investigation of "hope"

Today as I was doing devotions I was reading through some Psalms. After reading Psalm 4 I felt overwhelmed by the Spirit and could think of nothing to do but pray - specifically for the people living in the United States.

One thing I have been struggling with for many months is how a Christian should be involved/behave in the political arena. That struggle of mine climaxed during the election, and after all those months, I am finally getting some solidification in what I think is proper (through Scripture and prayer and the Spirit). Although I won't talk much about that now, I will say that at first I became very disinterested in politics. I strayed far from much involvement in the election (although in the end I did decide to vote), but beyond all that, I was simply burdened with sadness for all the lost souls in the US.

Psalm 4:6-8 says this:

Many people say, “Who will show us better times?”
Let your face smile on us, Lord.
You have given me greater joy
than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine.
In peace I will lie down and sleep,
for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe.

I thought on the peace I have and the joy in my heart from knowing Christ. I thought on how I will not only live on forever with the Lord and rejoice in Him always, but how He has changed my life here on the earth. How I can live a redeemed life and let Christ shine through, for it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

But I also was distraught by what many Americans think: that there is no God, or that He doesn't care, or that it doesn't matter whether God exists or what He thinks about what people do. When I read that Psalm I thought of the hope that I have in Christ.

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation [hope] will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.

1 John 3:1-3

So we have hope based on God.

I thought about how Americans have been hoping, and what they have been hoping for, and what they put their hope in. I couldn't help but think of soon-to-be president Obama.

He says this on his website:

"That's what hope is. Reaching for, working for, fighting for what didn't seem possible before." -- Barack Obama in Ames, Iowa on December 31st, 2007

These posters were pervasive:


And that scares me. Some people say Obama is the "hope of the entire world". But what is Barack Obama but a man? He is no different than you or me. He is a sinner and in need of a savior. People are placing all of their expectations and hopes and desires for a difference in the world in a man that is going to run the United States, but in and of himself is powerless, even in that position. I don't know the future and don't know what will happen during Obama's presidency, but either way: it is impossible for him to meet people's expectations and hopes. Those people will have to accept (or just be in denial) that Obama is not the savior that they thought him to be. Even if things go extraordinarily well, there is still sin in this world and that will not change until Christ returns...

I mean not to make a great political statement for or against (what this may seem to some) Obama, but just a great statement that people would have a hope based on our true Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not Obama.

More on hope in the Bible:

Put your hope in God, for I will still praise Him,
my Savior and my God.

Psalm 42:5b

But you must return to your God.
Maintain love and justice,
and always put your hope in God.

Hosea 12:6

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.

1 Peter 1:3-4

Hope

Oh, how I pray that people would turn to Jesus instead of another sinner.

Oh, and North Wake Church is doing a four-week series on hope starting tomorrow. :)