Automatic Hope in Christ

“Did you see the text about Hannah?” my husband asked as I balanced my three-year-old on my lap and poked another bite of chicken into her mouth.

I had not and now I was nervous. He brought my phone to me and I read, “Urgent prayer request. Hannah was involved in a biking accident and taken to the ER. A CT scan showed a brain bleed.”

Hannah is the daughter of one of my closest friends. She was several states away at youth camp while my friend was at pre-teen camp with one of her other daughters. I called my friend right away. While she sat at the airport waiting for the earliest flight available from Houston to Albuquerque, she shared the story. She felt all of the emotions a mom in her situation would feel — fear, relief that Hannah was OK, helplessness that she wasn’t with her, anger, and so on.

Then she said, “I’m worried, but I have peace. It’s the strangest feeling.”

In moments like these we understand the extent of our hope in Christ, don’t we? If we’ve been trusting in Him for smaller things and “practicing our faith,” so to speak, then it’s almost automatic when we find ourselves in situations that are more difficult.

It reminds me of Philippians 4:11–13, “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (NIV).

The Apostle Paul had learned to rely on God for strength, both when he had plenty and when he was in need.

Automatic hope in Christ. Regardless of the situations in which we find ourselves, automatic hope in Christ is what we all need.

Let’s practice each day, in good times and bad, to keep the hope in Christ we have at the forefront of our hearts and minds. In little things and big things, let’s make our first response be one of trust and hope in Christ. Let’s keep practicing so our hope in Christ becomes our automatic response to whatever the new day brings.

Pray:

Dear Lord, we thank You that we can have complete hope and trust in You. Help us to have hope in You as our first and automatic response to whatever happens in our lives. Lead us to show this hopeful response to the preschoolers and families in our care, that they may also grow to respond with complete hope in You. Amen.