"When may we hope to go free?" That’s the question the sensitive scientist Cornelius asks his semian captors in the movie "Beneath the Planet of the Apes." In the movie, apes have gained ascendancy and have enslaved humans. Cornelius is told by his ape-jailor, "You may hope anytime you wish." Hope, as it turns out, is a very powerful help in life, even in situations that seem completely hopeless. This summer (2018) millions of people around the world held onto hope as an international team of military and medical experts worked feverishly to save 12 young members of a Thailand soccer team and their coach from a flooded cave in Thailand. The weeks- long ordeal ended with the rescue of the team and coach, at the cost of the life of one brave rescuer who drowned. Before they were discovered and until they were safely out, hope was the power that sustained everybody involved. Dale Archer, M.D. reminds us hope can help us cope. He writes: "The power of hope defines the psychological victim and psychological survivor. If I could find a way to package and dispense hope, I would have a pill more powerful than any antidepressant on the market. Hope is the only thing between man and the abyss. As long as a patient, individual or victim has hope, they can recover from anything. However if they lose hope, unless you can help them get it back, all is lost." Those words are an excerpt from an article by Archer at psychologytoday.com entitled, "The Power of Hope." Archer is writing about something modern mental health experts have verified repeatedly – hope can help us cope, even when we can’t completely escape our caves!
The New Testament heaps up heavenly hope! 1 Peter 1:3-4 refers to a "living hope" that belongs to Christians based on the fact that Jesus Christ came out of His grave. Romans 15:4, in reference to the Old Testament, declares, "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." Again in Romans 15:14 the apostle Paul wishes for the Christians at first century Rome (and wherever you live in the 21st century!), "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." At 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Paul directs Christians not to sorrow and grieve as others who "have no hope," but to ground their hope in the historical fact that Jesus "died and rose again" (a past event) and that He is coming again to raise those who sleep (that is, die) in Jesus to "always be with the Lord." Listen – this is a hope that helps us cope with anything life throws at us! This hope is always available – whether you are young or old, black or white, male or female, rich or poor! It is available whether a Democrat or a Republican is in the White House. In Ephesians 4:4 the apostle Paul describes Christian hope as the "one hope of your calling." The hope that helps us cope is not that you will have your best life now, but that at the end of this life you will reach "the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel" (Colossians 1:5). Come what may, heavenly hope can help you cope. Hang onto that hope.
By: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN
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