You Gotta Have Hope

Of this church I was made a minister . . . so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints.

–Colossians 1:25–26

Somebody has said that a person can live forty days without food, four days without water, and four minutes without air, but he can last only a few seconds without hope.

We all need hope. And when you boil down the gospel to its very essence, it is a message of hope—the hope that there’s meaning and purpose to this life and that something awaits us beyond the grave. You and I have been charged with sharing this message of hope with a hopeless world.

In Colossians 1, we read that every Christian has been called by God for ministry. The reason God left us here on this earth is not to build our kingdom but to build His kingdom. Our ministry is to share God’s message of hope. In verse 26, Paul described this message as “the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints.”

When we use the term mystery, we think about something eerie and spooky. But in the Bible, a mystery is a truth hidden in the heart of God that He chooses to reveal in His time. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God.” Some of those secret things, or mysteries, will not be revealed until we get to heaven. When somebody asks you, “Why does God do this?” or “Why did God allow that?” it is perfectly acceptable to say, “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask Him about it.” Some things are above our pay grade!

However, there are other mysteries that God has chosen to reveal to selected individuals throughout history. One of those is the mystery of the rapture of the church. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:51–52, “I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable.” The Old Testament prophets never talked about the rapture. This mystery was reserved for the apostle Paul to reveal.

The message you and I have been commissioned to share was also a mystery, but God revealed it in His time. And now it’s our turn to carry that message of hope to a world in desperate need.

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Today’s devotion is adapted from “You Gotta Have Hope” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2011.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.