And you will feel secure, because there is hope; you will look around and take your rest in security. – Job 11:18
During the Fall 2020 convocation at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, the university’s president Samuel Oliver said, “The modern world has sought hope in human effort and a belief in the inevitability of progress that assumed everything would naturally get better and better. The reality is that when men and women hope only in their own abilities or possessions, they really are not free to give of their resources to others.” He concluded, “Hope is joining God right here and right now in the renewal of all things.”
In his Aspects of Love theater production, composer Andrew Lloyd Weber included the song, “Love Changes Everything.” The lyrics include these words, ”Love, love changes everything, how you live and how you die… love will never, never let you be the same.” Substitute the word “hope” for “love” and read those lyrics again.
As a believer in Jesus Christ, you first have the hope of eternal salvation, then of the presence of God with you through his Holy Spirit. You have the promises of peace and of answered prayer. Finally, you have the hope of Christ’s promised return, when you will receive your inheritance from Him.
In view of all this and more listed in Scripture, is hope changing how you live? Commit your way to the Lord, press forward, and stay the course. Pray for governors and state leaders who already believe, and for those who do not to become people of true hope, finding that personal relationship with the One who changes everything—Jesus!
Today’s Verse: Job 11:18
And you will feel secure, because there is hope;
you will look around and take your rest in security.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: Romans 5:1-5
5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
