Plowing in Hope

…he who plows should plow in hope (1 Corinthians 9:10 NKJV).

Do you try to live right, and still bad things happen? Maybe you feel that your life is one of plowing (living) in despair rather than hope. Remember the old hymn that began: “This life is filled with sorrow and troubles here below”? A glance at any newspaper will prove that statement true. A reflection upon our own lives will also confirm the words of that song.

Is there anything better? Will things improve? Is there any hope?

I can state with absolute confidence and assurance: “Yes, there is hope!”

There is trouble here below because there is sin here below. Your personal trial may, or may not, result from your personal sin. But there’s trouble in the world today because there’s sin in the world today. There’s also trouble in the world today because of Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden. We don’t inherit the guilt of their sin – but we surely inherit the physical consequences of it: pain, suffering, and ultimate physical death.

We cry out for hope that life will get better. Our cries are answered in God’s word.

The soul that sinneth, it shall die (Ezekiel 18:20 KJV).

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8 NKJV).

Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him (Romans 5:9 KJV).

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Galatians 3:26-27 NKJV).

Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27 NKJV).

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast (Hebrews 6:19 NKJV).

And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (1 John 3:3 NKJV).

When I believe and obey the gospel of Jesus Christ, I enter a place of hope. I’m still in the world, and there’s still trouble all around me; but I can now cope with it, I can now rise above it: because I belong to Christ and He gives me hope.

“They say that many trials will come to vex the soul,
That clouds will often gather to dim for us the goal;
In every sad condition to lead us safely thru,
O Lord we need a friend like you.” *

The faithful Christian, the practitioner of the Christian Life, has found that friend in Jesus.

* “A Friend Like You,” by Luther G. Presley, Sacred Selections Hymnal, # 205.