Why Christians Have Every Reason to Be Hopeful
There is no reason to let it stop me or get me down, because there will be a new birth. There will be a coming forth through this, and I will be better, and there will be reason to rejoice again, and maybe I can even rejoice now…
Begin with what is true
There is no reason to let it stop me or get me down, because there will be a new birth. There will be a coming forth through this, and I will be better, and there will be reason to rejoice again, and maybe I can even rejoice now knowing that.
Let me briefly break down these three words, because while the phrase is great, each word carries a couple of important ideas.
See God more clearly
The second thing I would say about that word, and you'll hear more about this in a minute, is that it is connected with a very important season. We've come out of the doldrums and darkness and cold and wet and potential dreariness, depending on where you live, of the late fall, the dying away of things, and the dead of winter.
Just like you can come through a dark period in your life and see good things blossom again, so too are we observing it around us in the natural world right now.
Let faith shape the response
I'll be reading in the sermon on Sunday in Luke twenty four when he appeared to the two men on the road to Emmaus, and there was something burning in their hearts while they were listening to him speak, and when he revealed himself to them, they were overjoyed, and it became clear that the hope that Jesus came to bring was not about some renewed government or better health or a longer life, it was about eternity even after death. Is every Sunday, the very first day of the week, that opportunity for you to connect to that true hope in the empty tomb because it ought to be.
As I said, the world connects the two in what is called Easter, it is Easter weekend, and I won't get into the history of that, but it's really connecting some pagan history rooted in the springtime, a goddess of new beginnings and new life, and they put it together with Jesus, the ultimate representation of that, and Easter was born.
Live it today
I can be made new every time I go to him, even if I've drifted from God, if you're someone who has drifted back into the world and you've gone back into the season of death, you can return to God and you can experience the hope springing eternal in your soul by the cleansing of God through Christ. No matter what happens with our economy or even in our own bodies, no one can take away our assurances, I'm smiling as I say this, found by the cleansing that comes through Jesus.
If you have not enjoyed that cleansing, if you do not feel like your sins have been forgiven, if you have not been baptized and united with the power of his death, you very much need to be.
Take the idea with you.
- 01Where does the central idea of “Why Christians Have Every Reason to Be Hopeful” show up most clearly in my life right now?
- 02What does this episode call me to believe, stop, start, or handle differently?
- 03What is one specific action I can take today instead of merely agreeing with the idea?
Listen to the original episode
This article was adapted from Hope Springs Eternal. Continue with the podcast for the original teaching in Kris’s voice.
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