May 9, 2018 - Acts 4
Salvation is found in
no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which
we can be saved. Acts 4:12
If He is our only
hope, then we must put our daily hope in Him.
It’s one thing to claim that Jesus is our only hope, but it’s
another thing to live like it.
I never fully saw this in my own life until traveling to
Honduras and saw such a radically different hope than what we experience in
America. Here, we claim to have hope in
Jesus, but then spend our lives saving up for our “retirement”, putting our
daily hope in our bank accounts. But in
Honduras, I saw a culture of people who had to trust Jesus not only for their
daily bread, but for any possible future support. They not only had hope in Jesus for their
salvation, but for their livelihood.
Hope is an inward motivation toward an outward
direction. Without hope, we would not
make strides in education or career or activity. Without hope we wouldn’t build lasting
relationships or solve great causes.
There is little life without hope.
Hope is at the root of life.
It’s kind of silly if you think about it. We put our hope in Jesus for our eternal
life, but put hope in ourselves for our daily lives. Yet which one is more valuable? Isn’t eternal life more valuable? Isn’t it more crucial and costly? Wouldn’t we be more concerned about
controlling what happens for eternity, and less concerned about the temporary
life?
Hope in Jesus is not just about our eternity, it’s about our
daily life. If Jesus is worthy of our
hope for life after death, then certainly He is also worthy of believing
regarding our life BEFORE death. He is
either worthy of our hope for ALL of our life, or He is not worthy of our hope
at all.
Jesus died on the cross to give us hope – not just hope that
we can have life in heaven, but hope that we can live a holy life on
earth. His forgiveness frees us from
defeat, so that we can imagine victory.
Maybe it’s time to start living like our hope is in Jesus –
for our eternity, for our old age, for our careers and family relationships,
for our communities, and for every aspect of life. Start believing in the Hope of Jesus to lead
our lives forward.
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