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Hope is a Promise Not a Feeling

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HOPE is a Promise Not a Feeling

The fans for the team in red were despairing as their team trailed by 3 goals in the championship match. How could the team overcome such a large deficit with less than half the game to be played….and against a strong defensive team? Was there any hope for victory? Would the joyous expectations of the day turn to depressing despair in the evening? Oh yes, there were a few in the crowded pub who were wishfully expressing the feeling that the team clad in red could rebound and secure victory, but the few who shared in the feeling of “we can come back” were disparaged by their disillusioned companions. Then early in the second half a sprinkling of hope crept into the crowd as their team scored a goal. Then enormous shouts of hope rained through the crowd as a second goal was scored; the whole building shook from the disbelief and joyous shouting that roused the building when the third goal was scored. Nothing can describe the rapture that erupted when the red team scored the final and winning goal. The fans’ hope was realized; their team was the champion. Exultation reigned!!!

Man often feels hopeful that his natural aspirations will be realized. Yet he also is aware that many of his hopes will never come to fruition. However, it is reasonable to hope for a good life, a loving spouse, healthy and successful children, and a rewarding occupation. These hopes may or may not be fulfilled. There is no guarantee for any of them. All hope contains two factors – the object or goal hoped for and the guarantee of obtaining the sought after object. In the natural world, there is no guarantor.

There is another type of hope, a hope that is guaranteed by the only one who has the power and will to fulfill the hope. That is the hope of eternal life with God, as guaranteed by God, Jesus Christ. Jesus promised mankind that eternal life with him was available to all who followed him. It is the hope certified by God’s promise. The supernatural hope is the promise of God to man; the assurance that by following Jesus’ instructions man will be led to eternal life with God – true happiness. It is not a feeling as that experienced by man in pursuing his natural goals. It is an unconditional, loving promise of immortal life by God; it is a rock solid anchor upon which man can base his hope and his life. Man’s destination of a life of eternal bliss is his….if he follows God’s directions. On the other hand if man succumbs to despair and rejects God, then he was spend eternal life with Satan in hell.

In daily activities hope is useful and motivating, but there is no assurance that the hope will be realized. In a person’s spiritual life hope is mandatory. Fortunately, man’s spiritual hope is based upon a promise from God….a guarantee. Choose God and the hope will be actualized!

From the beginning of time, man has hoped for eternal life; he has striven for eternal happiness, though often seeking it in the wrong places, in worldly and material items. Even those who reject God and a future existence after the natural life must face the reality that they possess an eternal soul, which will exist forever, if not with God, then with Satan in hell. Ignoring or rejecting God will not change the outcome of the bad choices we make.

Choose hope.

Immortality

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Immortality

In a rasped voice, he screamed from the sidewalk,” I am immortal; I will live forever….. and so shall all of you.” He seemed to be addressing no one ….or everyone. The pedestrians on the sidewalks swerved to avoid the seemingly half crazed man, looking at his way only to avoid walking into him. They wanted nothing to do with this annoying person or his screams about immortality. “What a nutcase,” they thought to themselves, with no little irritation, as they proceeded to their destinations. One man shouted back at him, “Immortal is it! You won’t be saying that as you take your last breath.” He chuckled to himself believing that he had gotten the last word as he hurried to his office. Yet had he?

On entering into his office, the man thought about the minor encounter with the sidewalk preacher. At first he let a smile of satisfaction cross his lips, thinking he had dispensed with the irritating person. Yet the man’s screeching about immortality did start him to consider,” Was man destined for more than the existence of this life? Was an eternal life possible?” Though not a religious man, he wondered if there could be an eternal life and what it would be like. The thought of a heaven or a paradise intrigued him, but he would not permit himself to contemplate the possibility of the existence of a hell. As soon as he allowed himself to ruminate about an eternal life, he recalled his grandmother’s encouragement to him about a life everlasting. She frequently quoted from St. John’s epistle, notably his famous entreaty about a life forever. “The world and its allurements will pass away, but the man who has done the will of God shall live forever.”  The remembrance of his grandmother and her devotion to God began to shake him. He had lived his life based on his will and desires. Had he lived his life on the wrong premise?

Assuming that his grandmother was correct, that God exists and one can know God’s will, then it would be sensible to follow God’s will, as opposed to his own will. He recalled why he had decided to follow his own desires and will; simply, it was so much easier to yield to his desires than to follow the will of God. Heavenly paradise requires a subordination of his own will to that of God. Oh how much easier it was to handle and accept his own will! Immortality requires difficult choices that he did not want to make. Then suddenly it hit him; immortality is not his choice to accept or reject! Assuming that immortality is real, then he will experience it after his death, either in heaven or in hell. He does not possess the choice of whether to accept immortality or not; his only choice is between doing God’s will or his own, between heaven or hell.

As he contemplated his choices, shaken and terribly uncomfortable, the man knew the choice he had to make. But will he choose God?