What hope is there ?

Friday 22 September 2023

What hope is there ?

“The Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and He will save me into His heavenly kingdom.” 2 Timothy 4. 17-18 New Geneva Edition

What are you looking forward to in life ? What experience are you looking forward to ? Let’s admit it, we have difficulty living in the present moment without constantly looking towards the future. Our thoughts wander while cherishing dreams for the future. Today, after having experienced a pandemic and now more than a year of war in Europe, some people find themselves “emptied of all hope” and therefore unable to rejoice in the present. What does the Bible teach us about our present life and our hopes for the future ? How can we subscribe to Paul’s exhortation to the Philippians : “Rejoice in the Lord always ; I repeat, rejoice” (Philippians 4. 4) ? The apostle Paul might have considered himself “hopeless” while chained in a prison, but he had already experienced being “delivered from the mouth of the lion” (2 Timothy 4). . 17) and he looked forward with confidence to enter the heavenly kingdom of the Lord. Amy Carmichael, who served for over 55 years as a missionary to Indian prostitutes, rejoiced in imagining the wonder of these people joyfully discovering their welcome in paradise and entering into eternal life : “Those who see the narrowness and the pain from which they have been delivered must greatly marvel when they are received into these great rooms with joy and immortality”. Amy herself suffered from neuralgia, a disease affecting the nerves that made her body weak and painful and sometimes required her to stay in bed for weeks. Despite this illness she persevered in her choice to be a missionary. She could have become discouraged and quit, but as she wrote : “It is not where we are, nor the work we do or cannot do that matters, it is something else. It is the inner fire that burns and shines, whatever our circumstances.” Amy and Paul were driven by their dedication to God's work and their hope of coming home to the New Jerusalem. Paul wrote to his beloved Philippians : “Christ will be glorified in my body with full assurance, whether by my life or by my death; for Christ is my life, and death is gain to me” (Philippians 1. 19-21).

Source (His Word for Today)