Keeping Focus on Hope

I find it is very easy to forget what I am doing here. When I say "here" I don't mean our church, but why I am here on this earth. I get caught up in the busy-ness of life, ministry, the details of this and that and forget what the big picture looks like. Isaiah gives us many vivid snippets of the big picture consisting of wrath, forgiveness, destruction, rebuilding, exile and restoration. The picture in Isaiah overall is a beautiful, glorious picture. Even the wrath part is beautiful. This may seem strange, but divine wrath equals divine justice. It means God does not let the bad guys get away at the end of the story. They get what they have coming to them. But so do God's people. They have something coming to them too: a new heavens and new earth, life without end, evil, sin, suffering and death are no more. Believers get all this and then some. They get God in the end! The end result of what God is doing in the world can be seen in Isaiah 59.


"So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives. “And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord." (Isaiah 59:19–20)

Last week I wrote about praying for revival. Revival is not just something we need - revival is what we have to look forward to. Isaiah describes revival as a "rushing stream which the wind of the Lord drives."  But I forget this sometimes with the busy-ness but also when it seems like nothing is happening. I find it easy to forget that God is at work right now and is leading us towards this glorious end spoken of in Isaiah. Our hope is this: that Jesus will return in power and glory and make all things new. Our hope is that the rushing stream of his awesome glory and power would wash over the world and sweep away the sin and sadness in the world. Have you lost focus on this hope? If you have then you have also forgotten why you are here. We are called to bear witness to what God is doing. When we lose focus on hope then we get caught up in the other things of life. We become so focused on lesser things we forget that we are here to testify of the hope that we have. This hope is what fuels our service to Christ. When serving in the church becomes a struggle, its because our hope-tank has run dry. We need fuel! We need to get our eyes back on to what God has promised to do! We need to revisit the big picture of redemption. But more than that - we need to believe that this rushing stream is rushing right now! We may not always see it - and that may be God's way of inviting us to ask for it. I invite you to join me in asking for it!