Finding Hope in Chaos

 

Social media posts seem to indicate that many Christians have lost hope in these days of Covid 19, political unrest, and racial tensions. They are so convinced we are in the last days of life on earth that they are seeing defeat rather than looking to the Lord for His promised victory (coming either now or later, see 1 Corinthians 15:57; 1 John 5:4).

I remember the first time I was introduced to the idea that things on earth are actually getting better from a Christian perspective. The illustration used was that Jesus started with 12 disciples and today there are over 2.4 billion Christians (with a “B”(!) according to Wikipedia). That’s better, right?  Though there are also many Christians facing serious persecution, the commitment to Christ worldwide continues to grow. This is good news.

Yet, on social media and in some conversations all I hear is doom and gloom for the future of our nation. Some see a need for aggressive criticism of the government because they are allowing so much unrest. Some are distressed over what may come after the election. Some are just angry because they think that one candidate or other is evil and cannot understand why anyone else will not hear their own perfectly reasoned political views.

What GOD is doing is not on their radars.

But HE is at work. For the Christian there is hope even when we can see that God is judging us. He uses His judgment to call us to faith, to wake up a sleeping nation, to point us to the work He has for us to do – right here in this time when it seems so hopeless to so many.

Christian – we have the Hope that the entire world needs! We are the ones who can find peace in the chaos, His name is Jesus and He is sent to “save us from our sins”(Matthew 1:21). This is hope for us personally but also hope for future generations.

As I was looking at the hope offered to us in the scripture one thing that appears to have been lost is our generational view of it. From Psalm 78:

We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done. For He established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children; That the generation to come might know them, The children who would be born, That they may arise and declare them to their children, That they may set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments; And may not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not set its heart aright, And whose spirit was not faithful to God. (Psalm 78:4-8)

Isn’t that us? Those who are stubborn and rebellious and not so faithful to our God? Will we watch Him and listen to His Word now and teach the next generation to do so?

Both Isaiah and Habakkuk talk about the day when “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.” This only happens when we are faithful to our call to teach the next generation of the goodness and praiseworthy attributes of the Lord God Almighty!

This is not just a parental role. The hope for our nation depends on faithful Christians faithfully sharing the good news –  the banner of hope (Isaiah 11:10) with those who do not know – until the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9; Habakkuk 2:14). 

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13