by Burk Parsons
Life is full of disappointment. In this fallen world of sin, people disappoint us, and we disappoint them. We disappoint our friends, our loved ones, and we even disappoint ourselves. Not only do we ourselves face disappointment in life, we also cannot help but sympathize with our friends and loved ones over the disappointments they face. However, it is not just people that disappoint us. Things disappoint us too. Things we think will make us happy always let us down, and people in whom we try to find our ultimate happiness disappoint. This is particularly the case when we try to find ultimate happiness and hope in ourselves.
Those who think life is all about being happy in themselves by finding happiness within themselves will always be disappointed. That’s precisely how God designed us. For it is only when we become utterly hopeless about ourselves that we really hope in God, and God does not disappoint, because He cannot disappoint. Becoming hopeless about ourselves takes a sovereign act of God, who alone enables us to turn from hoping in ourselves to hoping in Him alone. Hope is a gift from God. Out of the good pleasure of His will, before the foundation of the earth, He has chosen to give eternal hope to those whom He elected from every tribe, tongue, and nation. Hope is given to us by God’s grace, and it is sustained in us by God’s Spirit for our earthly and eternal good and all for God’s glory.
The hope that God gives us is not wishful thinking. It’s not merely a feeling we have when everything is going well in life. It’s not a personality temperament, nor is it simply a self-help strategy. Hope is a steadfast, unwavering conviction rooted in our faith and overflowing into our hearts and minds and all of life. Hope is not the absence of disappointment, it is the presence of the Holy Spirit. For Paul writes, “. . . Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5 NASB). However, hope is a thing of this world. It will be nonexistent in the new heaven and new earth. We will no longer have any need for hope there, because we will have everything we ever could have hoped for as we dwell with and worship our Savior, who will never again allow us to face disappointment. Therefore, let us not set our ultimate hope on the things of this life, for we will always be disappointed, but let us fix our daily hope on Jesus Christ and our eternal home with Him where no one and nothing will ever disappoint us again.
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Dr. Burk Parsons is editor of Tabletalk magazine and serves as senior pastor of Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Fla. He is editor of Assured by God: Living in the Fullness of God’s Grace. He is on Twitter at @BurkParsons.
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