Hope Springs Eternal*
New life always brings hope! Hope for a fresh start. Hope for things eternal. Hope that something new can come from something (or someone) that died. I suspect it is no coincidence that Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is celebrated during Spring – the beautiful season where new life unfolds after the long dead of winter. I love how the cycles of nature mimic those of our human lives: cycles of decline and rebirth, sin and forgiveness - fresh after the beat down of the snow, rain, and bitter cold. Look at the new shoots unfolding, the red cardinals at the feeders, the bright greens of new leaves, the hope of a do over! A precious newborn with an unstained, pure life yet to be lived – full of love, joy, and happiness. Our first niece was born the day her great grandmother died. The cycle of life!
Again, and again, year after year – the old dies away and Spring fills the air with clean, crisp, fragrant aromas. New! Can we become new? Can we start over? Be restored?
This cycle of nature also mimics our spiritual life: peaks and valleys, desserts and oases, death and birth. Fresh beginnings. New life. One of the beauties of pondering is spending time contemplating life – life in general and your life in particular – especially as it relates to your faith in Jesus. During this Easter season, ask yourself hard questions like:
Do I believe in the Resurrection of Jesus? Do I believe He rose of his own power? Why is this important? What does it teach me about life? About hope? About faith? What happens after life here on earth? Do I believe in eternal life?
When you ask yourself questions like this during your prayer time, meditating on Scripture, the Holy Spirit will help you understand these lofty mysteries and strengthen your faith. If Jesus is the one who lives; and He is who He said he was – the Son of God – and He did what he said he would do – then Hallelujah! Death has lost its sting!
There is more to us than just our life here on earth. We sense the “more” of our existence often. We sense the spiritual realm when new life unfolds in humanity and nature. Every time we experience unconditional or sacrificial love or true mercy, we sense the supernatural. Most of us also sense that we are created for more – our hearts yearn for more – more love, more joy, more companionship, friendship, intimacy. We don’t yearn for more entertainment, news, Instagram or TikTok – the world does not satisfy our human heart – especially if we are honest with ourselves.
Since He lives – his promises of grace, love, mercy, joy, and peace are true – despite the sufferings and injustices the world can throw at us (think His Crucifixion). His promise of the Holy Spirit, His Spirit near us, to abide within us, guiding and teaching and transforming is real. If you believe the resurrection of Jesus Christ – then death is NOT the end, new life in Christ, here on earth and for eternity in Heaven – that is the end we are created for! When death isn’t the end, His resurrection takes away fear. Perfect love casts out all fear. Knowing the Holy Spirit is guiding and forgiving and loving, actively, uniquely, near you in all aspects of your life – Pentecost takes away anxiety. We have hope that He is transforming us into a new creature, living intimately with Christ in our hearts, animating all that we say and do and think! That is the Hope that inspires us as nature and life unfold before our very eyes each Spring. Hope truly does spring eternal.
Jesus waits to renew you. To create within you - a new, restored, fresh you – not a puppet or a clone, like everyone else version of you – but the beautiful, incredibly unique, gifted you that you were created to be. Grace enriches your life in ways you can hardly imagine. Spend time getting to know Him in Scripture. His grace is sufficient… Jesus asks of us a willing spirit and an open, humble heart. Invite Him into your heart, recognize his Lordship of the world and of your life and let the transfiguration of your soul, your heart, your mind, your attitudes, your strength, your motives, your words, your loves begin anew.
We begin anew by acknowledging our sins, surrendering our will fertilized by faith, humility, and obedience. Examine yourself. Root out your sinful ways, sinful attitudes, and selfish, lukewarm indifference. Recognize the sin in your life for what it is and lay it at the cross metaphorically. Give those sins to Jesus. He takes them to the Cross and makes something good and new out of you. He redeems us and strengthens us to begin again. Spend quiet time with Jesus in prayer – with Scripture – allowing your friendship to grow – allowing trust to grow - listening and learning, thanking and praising. When you fall, which we all do, turn back to Jesus in humility, ask for forgiveness and begin again! It is only in surrendering to despair, discouragement, and distractions, in “giving up” that we truly begin to die.
Begin again and again and again, just like Springtime does every year. Little by little your life with grace will unfold into a life filled with faith, love, joy, happiness, mercy, hope, and peace. After all, He is the “more” for whom we are created.
* An Essay on Man: Epistle I, Part III by Alexander Pope
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Related Scripture Verses:
John 14:26
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
Rev 1:17-19 NAB
When I caught sight of him, I fell down at his feet as though dead. He touched me with his right hand and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, the one who lives.
Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. I hold the keys to death and the netherworld. Write down, therefore, what you have seen, and what is happening, and what will happen afterwards.”
1 Corinthians 15:51-55
Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is thy victory?
O death, where is thy sting?”
Acts 4:12
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.
2 Corinthians 12:19
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Psalms 42:2
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?
2 Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? —unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
Romans 5:5
…and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us
1 John 4:16
So, we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
John 10:30
I and the Father are one.
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Psalms 105:4
Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his presence continually!
Psalms 71:12
O God, be not far from me; O my God, make haste to help me!
Psalms 51:10,12
Create in me a clean heart, O God and put a new and right spirit within me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Titus 1:2
in hope of eternal life which God, who never lies, promised ages ago…
Acts 3:19Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord
Sirach 2:6Trust in him, and he will help you; make your ways straight, and hope in him
Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 8:24-25
For in this hope, we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Romans 12:12Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
1 Corinthians 15:16-20
For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead…
Ephesians 1:15-23
For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come; and he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all.
John 3:36
He who believes in the Son has eternal life.
John 3:33
God is true.
Genesis 1:29-31
And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
Romans 8:28We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.