Little Saviors

Dear Friends,

On the drive to work today I turned on the radio to hear the news. After listening to reports that ranged from local to regional to national and international, I turned the radio off and felt a great sense of sadness settle in. This world is definitely one messed up place. Homes have been destroyed by wars. People are being displaced from their homeland. Economies are depressed. And governments struggle to come up with solutions. The result is that “hopelessness” seems to be an all-too-common emotion.

For Christians living in a world like ours, one of the most important questions we can ask ourselves is, “Where is our hope?” It’s important because how we answer that question will show whether we’ve put our hope in the things of this world, or in God. I know that most of us would probably answer that our hope is in God, but do our lives reflect that? If we believe that if we can just get the right politician into office, then everything in our country will turn around, then we’ve placed our hope in politics. Or how about those little pieces of green paper and silver coins that we like so much? How many of us have placed our hope there - thinking that if we had a little more then we would be secure? Maybe we’ve placed our hope in relationships - thinking that if we just had a boyfriend, or girlfriend, or husband, or wife then our lives would be better. Or maybe we’ve put our hope in education, thinking that if everyone gets a good education then the world will be fixed.

The list could go on, but hopefully you’re beginning to see the point: there are a lot of places we can put our hope besides God. But when we place our hope in these little “saviors”, we commit ourselves to a life of disappointment and idolatry because we’re looking to them to rescue us from whatever we think is wrong in our lives. And when we do this, we put ourselves in an endless cycle of disappointment and regret, because the things of this world are imperfect, and incomplete. Instead, our hope needs to be placed in the perfect God of the universe who will not change, and who will not fail. Psalm 130:7 puts it beautifully, saying: “Hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is unfailing and steadfast love. His redemption overflows.” God is the only One who can truly redeem this world, and so that is where our hope needs to be.

So today, let’s put our hope where it belongs. Let’s be honest with God about the things of this world that we’re looking to for comfort and salvation - and then, let’s surrender those things to Him and allow Him to be the one and only hope we hold on to.

Amen?

Daniel