Hope

May 12, 2022

“The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” —2 Corinthians 10:4-5 

This past Sunday, our class talked about hope, and how hopeless so many people feel these days. Paul’s words to the Corinthian Christians are a blueprint for handling what seem to be hopeless situations. One of the women in the class noted how we try to take our circumstances captive instead of our thoughts, ie. we try to control the situation, which as often as not, leads to frustration. Some things we can control, but the really knotty problems are often beyond our ability to influence to any significant degree. We maneuver and manipulate, but find out in the end that the only thing we can control is ourselves.

When we cease attempting to control everything around us, and instead focus on bringing our thoughts captive to Christ, something amazing happens. A mind centered on Jesus is a settled mind, and a heart centered on Jesus is a heart at peace, and a heart filled with hope. 

Peter tells us that we should “sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” —1 Peter 3:15 

When Christ is truly Lord in our hearts, we have peace and hope, which people will notice. “Why aren’t you bothered by all the mess in our world?” “How can you be so calm with the inflation, crime, international instability?” The questions are myriad, but the answer is simple: our hope is not tied to what happens in this world, so we can cease worrying about it and simply live in joy and peace as we do our best to change the world by letting Christ change us.