Today is a new day. Honestly. It is. 

Yesterday was its own thing. Sure, each new day is influenced by what happened the day before. But there’s nothing you can do about that now, is there? The same goes for last week, last year, or even the last decade.

That was then. This is now.

With this perspective in mind, get up, dust yourself off, and let the Lord kindle your heart with his flame of hope.

In the movie version of The Lord of the Rings, there is a powerful scene where the signal beacons on top of the hills and mountains between the two realms, Gondor and Rohan, are lit—one by one, and over a great distance. This renews the alliance between these two ancient peoples and foreshadows the ultimate victory of light over darkness.

Gandalf comments on what is going on by saying, “Hope is kindled.”*

In Romans 12:12 Paul says to “Be joyful in hope…” This is no pie-in-the-sky optimism. It is a blood-soaked, sweat-stained, tear-saturated perseverance because the God we serve has defeated death and continues to do so every single day by the power of the Holy Spirit in and through his loyal servants.

Be joyful in that hope.

And so we will. No matter what. Hope is something we will choose because the God of hope has already chosen us.

Welcome to today. Hope is kindled.

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Notes:

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.

–*As retold in: Michael A.G. Haykin, The Reformers and Puritans as Spiritual Mentors: Hope is Kindled (Kitchener, Joshua Press, 2012), 10.