Are You Looking For Hope?

By: Gary L. Hutchens

​   A human being needs hope.  It might be found in a goal that a person is working to achieve.  It might be in a desire he’s trying to fulfill.  It might be centered in a relationship.  It could be something that he sees as giving his life purpose.  It could be a promise that someone has made that gives him hope.  Whatever its source, a person will search for, and cling to, hope.

   Maybe this compelling need for hope is instinctive.  Or, maybe it’s just part of how God made us.  Whatever the case, hope drives us, gives life meaning, keeps us going in the worst of times.  Without it, life becomes mere existence, no better than that of an animal.
   But many people find themselves continually frustrated in their search for hope.  When they finally lay their hands on whatever it is they thought held hope for them, they realize it is not there after all.  For them hope is fleeting, elusive.  But the problem is not that hope does not exist.  Hope is, indeed, there for everybody.  The problem is that many people are looking for hope in the wrong places.
   In what do you find hope?  Where does your hope lay?  The apostle Paul succinctly identifies the source of real hope as being our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 1:1).  He repeats that message in his letter to the Colossians (Colossians 1:27).  The hope that is in Christ centers in His role as Savior: “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). 
   Man’s greatest problem is sin.  We are all guilty (Romans 3:23).  The problem with sin is its ultimate consequence: “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23).  That death is not just physical, it is “everlasting destruction” and separation “from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
   Imagine being completely cut off from God forever.  Talk about a hopeless state!  Christ coming to this earth as our Savior brought us hope.  In His death on the cross, He paid the price for the guilt of our sins (Hebrews 9:26-28).  Through Christ alone we can find forgiveness and salvation and sustaining hope.  There is no lasting hope, no real hope, except in Him.
   God has given His word to guide us to the hope that is in Jesus Christ.  Another year has passed, and another year is well under way.  It could hold for you not just the beginning of a new year, but the hope for a new beginning.  Talk to us today and start looking for the hope for a new beginning by enrolling in a Free Bible Study.  It will show you God’s way for you to find that ultimate hope.  It could literally change your life, give it meaning and bring you what you have been searching for.  Eternal hope!…
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