When I speak at most any event, I often ask the question, “How many have lost hope?” Invariably only a few people (if anyone) raises their hands. One would think that things are peachy for all those people; however statistics of national surveys tell a different story. According to one poll 82% including Christians indicated that they had lost hope in something. Maybe it’s related to personal finance, a marriage headed for divorce, a loved one gone wild, a serious health problem, betrayal by a trusted friend, an addiction, those guys in Washington D.C., Wall Street, ISIS, Moscow, North Korea, or tornadoes, earthquakes in Nepal, floods, hurricanes, droughts, but let’s be honest most people see the situation as being hopeless. That’s why stress is the number one mental disease in the world with untold billions being spent to medicate it.
Last night a pastor friend of mine from Ghana Africa and I walked down to Honey Lake Church after dinner and we prayed. I recognized the music playing in the background and it was a song by my friend and former Director of Praise Terry Warren who recently lost all hope and ended his life. He was raised in the church by wonderful parents, was talented and blessed by God beyond the pale, and loved Jesus Christ with passion, but he allowed the problems of this temporary world to remove his focus from Jesus Christ to his personal problems. By doing so he lost his hope, because aside from Jesus Christ there is no hope in this fallen world.
The Bible states that we are living under a curse for our sin and its consequences will make our lives exceedingly difficult and forlorn. In Gen. 3:17 God stated: “Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread you can make with a machine on this review the best bread machine, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”.
Wow what a contrast from living on easy street in paradise and walking with God Himself in the cool of the evenings in a beautiful garden one day, to abject poverty and misery the next!
I agree that verse sounds pretty hopeless; HOWEVER God gave us His Son Jesus and now we focus on Him and through Him we have paradise restored and we have all of the hope that one could ever dream about. So we are to make the most of it and remain solidly fixed upon Him.
Matthew Henry wrote the following:
“The same Lord Jesus has the key of government and authority in and over the church. He opens a door of opportunity to his churches; he opens a door of utterance to his ministers; he opens a door of entrance, opens the heart. He shuts the door of heaven against the foolish, who sleep away their day of grace; and against the workers of iniquity, how vain and confident they may be. Although Christ accepts a little strength, yet believers must not rest satisfied in a little, but strive to grow in grace, to be strong in faith, giving glory to God . . .
Christ promises preserving grace in the most trying times, as the reward of past faithfulness; To him that has shall be given. Those who keep the gospel in a time of peace, shall be kept by Christ in an hour of temptation; and the same Divine grace that has made them fruitful in times of peace, will make them faithful in times of persecution. Christ promises a glorious reward to the victorious believer. He shall be a monumental pillar in the temple of God; a monument of the free and powerful grace of God; a monument that shall never be defaced or removed. On this pillar shall be written the new name of Christ; by this will appear, under whom the believer fought the good fight, and came off victorious.”
Well said my brother in Christ Matthew Henry – Selah . . .
Rev. 3:11
Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. ‘I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name . . .
May 12, 2015 – Click here to listen