New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
A living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
If God has made you a promise, but it has not come to pass, don’t lose hope. Satan knows that there isn’t anything he can do to thwart the promise God has given you.
Nearly 18 years ago, my wife and I were preparing to adopt twins — a boy and a girl. We had prayed with the birth mom who had asked God to let a pastor and his wife be the adoptive parents. We prepared the nursery, and our loved ones were sending us pink and blue EVERYTHING.
Unbeknownst to us, however, toward the end of the pregnancy, the agency had lost contact with the mom but deceived us into thinking that all was well. Eventually, our lofty adoption dreams came crashing down. We discovered that the mother decided to keep her children. Although we were happy for the birth mother, we were deeply hurt by the adoption agency’s deception.
We decided to give up on the adoption process. The pain was too deep to try again. But a week later, we received a call asking us if we wanted to adopt a beautiful baby boy into our family. Everything within us wanted to say no. But in our spirit, we felt God saying, “Don’t lose hope.” Soon thereafter, we adopted Anderson Samuel Watts. He is a gifted percussionist and has been the main drummer in our church’s music ministry for seven years.
As I watched Anderson play the drums on Easter Sunday, I was so happy that we did not lose hope. For Christians, hope is a rock-solid belief and earnest expectation that God is going to do what He promised.
This is the hope that Jesus’ disciples possessed. After watching Jesus suffer beyond comprehension and die on the cross, His disciples began to doubt whether God’s promises regarding Jesus were true. But their hope was revived when they realized that Jesus had risen from the grave — just as God had promised. From that point forward, the disciples possessed a living hope. This hope enabled them to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world, despite the many obstacles they faced.
If God has made you a promise, but it has not come to pass, don’t lose hope. Satan knows that there isn’t anything he can do to thwart the promise God has given you. So, he will try everything he can to stop you from pursuing it. If you maintain a living hope in God’s promise and keep pursuing it, it shall come to pass.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 1 Peter 1:3 (ESV)