Hope Ambassador

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As you look ahead at the new year, are you feeling hopeful? Or are you perhaps feeling hopeless? Or maybe it's somewhere in between.

Back in 1998, Jerry Porter wrote this in the January edition of our Nazarene magazine Herald of Holiness. It gave me something to think about this new year:

"Is there any hope for our tired little planet? If we all had more money, better jobs, and more fulfilling relationships; or if we elected all new public officials; or if all diseases could be cured - would those accomplishments bring true hope to our lives?

Without Christ, there is no Hope. The new calendar on the wall seems to offer new hope, but Hope with a capital H only comes when the Lord of the universe invades our lives with His grace. What is the hope for your sister, your neighbour, or your work associate? If they are alienated from Christ, they have no Hope for 1998. All they achieve, however positive, will be of no lasting significance. What the world needs now - is Hope! And you and I are the "Hope ambassadors”... How awesome to realise that YOU and I, as members of the Body of Christ, actually become the Hope-givers to our family and friends who are facing 1998 without Christ. WE are the only Hope some will ever see!"

Representing Hope to the World

I found that helpful! What if we had to see this year as a year of Hope (with a capital H)? A year where we, the people of Jesus, are the "Hope ambassadors" of the world?

An ambassador is a representative. If you are the South African ambassador to England, your job is to represent South Africa to the place you are in. So for us to be Hope ambassadors, means we are people of Hope who represent the Hope found in Christ, to a hopeless world.

Bold Ambassadors or Timid Crawlers?

Paul, writing to the Corinthian Christians, talks about what Christ has done for us, and then he says this: "Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold" (2 Corinthians 3:12). Think about the year that lies ahead. Will we, the ambassadors of Hope, go boldly into the year to proclaim the good news of Christ? Or will we crawl into the year, full of sin and selfishness, caring little for the things of Jesus?

Sometimes I look at our country's leaders and think what poor ambassadors for this beautiful land. I pray, that heaven doesn't look down at us and think the same! I pray that heaven looks down at the Christians this year and smiles at the Hope that we spread, as ambassadors for that great Land.

The year has just begun, but join me in praying that the Hope of Christ spreads day by day. And take up the responsibility of being a Hope ambassador for Jesus as the year unfolds.

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