With everything that’s going on in the world today, it’s easy to become discouraged, and perhaps feel as if things are becoming a bit hopeless. Spend over sixty seconds watching or listening to the news, and I’ll almost guarantee you will feel worse than before you began tuning in. The powers and media of this world do not exist to encourage you.
It appears their sole function may be to incite fear and division to control the masses. But, thanks be to God, we don’t have to live under such depression and despair. We have a great hope that the powers of this world can not diminish. God has given us a new birth and everlasting hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead (1 Peter 1:3)!
When discouraged, many turn to the Psalms for comfort, and that is a wise choice. Today, however, I want to encourage you to look at the passage of scripture found in 1 Peter 1:3-9. If there is a more appropriate scripture for the times in which we live, I’m not aware of it. The hope we have in Jesus is an inheritance that is “unfading, unperishable, and incorruptible” (1 Peter 1:4). Imagine living in a place where corruption not only does not exist, but it cannot exist. There is only the just and perfect law of God. And the glory of that is that it never ends. The beauty of life with Christ will never fade and will last for eternity, a time unending, a concept our minds cannot comprehend! This isn’t just hope for a time, it is an everlasting hope!
There is nothing anyone in this world can do to keep us from the everlasting hope in Jesus. God has sealed that hope in Heaven for all who believe in Him (1 Peter 1:4-5). While we will endure trials for a little while here on earth, these trials are nothing more than a vehicle to refine our faith (1 Peter 1:6-7). It is for this reason the apostle Paul could rejoice through all the hardships he faced (Romans 5:3-5). He knew everything he was going through meant his life was being molded and prepared to look like and live with Jesus in eternity. This is true for you and me as well. As Paul said, these light afflictions are working a great and eternal glory (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
When we’re going through hardship, sickness, persecution, or any kind of trial, it’s difficult to see how God is working in the middle of our pain. But we are assured that He is working everything together for His purposes (Romans 8:28). Hard times should not cause hopelessness or despair. It is these moments that are preparing us for the eternal glory for which God gives us everlasting hope. All our hope is in Jesus. Since He is for us, who can be against us (Romans 8:31-33)? What can man do to us (Matthew 10:28)? Nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39). We are sealed and chosen. There is no despair for those who call Jesus Lord. There is only everlasting hope.