Finding Hope
Where do we find our hope and security?
We have been blasted this past year with nothing but uncertainty and fear.
Lives were lost, jobs were lost, and there seemed to be no hope of ever returning to the world we once knew before. Basic provision for families became even more difficult than it was before, leaving some with no options for income and doing whatever they could to live off the small amount they received from a stimulus check.
Worst of all it seemed that all hope was lost.
In addition to the chaos of a pandemic, tensions ran even higher in the political climate of the 2020 presidential election. For everyone on either side, it seemed as if the world was going to end if the opposing candidate won the election.
After the election, the state of the economy was beginning to look as if it was taking a turn for the worst, seeming again, like a hopeless situation, as if the economy would again go into recession. Gas prices were rising, and it seemed as if everything was only going to get worse.
Recently it appears that there is some kind of hope as the “way out of the health and economic crisis” that we seem to currently be in.
The IMF estimated a 5.1 percent GDP rate for advanced economies this year, with the United States growing at a pace of 6.4 percent in 2021. — NBC News
As such, unemployment in the United States is expected to fall from 8.1 percent in 2020 to 5.8 percent this year and then again to 4.1 percent in 2022, according to the latest IMF projections. — NBC News
It appears that there may once again be hope for the economy…
But does this mean there is hope for us?
So much of our culture finds it’s safety, security, and hope in riches. Materialism and monetary status has plagued the minds of many globally and especially here in the United States. We put our trust in stocks, real estate, our savings account, our income source(s), and ultimately the things we can buy.
“Money may not buy happiness, but I’d rather cry in a Jaguar than on a bus.”― Françoise Sagan
In America we dream of living this lavished lifestyle with financial freedom and security.
We put success and having lots of money on the pedastal of a meaningful life.
But we aren’t taking any of this lavished lifestyle with us
In light of eternity all of this is meaningless, and can be taken away from us at a moments notice.
In the early 2000s a company by the name of Enron proved this point,
This, said some of the 4,000 laid-off workers of Enron, was a betrayal by executives who hid the corporation’s crumbling finances and fattened their bank accounts while their employees’ jobs and retirement funds-built from Enron stock -disappeared. — New York Times
Millions of dollars were lost suddenly after Enron’s fraudulent practices came to light, making known their misuse of their funds from investors. Investors literally had anywhere between 4–7 figures lost as a result.
This is an extreme example but it shows that our money is not always as secure as we may think it is.
Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine. — Job 41:11
Anyway, it was never our money in the first place, it is his. So why do we put our hope in the gift and not the gift giver?
God is the true security in this world, and he will provide for us what we need, despite how the economy is performing, despite whether or not you got laid off because of COVID, despite being overthrown by a foreign government and being oppressed by them (happened more than once to the his chosen people throughout the biblical text).
Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. — 1 Timothy 6:17:
He who created you, will provide for all your needs.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? — Matthew 6:25–26
