"Hope deferred makes the heart sick."
Proverbs 13:12
We live in wicked times! Around the world there is a human rights disaster of epic proportions that is currently being kept a secret by most of the media outlets. Christians are being persecuted and martyred in untold numbers. From the year 2000 to 2010, it is estimated that over one million believers have died for their faith, and this number continues to escalate.
The early church also experienced this grim reality. Those in the first century church were fed to lions, nailed to crosses, burned at the stake and boiled in tar. The reason they suffered was because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
Today, we have concentration camps in North Korea, Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria, Coptic Christians martyred on crosses in Egypt, Syrian Christians being massacred, not to mention women and children being buried alive or decapitated with their heads then being placed on posts in Iraq. And there are many other examples.
Jesus described a time that would come to the earth known as 'great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now--and never to be equalled again." It is quite possible that we are living in the very times that Jesus prophesied long ago. In the midst of such horrific atrocities, how in the world can we have hope?
In Mark Blitz's book, The Significance of the Blood Moons, he discusses the signs in the heavens that we can identify. On Passover of 2014, we experienced the first of four blood moons that will occur on Jewish feast days over the next fourteen months. This signal was to show Israel there would be a war. The blood moon also symbolizes persecution of Christian believers.
Jonathan Cahn also wrote a book concerning the signs and warnings of the times in which we live named The Harbinger. He describes nine signs that the prophet Isaiah foretold would occur. In the United States, we have now experienced the first seven warnings of God's judgment on our nation. Sign number seven was the Tree of Hope planted at Ground Zero that died early this spring. He wrote that "when a nation such as this places its hope in its own powers to save itself, then its hope is false. It's true hope is found only in returning to God. Without that, the Tree of Hope is a harbinger of the day when its strong cedars come crashing down to the earth."
America's progression to judgment is continuing and possible even accelerating. As a nation, we are on a fast track of moral collapse and of apostasy from God. Our ominous warning is that America is quickly approaching a day of judgment.
There are global concerns and there are national concerns. Additionally, in our personal lives it seems as if we are facing distressing challenges as well. There are serious illnesses, unwanted fears, concerns about finances, job losses, death, addictions and so many more. We can try to stir up hope-- but in the midst of earth shattering, heart breaking, knee dropping kinds of moments this can often seem like an impossibility.
If we rely solely on our emotions, we will misunderstand God's patience for a tolerance of sin and evil. This is not correct. The generation that takes God's patience for granted will fall under His final wrath and judgment. Since God's judgment is progressive, it is the tendency of human nature to ignore it or to offer explanations for it. In the first chapter of Romans, we are told that often God's wrath is revealed through His progressive abandonment of the wicked.
Has God abandoned us? Or, is He trying mercifully to get our attention? The purpose for His signs, and even His progressive judgment, is for us to identify the places in our lives that are not fully submitted to Him and to repent and make every crooked place straight. His patience is for our salvation and our benefit.
In this world, our journey only consists of two paths for us to choose. Proverbs 12:28 tells us 'there is life in the path of righteousness, but another path leads to death.' The path of righteousness, including a right relationship with Jesus, is our only hope.
As children of the One True King, Jesus bestows hope upon our lives. It is a gift given to those who belong to Him. This gift is not found in mere optimism or in a Pollyanna type of attitude. It is knowing in the depths of your soul that we are on this earth with a purpose.
We are not called to be religious or even to be great Christians. We are called to be great followers of Jesus. Where He leads, we follow. What He does, we likewise do. We are called to put His kingdom and its priorities first in our lives. God looks for obedience in each of our decisions and actions.
Daily we are called to pick up our cross and to follow Christ. Each person has their own cross and their own challenges to face. Our true cross is where our will crosses with the will of Christ. To whom will we bow our knee?
Day by day. Step by step. Decision by decision. This is how we follow Jesus. When we follow Him along the path of Peace, we can have confidence that He will supply every provision we need to have strength and victory in our journey. Our gratitude is what transforms our trials into blessings. The more time we spend with Him, the more we will be like Him. This, my sweet friend, is what gives us our hope.
"Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have also obtained access through Him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."
Romans 5:1-5
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