The One Thing You Can't Live Without in 2018
This is the first in a three-part blog series. I pray that this series of messages will help you as you pray for guidance and direction for the year ahead.
In the last days of December, I had a rather long conversation with an old friend who is battling with cancer. Thanks to Viber, we enjoyed an unhindered chat while he was in Taiwan and I was in Singapore.
Naturally, I asked him about the state of his health. He in turn gave me an unfiltered update of his situation. The thing I love about my friend is that he did not veil his situation with a false sense of hope. He honestly and candidly shared of the pain, suffering, and challenges he was going through.
And yet, at the end of our conversation I was the one filled with HOPE.
The Anchor of Your Soul
My hope did not come from him just having a positive attitude, but because for every statement of pain, suffering and challenge, came an equal amount of declarations of how good, great, and wonderful God is.
He spoke at length about his “beautiful, loving, and amazing wife,” and his daughters and siblings who have stood with him through his ordeal. And he capped each sentence with “who can give me any of these things but God.”
As we spoke, I was reminded of the verse in Hebrews 6:19a, ”We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” His pronouncements sounded like that of man in a ship that was being swept by large waves that caused his boat to teeter, turn, wobble, or even dip.
Yet while his ship got battered, it remained stable as its anchor held it in place. Stability does not mean we won’t have turbulent times, but that we won’t run aground or sink. An assurance that while the waves may come (and they will), we have something that is firm and secure. Hope.
The One Thing You Can’t Live Without
Every single person in the world needs hope. You wouldn’t get out of bed and couldn’t live life without it. Every area of our lives can only be lived with hope. Think about our marriages, children, siblings, friends, co-workers. Without hope we would probably give up on them. Relationships need hope.
Now think about your health. My friend would not survive another day if not for the hope that things will change with each passing day. Whether that’s something we feel, see, know, or want about our health, it will need hope on a daily basis to keep us afloat.
Our financial position needs ongoing hope. After all, our businesses, job situations, careers, and investments can suffer dips, tosses and turns at the whim of the markets. Hoping that things will remain stable and continue to work for us is imperative.
Like an anchor, hope does not mean we won’t get tossed by the waves and winds of stormy seas, but regardless of how strong they come an anchor will pull us back to the center where we should be.
The Big Question?
“You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety. You will lie down, with no one to make you afraid,…” Job 11:18-19a
The basis for a feeling of security, safety and rest comes from HOPE. The big question is not whether we need hope or not, that is a foregone conclusion, rather, what are we basing our hope on?
If I were to be candid like my friend, it would be easy to start the year putting my hope on my experiences, knowledge, acquired wisdom as well as the counsel of very wise friends.
The next series of posts we will explore, what kind of hope will stand the test of time in 2018 and how you can have this kind of hope. Happy New Year everyone!
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