A message we all need to hear from time to time - hope in the lord.

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Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. -- 2Corinthians 4: 16-18 (NIV)

It is said that we cannot survive one minute in this life without hope. When we see the scourges of drug abuse, depression and suicide in this country what we are seeing manifest is the hopelessness the enemy inflicts upon people. The hopelessness the promises of the world deliver. The hopelessness that comes from our sin nature. But glory be to God Almighty who saved us from our sin nature, empowers us to overcome the world, and equips us to resist the devil! Yet despite these facts for believers, so often we still see Christians walking without the power Christ appropriated for us on Calvary. We still see so many Christians teetering on the edges of hopelessness; try desperately to hang on. Our key verses today provide us with some insight into what we need to remember every single day to fight off the despair that surrounds us in this world.

Working backwards in the text we see that God always wants us to realize that what we see around us every single day is merely temporary but what we cannot see is eternal. We have been duped into viewing this life as somehow being long when the Bible explicitly tells us it is not:

"How frail is humanity! How short is life, how full of trouble! We blossom like a flower and then wither. Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear. -- Job 14: 1-2 (NLT)

I understand the difficulty in focusing on the eternal because we live life in the temporary but we either believe what we believe or we don't! The eternal life is not some vague concept waiting for us at the end of some harrowing journey. It is available right now for every believer of Jesus Christ if we would only step into it and walk in it every day. That starts with the realization that whatever we come across in this world that seeks to drag us down, beat us down, or keep us down is by its very nature -- temporary. It will not last! Do we not realize who we are in Christ?

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. -- 1Peter 2: 9 (NLT)

That darkness that seeks to envelop us sometimes in this life we have already been called out of. We do not need to walk in it as the world does. We are the chosen people of the Creator of the entire universe! We are a royal priesthood of the High Priest Jesus Christ! We are God's very own possession.

Once we have established that what we see everyday is temporary and what we cannot see is eternal, the next step is to fix our eyes on the right things. Where is our focus beloved? That is what leads us into darkness. Our focus is what leads us into despair. Our focus is what keeps us in the bondage Christ died to deliver us from. That is because our propensity is to focus on the temporary things of this life. We focus on the financial problems instead of on God our provider. We focus on the doctor's report instead of God our healer. We focus on the shackles instead of He who frees us from them! What we fix ourselves on is what we take into ourselves. The Apostle Paul implores us:

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me--everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. -- Philippians 4: 8-9 (NLT)

Let's face it -- hopelessness stems from a total and complete lack of peace in our lives. When you are truly at peace, not as the world sells, but the peace of the Lord which transcends all human understanding -- then there is simply no room for being hopeless. Because your hope will no longer be in the things of this world and God never disappoints. Similarly however, these Philippians verses indicate that we must fix our eyes upon the eternal and not the temporary. The Message Bible says that we must "fill our minds and meditate" on these things. What things? What is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and worthy of praise. The only things that fit those criteria are the things of God. That is what it means to fix our eyes on the eternal.

When we pray we are fixing our eyes on the eternal. When you have someone who is edging towards hopelessness there often is a prayer problem. Either there is not enough prayer or they simply no longer believe:

I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, "May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you've received it, it will be yours. -- Mark 11: 23-24 (NLT)

Faithless prayer will not work. Hope is based upon a belief; faith. When there is a lack of hope there is often a problem with reading and trusting the Word of God. Hope is not an exercise in intellectualism either. You can read the Word all day long and even remember it but without believing in it they just become words. Background noise to our hopeless state. The Bible is the reason we have hope to begin with:

I hate those with divided loyalties, but I love your instructions. You are my refuge and my shield; your word is my source of hope. -- Psalm 119: 113-114 (NLT)

The Word of God is our source of hope. Whatever lie the temporary world is trying to sell us, the Word has an eternal promise that assures us it is indeed a lie. We cannot divide our loyalties between the truth of God and the lies of this world. Prayer and His Word are the most obvious examples of what we are to fix our eyes and thoughts upon if we are to enjoy the peace of God and avoid the despair that seeks to entrap us in this life. We also praise and worship God because the Bible says that God inhabits the praises of His people. Did you get that? He lives within our praises! His presence becomes manifest in our lives when we lift our hands up to Him in worship. And where His presence is"there is always fullness of joy! Why do we have this joy? Why do we have this peace? Why do we have this hope?

