Life is difficult. There is no getting around that fact. We deal with so many difficulties on so many different levels. We face physical hardships with sickness, disease, and old age. We face emotional hardships with heartbreaks, depression, and mourning. The reality is that life is difficult. But you know if life were easy, there would be no need to hope for something better.
Hope is a beautiful Bible teaching because it offers us help in the face of life’s difficulties. It points us towards a better future that is laid up for us on the other side of this difficult life. In 1 Peter 5:10, Peter said, “After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”
For a Christian, hope is the greatest thing we have. We “fix our hope completely on the grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13). We anxiously anticipate the day Jesus returns and delivers us from this difficult life. We look forward to the day when our suffering will end, and we will return to the one who created us. Hope is perhaps the greatest thing a Christian can hold on to. It’s a constant reminder that we are going somewhere better.
With that said, the non-Christian does not have this same hope. Paul said in Ephesians 2:12, “remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” The sad reality is that not everyone has the same hope that a Christian has. Those who are outside of Christ, and do not have that relationship with Him don’t have hope for a better life after this one. Those without Christ are without hope.
The question is, where do you stand? Do you have hope? What is your relationship with God like? Can you rejoice in the fact that there’s coming a day when you will return to God and be at peace? Or has your relationship with him fallen to the side? Christians have hope in what comes after this life. Hope is the most beautiful Bible teaching because it offers help for us in the face of hardship. When your suffering, lean on hope. God has done so much to give you the chance to have hope for a better life after this one. Cling to that hope in the face of difficulty. Unite yourself with Christ and God will grant you hope for a better life after this one.
— Kolton Ballance