In this world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. – John 16:33

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When you stand at a saltwater taffy counter, you can watch the machine manipulate the candy through a window. Hope often requires a similar flexibility. According to modern psychology, people try to obtain hope in different ways. Many people have a humanist hope that things will generally be okay. You may experience a fantastical hope when reading a “too good to be true” advertisement: maybe that cream could take 20 years off your face!? Then there is a bargaining hope that approaches circumstances with a quid pro quo type of thinking: maybe if you do good things, then good things will come your way. None of these is the hope of Christ.

The Lord’s hope is not based on wishful imaginings or psychology. It is a concrete promise from the Author of Life. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). He offers you the greatest hope in all the universe – “according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading” (1 Peter 1:3-4).

It has been said, “Hope is faith in the future tense.” Prepare for the days to come by studying the promises of the Lord and choosing to walk in the triumphant power of Jesus Christ. Pray for governing officials in the United States to find their courage in Christ alone and choose to guide the nation through God’s hope.