William Vanderbloemen's Thoughts on Hope

Where can you find hope?

I have hope for the future. God has hope for your future. He has promised it. And so I believe you should enter today choosing to hope.

But what does that mean? Where do we find hope?

Sometimes, people think that hope can be secured by living well enough. The thinking goes like this, “If I invest well, my future will be secure.” Or, “If I follow the rules, if I keep my nose clean, if I do what is right, then I have a reason to hope.”

But if you have read the news at all, you know we cannot invest well enough to secure a hope. If you have lived long enough, you have probably realized that none of us are able to keep all the commandments, or live well enough to secure our hope.

This week, I studied and found that the word hope does not occur in the Bible until the book of Ruth. That may not sound important, but a little reflection brought me to an important realization. The word hope cannot be found in the first five books of the Bible, the books that our faith has called “The Law.” My realization,

You will not find hope in the Law.

You will not find hope in your behavior. Nor will you find it in what you know. You will find it in a different kind of relationship with God, one that is based on a heart to heart connection.

Maybe you have been trying too hard to build your own future, or secure your own hope. Let today be a day that is committed to a new kind of hope, one that is based on a heartfelt connection to God. When you do, behavior will flow out it. And hope will flow through your life.

Hopeful,

William

*Read more of Pastor William Vanderbloemen's blog posts here.