THINK TOGETHER
Is there something that you’re hoping will happen today?
READ TOGETHER
One of the most important messages of the Bible is that we can have hope even when things are really, really hard. Do you know what hope is? Hope is when you know that something good is coming in the future. Sometimes we use the word hope to mean that we aren’t sure something will happen. Like when we say “I hope my team wins their basketball game.” Or when we say, “I hope I get a new video game for my birthday.” We might want these things but we’re not completely sure that they will happen.
But in the Bible hope is about knowing that God will one day rescue us, not just guessing that he will. In the Bible hope is always about being sure. Why? Because God always keeps his promises.
When the Jewish people were taken into exile it all seemed so hopeless. The big, bad, Babylonians came and conquered them, burned their city and the temple of God, and took everyone back to Babylon as slaves. Where was God? What about God’s promises? And in the middle of all this suffering and sadness God spoke these words through Jeremiah the prophet:
Jeremiah 29:11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
God had a plan for them beyond the hard times. A plan to bring them back home one day to the promised land. A plan to restore their temple. And through it all God would never stop loving them.
And God has a plan for you too. And his plan might include some very hard things. In fact, when you are a Christian you are living in exile just like the Jewish people in the Old Testament. As a Christian you are living in a world that is not your true home, because your real home is with God and with Jesus in a new heavens and a new earth that are waiting for us in the future. And that means that while we wait for Jesus to return to fix everything things might get hard. There will be some sad days.
But just like the Jewish exiles of old, Jesus has promised us a hope filled future with him. A world where everything bad is good again. Everything sad is turned into happy. Everything hard becomes easy. And everything sinful is gone forever.
Because of Jesus we will live forever in the joy of God.
With Jesus we can have hope each day, knowing that these hard days won’t last forever.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
What is something that you are looking forward to as a family? How can this special thing give you a little glimpse of going to heaven one day?
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus,
You have promised me a future of peace and good days. Help me to hope in you.
Amen.
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