Webster defines 'hope' as "desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment." What do people hope for? People hope for that which they believe will bring something better in their lives. When a person loses all hope he loses the desire to live. Can there be 'hope' in the midst of tragedy, even the tragedy of losing a child? God says emphatically, "Yes." For about 2 years after the loss of our son the Lord walked with me through "the valley of the shadow of death" where hope seemed far away at best. He walked me through the valley by walking me through His Word. In my search for comfort and peace in His Word He also brought me hope. In John 16:33 Jesus said, "I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world." What peace! What hope! Jesus had already walked the path of sorrow I was walking and He had overcome and had promised He would take me through as well and in Him I would overcome.
Psalm 42-43 sings the refrain, "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? HOPE IN GOD; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God." Where do you turn for hope in a hopeless situation? I turn to my God, my salvation. He brought me through the dark valley once more into the light.
Ephesians 1:18 reminds us, "having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you...." What is the hope to which He has called us? For those who trust that Christ's death on the Cross alone paid for their sins once and for all, hope is every spiritual blessing that God has given us in Christ Jesus. In Ephesians 1:3-14 the apostle Paul names all the blessings to which He has called us and the hope we have in them: He chose us before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him, He adopted us through Jesus Christ into His family, He redeemed us (bought us back from sin and death) through Christ's shed blood on Calvary, He has forgiven our sins according to His grace through Christ's blood, He revealed His plan through Christ to reunite us with Him, He has given us an inheritance, heaven, to spend eternity with Him, and He even gave us a guarantee of all these promises by sending His Holy Spirit as the sign and seal of that guarantee.
What hope! I will see my son again because he had believed Christ died for his sins and Christ's blood even covers the sin of suicide. Hope in God, for I shall yet again praise Him!
