Real Hope

 You can exist without food for weeks, without water for days.  You can exist without air for a few minutes but you cannot live without hope.  Hope keeps your soul alive. Listen, hope is not some wishful thinking about the future.  You need hope now.  You need hope today.  You need hope not because you’re going to die tonight, but because you’ve got to get up tomorrow and live.
Hope is not optimism.  Optimism is psychological, hope is theological.  Optimism is a personal trust in you; hope is personal trust in God.  Optimism is what you think you can do.  Hope is what you think God can do.  Optimism is often a denial of reality that things aren’t really as bad as they seem that there is a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow somewhere.  Hope never does that.  Hope doesn’t deny the reality that it might be bad, it might be very bad.  Hope does say, even though it is bad, really, really bad, “I believe God is in control and with God nothing is impossible.”
You may be at a place of fear and frustration.  Jobs are in jeopardy, families are failing, relationships are fracturing and we think it will never get better.  Maybe you are stuck in your hurt, habits and hang-ups and think things will never change.  That is hopelessness.
Where do you get real hope?  You get it from the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  1 Peter 1:21 says, “Because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead and gave him great glory, your faith and hope can be placed confidently in God.”
The reason people are hopeless today is they are putting their hope in all the wrong things and are looking for hope in all the wrong places.  If you put your hope in success or status or salary or power or position or popularity, every one of those things will disappoint you.  You have to put you hope in something that cannot change and that is God’s love for you.  That’s what Easter is all about.  We invite you to join us Easter Sunday, March 27 to experience God’s love – The hope of the world.
Valencia Hills Community Church meets Sundays at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. at their newly remodeled warehouse building 24933 Ave. Stanford in Valencia.
For more information go to www.valenciahills.com.