Hope

Religious column written by: Caleb Land

She sat across the desk from me, eyes brimming with tears, and silently laid a bloody kitchen knife on the desk. She was a “cutter,” someone who cuts him or herself for the emotional and physical release it brings. The question I’d asked was, “when was the last time you cut?” The answer: in the bathroom before she walked into my office. My heart broke for her. In that moment, she needed so many things, but most of all, she needed hope. Hope that she could find relief, hope that she could change, hope that her life could be redeemed.

Maybe you aren’t a cutter, but each and every person needs the kind of hope that only comes through the Gospel of Jesus Christ revealed in the scriptures. Maybe you have long standing problems or patterns of sinful behavior. There is hope for you in Jesus. Maybe you have been told that their is no solution to your problem. There is hope for you. Maybe you’re afraid, or maybe you have tried and failed, or maybe life has been hard on you. There is Hope! Maybe you have lost someone close to you or experienced suffering you think no one can ever understand, that life could never be the same. There is hope for you in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and in the pages of His Word.

In Romans 15:4 Paul writes, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.” The good news for each and every one of us is that the Gospel brings hope for a full life of meaning, purpose, change, and growth that no other system of belief or philosophy can provide. If you look at Paul’s teaching, this hope hinges on the scriptures.

The Bible was written to give us hope, but apart from it, there is no hope. If we endure in learning and applying the truths of the Bible to our lives and receive the encouragement it provides, we will be filled with hope as our lives are transformed by the Holy Spirit. In the pages of scripture you will come to understand the plan of God to redeem your whole person through His Son Jesus Christ, and as you do, you will be filled with hope and joy.

But if you are like that young girl, sitting in my office, you need more than just hope. She needed hope in action. She needed change. Over the next few weeks we will look at the Biblical process of change.

(Caleb is the director at the Gilmer Christian Learning Center in Ellijay, GA. You can find out more about the CLC at www.gilmerclc.org).