and waves of life’s trials will ultimately destroy (Matthew 7:24-27), or “chaff that the wind drives away” (Psalm 1:4) to describe those who are looking to anything other than the omnipotent God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to put their faith (and hope) in.  They may not think about this. They may ignore it. But in the end, there is no hope for the one without Christ.  

But the wonderful thing is that those without hope can have hope, if they will but turn to the “God of hope” (Romans 15:13) Who alone can give the gift of hope in which those who know Him can rejoice (Romans 12:12).  

Allow me to leave you with two more Scriptures that point to the blessed hope of all those who know Him. May they encourage you to place your faith in this awesome God of hope:

Romans 5:1-5 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit You may abound in hope.”

Praise be to God for His precious gift of hope!