God Will Sustain Our Hope
Yesterday we saw that God will never ignore the afflicted, and there's another verse in Psalm 9 with a similar message – verse 18, which says: "God will never forget the needy; the hope of the afflicted will never perish."
The Promise of Lasting Hope
Just before this, in verse 17, the Psalmist says that "The wicked go down to the realm of the dead". But in contrast, he says, the needy and afflicted can have hope. So, for those who know God, even in times of affliction, hope remains. And I think this is a wonderful promise for 2025 – that nothing, nothing can take away our hope this year.
Overflowing with Hope
One of my favourite verses comes from Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 15 verse 3. Listen for the word "hope" in this verse: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
So he calls God "the God of hope" and asks Him that we may "overflow with hope" through the Holy Spirit. What a great prayer for the year! That it be a year overflowing in hope!
Living in Hope
Some people live in a mindset of hopelessness. They feel that everything is going to fall apart. They fear anything and everything, and fall for all sorts of things because they live in fear. But not us friends! Not us, because we know the hope of the Lord that nobody can remove from us – or as the Psalmist wrote, that "will never perish".
What is this hope? It's that God is in control and will keep on bringing good into this world. Someone once said that there's a difference between faith and hope. Faith looks back, and believes in the present because of God's work in the past. But hope looks forward! Hope says that the future will be bright, because it belongs to God.
In fact I read about a tradition in France, where, if a woman is pregnant, the polite way to greet her is to say "I congratulate you on your hope". Isn't that lovely? Maybe each Christian should be, in a sense, pregnant with hope at all times, believing that God is going to bring something wonderful into the world through us and our situation at any moment.
I know that the world is not in a great state these days, and that there is much darkness and hardship all over. But friends, I will not lose hope! God promised to not forget His children, and to not remove our hope.
In 2025, God is going to do some amazing things. Join me, in holding onto hope, that His Word on this is true.
