Welcome back for Day 6 in this series of Advent devotions on the theme of HOPE. Over the past two days we have looked at false hopes and false assumptions about hope, and today we’ll see one final false premise regarding hope: Some people look to the wrong source for hope.
In the Old Testament we often read about people who put their hopes in wooden idols covered with a veneer of gold. We may smirk as we read, thinking how foolish these people were to put their hopes in something they themselves had created, an idol they had to carry from place to place, an idol that could not speak or breathe. We don’t worship idols. Or do we?
In Job 31:24,25, the author asks, “Have I put my hope in money or felt secure because of my gold? Have I gloated about my wealth and all that I own?”
Are people any different from those Job spoke of when folks today rest their hopes on their stock portfolio or their bank account? They take pride in owning a home that offers security against inflation. Or they hope that the physical health they have today will guard them against COVID, heart attacks or whatever the future brings? Gold and money, houses and land, exercise and right eating…each can provide a brief measure of hope but unless we look to the only true source of hope, we will never experience lasting peace.
This season, are you relying on your financial acumen and business plan to protect you in the future, or is the source of your hope firmly grounded in the salvation God has provided in Jesus Christ? Many of us give a financial gift during the Christmas season that offers a brief but tangible measure of hope to someone less fortunate than ourselves. Why not also speak to someone today of the one hope that offers eternal joy?