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." -- John 16: 33 (NLT)

Here on earth you will have many temporary trials and sorrows but fear not! Because the God you serve has already overcome this world. Anything we might face He has already overcome. Our peace is in Him; our hope is in Him. We cannot put our hope and seek peace in the things of this world because it is fleeting, temporary and will always disappoint us. We place our hope and rest our peace upon the economy and then get our job outsourced. We place our hope and rest our peace upon politicians and then see them lie to our faces. We even place our hope and rest our peace upon our human relationships and friendships only to watch as we are betrayed. But God always provides. God never lies. God never betrays us. That is why we have peace in Him. That is why we hope in Him.

Continuing in the key verses we see that our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. Now I understand that the troubles we face sure do not seem very light and momentary when we are facing them but that is exactly the struggle that is going on. The enemy and the world system will insist that the problems we face are insurmountable. They will insist that we cannot survive them. They will insist that we are even alone when facing them. These insistences are the seeds of hopelessness. This is the breeding ground for despair. When we take our light and momentary problems and blow them up and out of the proportion they should have in our lives compared to the eternal promises we have in God -- that is how we find ourselves feeling like we cannot go on. But God does not leave us there!

Finally in the key verses we see the secret to basking in the hope of God! We must not just fix our eyes and thoughts on the eternal but we must renew ourselves every day in them! God understands and acknowledges here that outwardly we are indeed wasting away. We live in a world that is passing away. It has been corrupted since the fall of man and dying ever since. As we now enter into the last days we can expect that things will only grow worse. The love of most will grow cold and wickedness will only increase. The amount of things we can become despondent over will only grow as this world continues to erode. But these things are all temporary -- they are not eternal. We fight them by renewing ourselves each day. And therein lies some of the root causes for our despair and hopelessness. Sure we might pray when the going has already gotten tough but by then our faith is impeded. Sure we might read the Word but not nearly as much as we need to. Maybe we rely solely upon church activities to take care of our prayer and Bible time. If that is the case we might feel hopeful on Sundays but what about the rest of the week? How often are we seeking to renew our mind to the things of God and away from the things of this world?

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is --his good, pleasing and perfect will. -- Romans 12: 2 (NIV)

This transformation is not an event it is a lifestyle change. It cannot be a reaction but rather it must be proactive by nature. We must be seeking to renew our minds through prayer and Scripture because we know that the world and the enemy will come against us. Because we know that trials will come. We must realize that there is a daily battle for out attention. There is a daily battle for what we will fix our eyes and thoughts upon. The more you can win that battle for the eternal things of the Lord the more hope you infuse into your being. The more hope you have internalized, the less likely you are to blow up the temporary, light and momentary troubles we will face in this world into being larger than the eternal promises you have in God.

This battle is not easy. We live in the world. We work in the world. God does not expect nor want us to live in a Christian bubble. But we are supposed to infect the world with the Christ that is inside of us not allow the world to infect us with the hopelessness inside of them. Unfortunately, we can miss the mark so easily. We can allow the temporary problems of this world affect our eternal perspective in God. But wait a minute preacher -- what about the economy! Who cares -- God will provide! What about the election, it's the most important of our lifetime, right? Wrong -- the most important election was when you chose to invite Christ into your heart. After that -- no other election matters. Do not look to man but only to God! But what about" - beloved you can end that sentence anyway you want and it does not change who God is, what God said, and who you are in relation to Him! It just doesn't matter! These temporary and fleeting things do not matter in the light of the fact that you are a chosen child of the one true God who spoke everything into existence! THAT is what matters. THAT is what is eternal. THAT is where our hope is. As the key verses say -- do not lose heart beloved.

CS Lewis once said, "Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. How true. We are not very honest with ourselves. What we truly want this world cannot give us. It can promise us everything but it delivers nothing but heartache and disappointment. We cannot fix our eyes on the things that are passing away by definition. We have eternal life now and we need to focus on that. We need to focus on the things we cannot see but believe by faith. Strengthening our prayer life in faith. Strengthening our knowledge of the promises of Almighty God through consistent Bible reading. So that when the world and the enemy whisper their lies that seek to blow our temporary   trials out of proportion -- we know the promises of God that assure us of who we are in eternity. I do not know where this writing finds you today. I do not know the problems you face. But God does and He sent this Word to you; especially for you. To assure you that He loves you with an everlasting love. That He saved you with an eternal spirit. And that He is with you now and to the end of this age. I leave you with a prayer from the Apostle Paul:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope . - Romans 15:13 (NIV)

Abound in hope today beloved. Abound in hope.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- July 12, 2012

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.