Well, here we are, a few steps into another new year. Personally, I can’t wrap my mind around it. Seems my internal clock is always at least four months behind the calendar. By my calculations, it should be around the first of September.
Part of me wants to scream, “Slow down!” because time seems to have shifted into hyper drive. I’ve even heard youngsters say that, which is strange. When I was a kid, time moved like a glacier, especially in Mr. Hoopengarner’s 8th-grade social studies class.
Now it seems I can almost feel a breeze from the hands on the clock and the quickly turning pages of my calendar.
But another part of me wants to look at the calendar and shout, “Speed up!” Not because I don’t enjoy the blessings of God that surround me, but just because my hope is so firmly invested in God’s exciting promise of what’s ultimately coming for those who believe in His Son, Jesus.
Call it “pie in the sky” if you want to. (I like pie.) Rebuke me if you think that will bring me back down to earth. (It won’t.) Ridicule me for believing in a “fairy tale.” (It’s not.)
No one can steal my hope in the future God has ordained, promised and guaranteed.
The hope of heaven is such a powerful force. No matter what’s going on, it’s like I’m encased in a beach ball of hope and I simply can’t be held under water for long. The promises of God propel me back up to the surface every time.
I started a new Bible reading plan for 2020 that takes me through the Scriptures in chronological order, so I’m already reading in the book of Job. Reading about a truly righteous man enduring unimaginable suffering is a cheery way to kick off a new year, right?
Well, it’s actually been quite encouraging. Today I found Job sitting in a pile of ashes, having lost all his possessions and children, surrounded by finger-pointing “friends,” but nevertheless uttering these powerful words: “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him (Job 13:15).”
How was Job able to say that? Because during better times, he had come to know the God who describes Himself later in Scripture as the “God of hope” (see Romans 15:13). Here’s the whole verse: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
I can enter 2020 abounding in hope, not because I’m naturally optimistic or my circumstances are perfect, but by the power of the Holy Spirit who fills me with supernatural hope when I dare to believe God is who He says He is and will do what He says He’ll do.
Am I convinced this year will be easy? Nope. After all, Jesus straight up told us in John 16:33, “In this world, you will have tribulation … .” (There’s a Bible verse that never makes it onto a cross-stitch or coffee mug.)
But as the old hymn says, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.”
And friends, that is way more than enough.
If your hope tank is low entering this new year, take heart from this quote inscribed at Windsor Castle: “I stood at the door of the New Year and I said, ‘Give me a light that I might see my way safely into the unknown.’ And a voice came to me and said, ‘Instead, step into the darkness and take the hand of God—for it will be to you better than a light and safer than a known way.’”
Happy new year? Maybe. Hopeful new year? Definitely.