We can't live without hope in our lives

Someone once said, “You can go weeks without food, days without water, but only seconds without hope”

In fact, just recently the following was reported in the Daily Bee by Devin Weeks, “Several dozen North Idaho residents have been lost to suicide this year. All of them were loved by someone. Each left a void in the lives of their families and friends. Most, if not all, had lost hope.”

Hope is what keeps us going … Hope is what keeps us alive or want to continue living … This is an article about hope.

As a local pastor, I constantly interact with people who have no hope and others who have amazing hope.

The FIRST kind of hope is superficial.

Someone hopes something will happen, but it is little more than a wish. This person gets the dreaded news,

”You have terminal cancer.” they hope they will get well … they are scared to death … that if they don’t get well, they may die … the blackness that awaits them is overpowering … they live in fear that they try to suppress, but it is a battle they can’t win because deep down inside there is NOTHING to look forward to if their cancer leads to death.

There is no future in their view and maybe others are right, there could be a real hell that awaits them. Because they have no hope, their fear of the unknown, is greater than their fear of cancer … Most interestingly, is how many of these people are looking for hope and will listen to others who might offer them hope, sometimes, even if that hope is Jesus …

The SECOND kind of hope is the firm belief that something is true.

It is synonymous with faith … it is something that can be counted on no matter what the circumstance might be or how the circumstances might change. It is a hope that believes in an eternal future.

This person has what I call, “biblical faith” and when they face the same diagnosis, ”You have terminal cancer.” They also, hope for a cure, but their hope is different … they KNOW they serve a God who can cure them if He chooses … their faith is not in doctors, but in Jesus who may choose to use doctors to accomplish their healing or with a word perform the miracle Himself. They are at peace because they know their future healing is assured. Should they live, they win and beat the cancer … Should they die, they win and beat the cancer.

The apostle Paul stated, “To live is gain in Christ … To die is gain and be with Christ.” For those who have strong faith or hope in Jesus, the future is assured as an eternal truth and there is no doubt. Paul, also wrote with confidence, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord Jesus.”

Those with biblical faith or hope certainly long for the freedom from pain and suffering our mortal bodies produce. But, they believe in the promise of Jesus, the only person in history who stated, “Kill me and in three days, I will rise from the dead.” AND, He is the only one to keep the appointment with a resurrected body.

Therefore, believers in Christ Jesus, also, believe the promise of Jesus to give them eternal life by faith and His Word to exchange their old dead bodies for new glorified bodies. That is promised in the Bible.

1 Corinthians 15:51: Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 But, when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, Where is your sting?”

The apostle Paul encourages Christians in his biblical writings to embrace the joy, peace and hope that only God can provide.

Romans 15:13 “Now, may the God of hope, fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Again, Paul would teach us that HOPE IS FOUND NOT IN HUMAN PROMISES (which are too easily broken), BUT IN THE PROMISES OF GOD … More specifically, in the One who is our eternal God in the flesh, Jesus Christ.

1Timothy 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope.

Those with strong faith in Jesus tap into the joy, peace, love AND HOPE that only He can provide … Hope in Him is true, it is sure, it is the blessing of a different type of HOPE.

Here are a few examples of the type of hope that Jesus offers, of which I have first-hand knowledge of and know each of these dear folks who are walking through devastating circumstances all incurred within the last month.

Pastor J. has recently been diagnosed with cancer and fights the side effects of chemo with the handful of drugs he takes every morning, yet still seeks to serve Jesus with the strength he has left in his pain-ridden body.

He is surviving and thriving his physical ordeal with “biblical hope.”

Pastor R. survived a heart transplant a few years ago and last month had a cancerous eye removed in his own bout with cancer, yet still ministers to others as he pulls his failing body out of bed each morning to sing praises to Jesus.

We talk often of running to finish our lives strong, as we both race to meet Jesus at the end of our physical lives. Pastor R. is surviving and thriving his pain with “biblical hope.”

A wife and neighbor of ours pulled her husband out of the bathtub last month and then tried unsuccessfully to revive him from the heart attack that took his life, yet she worked with the hospital to parse her husband’s organs out so that others can live, so that others might have hope. She is surviving and thriving this tragedy with “biblical hope.”

A wife mourns the loss of her husband and daughter who died in a car crash on the way to church last month right before Christmas and writes on Facebook:

“In the darkest moment of this unimaginable loss, a miracle happened. The Lord of all Lords, her Creator and Heavenly Father, protected her earthly body in the most perfect way so that her death could mean life for so many others.

“Our beautiful daughter Emily is a hero. Her death will have purpose. Knowing that my heartbreaking loss can help other families from facing the same grief, fills me with unexplainable peace. It provides an understanding of the unimaginable. Her gifts are going to make many miracles happen this week.”

She then closes her post with this Scripture verse, Psalm 73:26, “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

This woman is also surviving and thriving her tragedy with “biblical hope.”

AND FINALLY, God never wastes a good tragedy … in fact “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:38.

In other words, those who have biblical faith have a hope anchored in faith … faith in God’s answers and purpose for all things, even when faced with personal tragedy.

Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Emphasis mine.

Let me encourage you, if you have not done so already, place your hope and your trust in Jesus today as your personal Savior and Lord, so that you, too, might have a biblical hope that will get you through the darkest days and most difficult times.

And, if you are not already attending one of our great local churches in the Sandpoint area, please consider joining others in a Bible-believing church or small group of Christians who have discovered biblical hope that unites and encourages us together as part of the Body of Christ Jesus.

Dr. Steve Brown is pastor of North Summit Church. He can be reached at s.brown@northsummit.com.