The Giver of Hope

Things happen in life that are bad, and they always will be bad. There are things that never should have happened, but they did. But despite the bad, God can still bring good.

The Bible promises, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (Romans 8:28 NLT).

Yet this is often misunderstood. We mistakenly think it means that God will take every bad thing and turn it into a good thing.

What is God’s endgame, then? We find the answer to that question in the next verse: “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (verse 29 NLT).

God knew us before we knew Him. And He chose us to become like His Son. This is our hope. Now, the devil doesn’t want this to happen. In fact, he wants us to abandon hope.

But Jesus wants us to abandon hopelessness; we can have hope as His followers. He said, “The thief’s [devil’s] purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life” (John 10:10 NLT).

We have a choice: we can either listen to the devil or listen to Jesus.

Don’t listen to the devil, because he is a liar and the father of lies (see John 8:44). He will whisper in your ear and say, “Your life is not worth living, and your family and friends would be better off without you.” Those are lies.

Your life is a gift from God, and it is worth living. And you are loved more than you realize.