Hope Retained

I have been thinking a lot about the three things Paul focusses on at the end of 1 Corinthians 13 recently, namely Faith, Hope and Love.

I looked at Faith a few months ago, and then again more recently in Faith Revisited. Hope is something I also wrote about previously, and recently I've had cause to examine the concept again.

Faith is the substance of what we hope for.

Hope.

We have dreams and desires. The enemy of our souls seeks to rip those from us. He seeks to destroy hope. He prowls around like a hungry lion looking for it's prey as Peter writes.

Our lives are full of hopes. We can only hold onto them if we choose to. God gives them to us and we can choose to keep them or leave them as life goes on.

My life has been complicated since I gave my life to Christ. God gave me visions and dreams which grew into hopes. From the day I began to hope in God's way, the enemy has been trying to steal that hope.

Everyone goes through something like that as they get closer to God. I've been a Christian sine 1985. Hopes have come and grown, and the attacks trying to break them down have been relentless. I've seen it in my friends and loved ones too. They get a dream that becomes a hope, and before faith can manifest it into a reality the enemy deals a swift blow to tear it apart.

In my life I've had friends who have been through traumatic events whenever hope has come along. Sickness, assault and death have dogged their every step as they seek to move towards the hope set before them. Loss and pain have been fired at them, and me, in an attempt by the enemy to drive us away from God and the future and the hope He gives us.

And that's the key.

God places the dreams into us. He causes the hope to grow, and gives us the faith to see it manifest. But the only way to overcome the attacks the enemy throws at us is to stand. Paul writes that we should stand wearing God's armour - righteousness, faith, truth, salvation and the readiness to share the hope that is the Gospel.

In this world we will have troubles, but Jesus has overcome the world, and we can too if we lean on Him.

My future changed today. I go to bed a different man than when I woke up. My path is different than it was 12 hours ago, even 6 hours ago. We must be like the great ships of old in our life, constantly keeping our eyes fixed on the prize, and adjusting our course to stay on target.

Your future changed today, but your hope didn't. It's the Hope of Christ, built by the Faith of God for the future He calls you to.

And nothing the enemy throws at you can take it unless you choose to drop it.

By the standards I normally hold myself to, this entry is a ramble. Disjointed and almost discordant.  A very dear friend went through hell recently in their life. Another shared a part of mine and strengthened me. Opportunities came and went, but the end is still the same, and ten thousand years from now as we live with Christ - the ultimate Hope - nothing that happened today will really matter.

Maintaining hope require maintaining perspective. Good and bad happens in this world. But we are world overcomers by Christ.