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THE BEST IS YET TO COME


During Catie’s ordeal, many people encouraged us to remain hopeful. Some signed cards, our hopes and prayers are with you. Others reminded us, don’t give up hope. Still others commented, I hope all is well.  


Hope is magnificent; it's one of the “big three” qualities upon which Paul built much of his instruction and encouragement: faith, hope, and love. We all need hope. But hope, like faith and love, needs an object. In what do we place our faith? In what do we put our hope? Who or what is the focus of our love? 


Fortunately, our hope is not a free-floating wish or a mystical desire. Neither is our hope an end unto itself, a quality we must cultivate to produce more hope. Our hope is confidence in a Person. We do not need to hope more and more; we need to get to know Jesus – the basis of our hope – more and more.  


Peter’s message is worth another look: 

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (I Peter 1:6-7) 


Peter concludes this section with the hopeful words about suffering’s endgame: “and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” As bleak as things may be today, God is working events together to generate the better future He has ordained. Suffering will not always be in our face. We have hope for a better tomorrow, not because we can conjure up enough hope, but because our hope is in Jesus.  


Praise, glory, and honor stand in stark contrast to disease, conflict, and grief. When Jesus Christ returns, life will be turned on its head. In the final chapters of his Revelation, the Apostle John records Jesus’ words, “I am making everything new! . . . Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Revelation 21:5) That is a powerful source of hope.  


We all need hope, but even more, we need the reason for hope – Jesus Christ.  


Four principles are embedded in Peter’s message to those who suffer. 

  • In this – Remember the value of your salvation. 

  • A little while – Our pain will not last forever. 

  • So that – There is purpose in our suffering. 

  • Praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed – The best is yet to come. 

Our hope is not in hope alone but in Jesus, the One who makes all things new.  

Dan Bolin

President

Refueling in Flight Ministries, Inc

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