Storage Wars

“The faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you.” 

                                                               Colossian 1:5-6a

Storage Wars.  There is a battle going on.  Have you felt it lately?  Do you know what the battle is over?  It is a battle for our hope.  At the time of this writing terrorism is increasing, Ebola is in crisis and our brothers and sisters are massacred in other parts of the world.  Evil swells.  It crowds out hope.  At least the kind of hope that rests on what we see. 

The thing about Biblical hope, and the hope that Paul is talking about here, is that it is an unseen hope because “hope that is seen is no hope at all”.  It is an enigma.  We want to hope in things we see.  But the God kind of hope rests in the things we do not see.  It isn’t visible with the naked eye.  That is the hope that is stored up in heaven.

I have some encouraging news for you.  This isn’t all there is.  Paul wrote “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”  (Romans 15:19)  If this is all there is than I would be in despair.  Hebrews 11 is often referred to as the hall of faith.  We read about great men and women of faith and the promises that they received through faith.  But then near the end of the chapter we read:

 “Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.  Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.  They were stoned, they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword.  They went about sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated – the world was not worthy of them. … These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.  God has planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”                                       

                                                      Hebrew 11:35b-40

God has something better planned for those who never received what was promised on this side of heaven. (Heb 11:40)  In this life stuff happens.  Bad stuff, sad stuff, stuff that we would rather not know about. But we can rest that one day our faith will become sight and we will receive a crown of righteousness for our perseverance (James 1:12)  God has planned something very special for that day.

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”   1 Corinthians 2:9

What God has planned you couldn’t have even conceived in your own mind.  That is how good it is going to be.  That is where we put our hope.  Not here.  We are mere pilgrims passing through.  We are headed for something way better.  If we are in Christ, our citizenship is in heaven with Him, who is our hope, and not on earth. 

While there are lots of places in scripture where we find God pouring out hope within the circumstances that we currently live, in this context, Paul is talking about a future hope. And this hope yields the kind of perspective that’s meant to fuel us and motivate us to live a life of faith and love on a consistent basis.  Nothing in this ever-changing world has that power.  If your faith and love walk has been wrecked (staying thematic) than perhaps you have put you hope in the wrong place.  Our hope is in heaven.  It is not to be found in what we see on this earth.  It’s time to set our gaze elsewhere.    

Where is your hope stored?

Today I am one day nearer home than ever before.  One day nearer the dawning when the fog will lift, mysteries clear, and all question marks straighten up into exclamation points!  I shall see the King!

                                                      Vance Havner