By Lisa Beasley

I was asked to speak to you about hope. Hope in Christ.

Hope in Christ, my friends, is a dangerous thing. Hope in Christ is what gives you the strength you need to get through the day or month or year that has been unbelievably, heart wrenchingly hard.

With that being said, I believe as Western Christians, we have gotten so good at knowing and faking this surface level mess of thing we call hope. We have deemed hope (like joy and love) as this “Rah-Rah-Fake Smile- Everybody is happy” football game type chant. We have done the world a huge disservice by treating it this way. We need to back away from that point of view and correct our vision.

True hope is what you know intellectually and believe to be true even though you can barely breathe because you are worn and torn from the fighting. True hope is the only thing that actually keeps you breathing. True hope is Christ. Because He is still good, He is still with you, He is still sovereign regardless of what is going on and what state you are in or will be in. Having true hope is trusting that all of the heartbreak and all of the tears that you’ve cried are not in vain and that He has a plan and that He is still good. He is still with you.

Hope in Christ is what keeps us going when Satan and the world are trying their hardest to break your vision of Him and your faith in Him. Hope in Christ is what makes us a threat to anyone who opposes Him. Hope is dangerous because we are willing to do whatever He wants of us when we hope in Him. Hope is contagious.

Being that it is advent and time for the Holidays, I pray that you are not in the situation that I described above. Nevertheless, if you are, please know that someone (you probably don’t even know) cares, loves you, and is praying for you. You are not alone. He is with you. He cares for you.

“My hope is in the promise of Your blood

My support within the raging flood

Even in the tempest, I can sing

I’m hidden safe in the God who never moves

Holding fast to the promise of Your truth

That You are holding tighter still to me”

The Rock Won’t Move by Vertical Church Band