Over
the past week, the level of anxiety and angst in our country has risen to the boiling
point. On Jan. 20, we inaugurated a new President of the United States. Yet our
nation was anything but united. Alongside of the traditional pomp and ceremony
of an inauguration, we witnessed mass protests across the country. A common
protest sign read, Not My President. Yet, if we look closely at the
moral and spiritual climate of our country, our new President exactly reflects
the values and lifestyle of many of the most outspoken protesters.
The
Apostle Paul nailed our times when he wrote Romans 1:18-32. Look carefully at
just a few of the things Paul wrote and see if they do not reflect the world in
which we live. Furthermore, since they did not
think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a
depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of
wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife,
deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant
and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they
are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's
righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only
continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
(Romans 1:28-32) It should not surprise us that we have the leaders that we do
given the moral and spiritual condition of our nation.
As
followers of Christ, how do we thrive in an environment that is hostile to God
and His values? We could wring our hands in despair and bemoan the culture in
which we live. We could militantly decry the evils of our culture and throw
spiritual bombs at our opponents. Our we could put our trust in God and become
a positive counter-cultural influence in our world.
God
sent Daniel into a cultural environment worse than anything we have experienced.
In the Bible, Babylon became a byword for all that is evil and depraved. Babylon
is exactly where Daniel found himself. He was not there by accident. Because of
the failures of Israel, God had allowed the Babylonians to overrun the nation
and to carry off the best of the best into exile. Daniel was among those who
had to make the long trek to a foreign land. Daniel spent his entire life in
exile, yet his faith did more than survive, it thrived.
In
his book, Thriving in Babylon, Larry Osborne contends that there were
three major qualities that allowed Daniel to survive in Babylon: Hope,
Humility, and Wisdom. Included within this big three are the essential
qualities of obedience, perspective, endurance, confidence, and courage. I
would like to focus on the quality of hope.
Much
of what the world sells us as hope is nothing more than wishful thinking. It is
focusing on a desired outcome with little assurance that it will be achieved.
If we place our hope in a cause, a political leader or party, or in an economic
system, we will be disappointed. At best these things, and many others, can
give us only a temporary sense of
security and hope for the future. Our hope is not in what is temporary, but
what is eternal. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:18, So we fix our eyes not on what is
seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen
is eternal.
Our
hope is in the Living God who will never fail us. What he says He will
accomplish. Even when we cannot see the outcome we desire, we can trust God to
be in control. We know that ultimately we are secure in Him. Let
us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Hebrews 10:23
Our
hope is not wishful thinking, but confident faith in the finished work of Jesus
Christ on the cross. What we could never accomplish for ourselves, Jesus did
for us. When we put our faith in Jesus, our future is secure no matter what may
happen to us. We can face the trials of life with confidence and courage
because we know the end of the story. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance
that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, who through faith
are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to
be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a
little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These
have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even
though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory
and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:3-7
Our
hope is secure because we know that in Christ we will prevail. Justice will
reign. Righteousness will win out. No matter what the world throws at us, the
Church of Jesus Christ will not only survive, but thrive. We are not a defeated
army executing a rear guard maneuver. We are a victorious army on the move to
ultimately vanquish our enemy. When Peter made his confession of faith in who
Jesus is, Jesus declared that through that faith we would prevail. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on
this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
Matthew 16:18
Daniel
had to face many difficulties throughout his life. There were probably many
times when he felt like giving up, but he did not. Instead, he stayed true to
his faith and to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We can expect to face
all kinds of trials and struggles ahead. But if we will hold firmly into our
hope in Christ, like Daniel, we will prevail.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to
show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard
pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted,
but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in
our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in
our body.
Therefore
we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are
being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving
for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 2 Corinthians
4:7-10, 16-17
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