Hope. It changes things.

C.R. Wiley says it like this: “We live by the light of tomorrow’s sun, and that sun is the Lord God.”*

He cites the description of Eden restored in Revelation 22:5: “There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.”

It’s easy to get down about things. (Have you watched the news lately?) If we made a list of all the problems it would be very long!

But since God is God, and since his word is true, and since his promises are never-failing, if also we made a list of all the reasons to hope, it would be even longer!

That’s why we need to keep our eyes fixed on the big-picture hope God has given to us—even as we deal with all the daily problems we all have to deal with.

In a world-famous allegory called The Pilgrim’s Progress, a man named Christian explains the nature of his hope to a man named Pliable: “There is an endless kingdom to be inhabited, and everlasting life to be given us, that we may inhabit that kingdom for ever… There are crowns of glory to be given us; and garments that will make us shine like the sun in the firmament of heaven… There shall be no more crying nor sorrow; for he that is owner of the place will wipe all tears from our eyes… There, also, you shall meet with thousands and ten thousands that have gone before us to that place; none of them are hurtful, but loving and holy; every one walking in the sight of God, and standing in his presence with acceptance for ever… there we shall see [people] that by the world were cut in pieces, burnt in flames, eaten of beasts, drowned in the seas, for the love they bare to the Lord of the place; all well, and clothed with immortality as with a garment… The Lord, the Governor of the country, hath recorded that in this book; the substance of which is, if we be truly willing to have it, he will bestow it upon us freely.”

That big-picture hope sustained him through his many perilous days.

It can do the same with us.

Despair not. God’s promises never fail. In Christ, your future is incredible.

“We live by the light of tomorrow’s sun, and that sun is the Lord God.”*

---

Notes:

–“Hope lifts you forward.” Sermon, September 10, 2023. Click here. 

–*C.R. Wiley, The Household and the War for the Cosmos (Canon Press, 2019), 105. 

–John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress (New York: Cassell Publishing [no date given in this edition]), 11-12.

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.