An anonymous man commented on my last post and asked the following questions;

• “What have you built your hope on?”
• “How is (your hope) founded? Is it the Bible, is it friends and family, and or have you had spiritual encounters…?”
• “How has Christ helped you?”
• “How do you renew these eroding or decaying virtues that so remarkably define one who takes up their cross as you have?”

In my previous post I mentioned that my hope was “Christ-centered” and I also inserted some Bible passages on hope so readers would be right if they concluded I was referring to Christian hope. But with all the spiritual confusion these days I respect this man for wanting to be sure. I wish more people would challenge those giving spiritual advice.

When I read his question; “What have you built your hope on?” I thought of the old hymn titled “The Solid Rock.” I’ll use the first line and the chorus of this nearly 200 year old hymn for my answer to this question;   “My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness…On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand…”

I am not a theologian, but as I understand it, a Christian by definition is someone who has concluded that real hope for today and for eternity can only be found in Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus was speaking the truth when He claimed, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:66)

It’s because I believe this that I feel Jesus is worthy of my hope.

Regarding the questions; “How is (your hope) founded? Is it the Bible, is it friends and family, and or have you had spiritual encounters…?”

I’m not sure what he’s referring to by “spiritual encounters;” I haven’t seen angels or visited heaven or anything like that, but we’ve experienced many miracles that have reinforced our hope and our faith. God has also used family, friends and even strangers to meet our needs and strengthen our hope.

But, even though I feel like I have the best wife, kids, family and friends, I don’t believe genuine hope can be founded on even the best of people or any created thing. God is the foundation of my hope and therefore the Bible is also my foundation because God and His word are one in the same;

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1&1:14)

So my answer to the question, “How has Christ helped you?” is this; God’s word is the foundation of my hope, but He’s used many caring people to build on that foundation.

Finding the answers to this man’s last question (“How do you renew these eroding or decaying virtues that so remarkably define one who takes up their cross as you have?”) is the reason I felt I should start this blog. As I mentioned above, I’ve found that reading and choosing to believe the bible (instead of feelings and the opinions of others, including and especially me) and surrounding myself with hope-minded people are very important. But there are many other important things that I believe build or erode hope and these will be focus of future posts.

“…we who have taken refuge (In Christ) would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast…” (Hebrews 6:18-19)