Just a Thought

Clare Boothe-Luce, American writer, politician, and diplomat once said, “There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them.”
Hope is such a powerful thing. Without hope, people dry up and die, but with hope, people flourish, even in the worst of circumstances.

No matter how bleak our circumstances look, God can turn them around in an instant and give beauty for ashes. King David knew this to be true; and used that truth to conquer the stifling feelings of depression and despair. When you look at your own problems, are you struggling today? And if you look at the problems of the world, you might well ask, “Who isn’t?”

In the Bible, God is called, “The God of hope” (Romans 15v13), but whilst - in the words of an old hymn - “With Christ in the boat we can smile at the storm” - He especially came to deal with the cause of all our problems, which is our rebellion against Him, and give us hope for beyond this life. While we have all rejected Him and gone our own way, God so loved us that He gave us Jesus, and when He died on the cross, God was laying on Him our sin and its consequences (Isaiah 53 v 6). In raising Jesus from the dead God showed that our sin and its consequences had been dealt with, so now through Him is preached to us the forgiveness of sins (Acts 13 v 38). Anyone who is drawn to God through the love he has shown us in Christ, and trusts in Him, receives forgiveness and the hope (i.e. confident expectation) of eternal life (Titus 1 v 2). Without Him we are without hope and without God forever (Ephesians 2 v 12). The choice is ours.