Voices: Where is your hope?

image_pdfimage_print

The brokenness of this world sometimes makes it feel as if we are stumbling through a dense fog trying to find where to take our next step.

News from the doctor, strife in our family, or the loss of a loved one can all fill our eyes with tears and break our hearts with grief. We live in a broken world and, deep down in our souls, we know things are not supposed to be this way, this broken.

Sin, evil and death seem to have the upper hand because many times they are all we can see.

Despair in the fog of brokenness

If we walk only by sight in this broken world, we will walk in despair. Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  God calls us to walk by faith and not by sight in a world filled with sin, evil and death.

Our hope is not in what we can see. When we look around at the brokenness of this world and the brokenness of our lives and focus only on what we can see, then we miss the peace and joy offered to us in the gospel.

The problem is it is much easier to walk by sight and not by faith. It is much easier to be consumed with only what we can see. It is much easier to be filled with despair than to cling to the hope of the gospel.

God calls us to look deeper than what we can see. God calls us to the conviction of things not seen. He calls us to trust in his plan and his purpose even when what we see doesn’t seem to line up with his promises.

Where do we turn when what we see leads us to despair?

If our hope is not in what we see, then where is our hope?


Sign up for our weekly edition and get all our headlines in your inbox on Thursdays


Hope in being seen

Our hope is in the gospel. Our hope is in Jesus Christ and him crucified and risen. Our hope is by our faith in him we are loved, accepted and welcomed. Our hope is in his promises of his presence and his purpose. Our hope is in Christ we are seen.

Psalm 34:15 says, “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.” In Christ we are made righteous and therefore in Christ we are seen.

Our hope is not what we see. Our hope is that we are seen. We are seen by God, loved by God and heard by God. This is our hope.

Faith is trusting God’s goodness and power even when we can’t see God’s redemption and restoration physically, yet. Faith is trusting God is sovereign and he is good. Faith is trusting that God sees us in our weakness and suffering and he is with us in our weakness and suffering. Even when we cannot see him, we can trust him because of Jesus.

We see cancer, we see sickness, we see suffering and we see death. What we see can lead us to despair. We must hold on to the assurance of things hoped for. We must cling to the conviction of things not seen. We must rest in the promise of God that we are seen and we are heard by him. “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love” (Psalm 33:18).

God does not leave us alone in our trials. God is there. He is with you and he is for you. In the dense fog of the brokenness of this world, he shines the light of the world to help us find our way home. When we can’t see to take our next step, we step anyway because we have faith, faith that God sees us and guides our steps.

When what we see leads us to despair, we have to cling to the conviction of things not seen. We have to cling to the promises of God and the truth of the gospel.

Our hope is not in what we see. Our hope is that we are seen and loved by God.

Zac Harrel is pastor of First Baptist Church in Gustine, Texas.

 


We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.

Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.

More from Baptist Standard