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The world wonders what hope is but Christians have a corner on hope. Why? You may ask. It is because the basis of all hope is to know and understand who God is. There is no hope without God who controls the universe and promises to bring us to heaven.

Hope designates a future - that is what we hope in. Time, our period on this earth can be seen in various ways, but only one way offers hope. Some see time as cyclical: history repeats itself and will continue to repeat itself only to get worse and finally burn itself up. Others see time in the modern secular view that immortality exists as each generation gives birth to the next. But Christians see time as a straight line - God began time, has a specific purpose for each person within his divine plan, and He will bring it to an end when He returns as He promised.

For Christians hope is not in most of the things fellow humans hope in. It cannot be found in possessions, in our own strength or supposed "immortality", in people's love, in the past. Neither can it be found in human achievements, in who we are and what we have done, or in this life itself.

So where is hope? Our hope lies in our Christian growth here on earth - that we are doing what God wants for us in our particular place in time. We hope in the new heaven and new earth God has promised us (Hebrews 13:14). We hope in Christ's second coming, in eternal life, in resurrection (1 John 3:2-2). We hope in the fact that this world is not all there is (Revelation 21:2-3). And the great thing about our hope is that it is based on fact. It will happen because our hope is based on God, not on us.

How then should our hope affect the heart of the non-believers? What should be our purpose in everything we do? Lets ask God to fulfil His purpose through us.

Joseph Odongkara