Luke 7:12-13

Bereaved, helpless and hopeless this poor widow believed she was about to bury her last chance for security. Few had a worse plight than she, seemingly alone and unprotected. Darkest gloom fills this scene. Enter Jesus, the God of hope and the God of the last chance, the fat chance and the no chance! Filled with compassion, His heart goes out to her. Can anyone besides me relate to circumstances that are seemingly hopeless? Take heart, the God of all comfort and hope has just as much compassion for us too! Scripture is replete with verses regarding the believer’s privilege of hope – “a favorable and confident expectation in Christ for the unseen and the future” (Vines Expository Dictionary). Before Christ, Paul tells us, we were without hope:12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. Eph 2:12-13 (NIV)
The writer of Hebrews states further: 1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. Heb 11:1-2 (NIV)
God commends His servants who are “joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer” (Romans 12:12). “The Lord loves the just and will not forsake His faithful ones” (Psalm 37:28). Our confidence as Christians rests not in random chance or happenstance but on the very power of God who claims: 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD? Gen 18:14 (NIV)
The answer to that, of course, would be a resounding NO! “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9). David writes in Psalm 37: 25 I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. Psalms 37:25 (NIV)
The problem with many Christians is that they do not “taste and see that the Lord is good” or they would certainly find out that “blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him” (Psalm 34:8). Chesterton states: “The Christian faith has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult, and left untried.” Jesus tells us in the Gospel of John not to be surprised by the tribulations we experience in life: 33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33 (NIV)
“We live as those who are on a journey home; a home we know will have the lights on and the door open and our Father waiting for us when we arrive. That means in all adversity our worship of God is joyful, our life is hopeful, our future is secure. There is nothing we can lose on earth that can rob us of the treasures God has given us and will give us.” John Oxenham “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. His oath, His covenant, His blood, support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my Hope and Stay. On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. When He shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in Him be found! Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne! On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.” Edward Mote