Someone has said, “A man can live for about 40 days without food, three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only one second without hope.” Hopelessness is deadly to our souls. Mother Teresa, speaking about America once said, “The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair and hopelessness is love.”
Hope came at Christmas. Christ came to this earth as a baby, because hope always begins with a birth. We have seven sons and daughters and two grandchildren. I can tell you that every time we received the news of another child coming into the world, we were overwhelmed with joy and hope.
Jesus birthed hope. The very DNA of Christ, His mission on earth, was wrapped up in the swaddling clothes of hope. I have never seen anyone healed of a disease, set free from addiction or released from bondage, that wasn’t instantly filled with new hope. Jesus came to bring hope through His healing touch.
My definition of hope is that feeling, conviction and expectation that tomorrow will be better than today. I have no such hope in manmade systems, but I have overflowing hope in Christ. Whoever has been touched by the love of Christ, the result is overflowing hope. Just ask anyone whose been healed, delivered and set free by Jesus. Wherever Christ is worshipped, there is hope. Hope came at Christmas.
This Christmas, I’m filled with hope,
Steve
Steve Holt M.A., D.D.
My newest book, Worshipper Warrior, can be found at www.steveholtonline.org
and www.amazon.com