Thankful for the Hope That is in Me

    Tonight, I watched a movie that left me speechless from the opening scene all the way until the credits streamed across the screen.  It was a movie that made me want to curl up into a ball and cry my eyes out all night long.  I don't want to become all dramatic on you, but after the long movie came to an end, I was left with feelings of pure hopelessness and sadness.   I saw and observed how the world, without Christ, views life:  a mere coincidence, a chance, full of many "lucky" or "unlucky" events that take place, and then there is just the end...death.

  The movie began with a young girl saying the following:

"Most babies are coincidences.  I mean, up in space, you have all of these souls lying around...looking for bodies to live in...then down here on earth, two people have sex or whatever and then bam, coincidence."  

   The movie then ended with the same young girl stating, 

 "There is no reason for death I guess...death is just death...nobody understands it."

   Basically, the movie was filled with messages like this of hopelessness and sadness.  Life is just a coincidence?  There are just souls floating around waiting to inhabit a body?  Death is the ultimate end?   Sadly, this is what many people do believe.  

   What about being sovereignly created by a Holy God who knew your name before time began?  Not by chance or coincidence were you formed.  What about being made in the image of God Himself, uniquely fashioned for His glory?  Not just souls floating about in space randomly.  What about living life until the end with a purpose and hope which is found in Christ?  Not thinking that we are just creatures on earth trying to survive until our time comes to be buried in the ground.  What about having a joy in knowing that death is not the ultimate end, but it is a means to living in eternal paradise with our great King?  Not that death is just death and that's it.    

  I would much rather wake up every morning knowing that I am breathing because my God and Savior has ordained for me to do so, and not that I just "happen" to be alive, by mere chance.  I would much rather live out my days depending upon my heavenly Father who is in control than to think that I am the master and commander of my own ship.  I would much rather lean on the strength of my great God and Savior than think that I am invincible on my own accord.  I would much rather believe that He has a purpose for me in this world, for His honor and glory than to think that I am just one other soul that is trying to survive and make my way.  I would much rather view the end of my earthly life as just a means to my heavenly, eternal one than to think that I will merely be buried in the ground, uncertain of what comes after that point.  I would much rather know that I am loved with an everlasting love and underneath me are the everlasting arms, than to think that what I see here on earth is all I get.  

   Thank you Lord, for the hope that is found only in you and that I can live each day with a joy and peace that only you can give!  

My hope is in Christ alone.  He is the reason I breathe and live each day.  

Psalms 39:7
"But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.

1 Peter 1:3
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

Psalms 43:5
Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

 Is your hope in Christ?