This is my Hope...

"Most blessed is the man who believes in, trusts in, and relies on the Lord, 

and whose hope and confidence the Lord is."

Jeremiah 17:7 (AMP)

As I mentioned before, I am taking a philosophy class on worldviews. The last week has been filled with so much information regarding the seven basic worldviews: Monotheism, Deism, Naturalism, Nihilism, Pantheism, Existentialism and New Age. I find myself feeling a good deal of pain for all of those who are seeking “enlightenment” when what they really need is Jesus. And what I really do not understand is why people are so determined to make life and believing in God more difficult than it has to be. As I read through all of these philosophies and what they believe, so many of them have no purpose for being. Existentialism – we just exist. Nihilism – there’s nothing to believe in so no purpose for being. Naturalism has no absolutes; Pantheism says you won’t find purpose now, so reincarnation will bring you back again and again. Even Deism, which believes in God, says that He just created the universe and man, but then walked away and left us on our own.There is nothing to look forward to – no hope or future. It is purposeless!!

            This week, the James study I am doing by Beth Moore seemed to parallel what we are studying. We read James 1:2 “consider it all joy”; but then we turned to John 16:20 where Jesus says, “Your grief will turn to joy”. The word for grief there is actually anguish (Greek thlipsis) and “conveys the picture of something being crushed, pressed, or squeezed from a great weight. It is used to denote grievous physical affliction or mental and spiritual distress” (Moore, 2011, p. 68). Beth Moore made the comment in her video lesson, “We can live with pain better than we can live with purposelessness.”  And my mind immediately went to all of these philosophies we had gone over in class. They are filled with purposelessness.

            God gives me purpose; a reason to get up in the morning. Jeremiah 29:11-13 says, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and fine me when you seek me with all your heart.’”

            That is my “mantra” for lack of a better word. He has plans for me, he listens to me, and when I seek Him, I will find Him. This is my hope… my hope is in the Lord.