Thoughts for the Day

If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?.... Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ....

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Someone once said to me, "We never have a sermon on Hope!" Thinking about it I must admit I couldn't remember having given one, so I began to think about the subject. To the world hope is seen as 'wishful thinking'. "I hope I win the jackpot!" we say, or "I hope we have a very hot summer!" It would be wonderful if either happened, but ultimately it's wishful thinking.

But for Christians hope is something different. The bible defines hope as "confident expectation." Hope is a positive conviction about things that may not be completely clear. Hope is what seasons our life - because of our trust in God we have hope that he will protect and help us, and because of this we cannot be afraid. For Christians hope is based on our faith.

The last paragraph of our reading from St Paul's letter to the Romans above, is one of the most confident statements of faith. It's often used at funerals, and is impossible to say aloud without being filled with the belief that nothing can separate us from the God who loves us, and that our hope is not wishful thinking but a confident expectation of reality. Try saying it out loud for yourself and see what I mean!

Saturday 20th June, follow up thoughts

Heavenly Father,
help us to have a firm faith
and the hope of a sure conviction
that nothing can separate us
from Your love as
expressed to us through Your Son
Jesus Christ, our Lord,
Amen