Christian Hope
So we do not lose heart. (2 Corinthians 4:16)
Scott Peck in The Road Less Traveled begins with a simple observation: Life is difficult. Every life, he says, is uphill. Yet when we run into difficulty, we ask, "Why . . . why me?" We protest as though we expected life to be trouble free.
Life is difficult. We know it. Paul knew it. Yet for this very reason he asserts: "So we do not lose heart," and again later, "So we are always confident" (5:6), and yet again, "Yes, we do have confidence" (5:8). No matter how difficult the journey or steep the climb, Paul is confident that we will arrive home.
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One writer defines despair as a "perverse anticipation of the nonfulfillment of hope." He says despair is not a mood but an act of the will, a decision that the road we're on is a dead-end, that the journey is fruitless.
Paul was acquainted with such despair (4:8-12), but he says we do not lose hope. His reasons for such hope are many, but consider this one: We have hope "because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence" (4:14). Christ's resurrection is the clue that our journey will end not in darkness but in a great homecoming.
Prayer: Gracious Lord, may we not lose heart, no matter the difficulty of the road. Amen.
Used with Permission.
