We all have days when everything goes well and we feel happy and free, and then there are other days when it seems as if Murphy’s Law just takes over. We get frustrated and stressed, and we feel that everything we’re going for in life is just not going to happen. We take our eyes off of God and put them onto the problem and we get frustrated because we cannot see that Jesus is our only hope.

We tend to take on the responsibility to rise above the things that come against us, and let’s face it, we don’t always have the wisdom or the strength or the ability to get the victory over everything that comes against us. We try and we fail. And while this failure is a major stresser on its own, the fact is that what we do or try to do also has a great impact on those around us, which creates an even more “hopeless” situation.

When we look at the various circumstances through our own eyes – the eyes of carnal man – we have no hope. This corrupt world is out to get us and if our confidence and our hope is in us alone or the people around us, then we eliminate the One person who can help, who does have the wisdom and the ability to overcome.

“In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” … John 16:33

As Christians, our hope must always be in the Lord. Our very existence is totally dependent upon what Jesus accomplished on the cross, and our hope must extend far beyond the struggles of life that we endure; it must go far beyond His love and protection over us in our daily lives.

Jesus took ALL of OUR SINS upon Himself at the cross. He was pure because He was God in the flesh, but at that cross God withdrew His Spirit from Jesus so that He could absorb our sins and take them to hell on our behalf. But death and hell could not keep Him there and through God’s Holy Spirit Jesus rose out of hell, and after a short stay on earth to encourage His disciples, He rose to Heaven where He lives forevermore as our King and Savior!

Every one of us who accepts this gospel message will go to Heaven when we leave this earth because Jesus took away the sin that would have otherwise sent us to hell. If we believe in Him, then we are saved.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” … Romans 10:9

The Bible says that Jesus has made a place in Heaven that’s just for you and just for me.

“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”         …John 14:2-3

This is our hope; that Jesus will come for us and take us home to Heaven to be with Him for evermore. This world is not our home; we are just passing through because our home is in Heaven with the Lord.

But when this hope is not embedded deep into our soul, we tend to depend more on ourselves and less on Him, and after a while we take our eyes off of Jesus and we lose that hope. We must protect our heart and NEVER lose that hope because once it’s gone, nothing else matters. If we can’t trust Him with our eternal lives, then we lose the inspiration to live for Jesus on earth, and we become like the world and just struggle and get defeated through life’s parade of trials.

This Friday is what we know as “Good Friday” and we focus on that dark day when Jesus was nailed to the cross for us so we could be restored to our Heavenly Father. Sunday is Easter Sunday and we remember that Jesus rose on the third day – Easter Sunday – in what is referred to as the first resurrection. We are all part of this first resurrection when our hope is in Jesus because He WILL come again to take us Home. Many Christians have already gone Home; their hope has become a reality.

Where is your hope? Is it in Jesus? If it is that’s wonderful and one day we’ll all meet in Heaven and praise the Lord together for saving us. But if you don’t know Jesus, it’s never too late to say, “I believe. Forgive me Lord Jesus and wash me clean of all the sin that’s in me and fill me with Your Spirit so that I may be with you in Heaven throughout eternity.”

Our hope is in Jesus! Praise His name forever more!

“Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
2 For He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
4 Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation? for He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was He stricken.
9 And He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bear the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. … Isaiah 53:1-12