Hope Anchored in Christ

A lot of Christians often think that the Devil is to be blamed when Adam and Eve first sinned. Indeed, even Adam and Eve did not blame themselves when they were questioned by God - Adam blamed God for creating Eve, and Eve blamed the Serpent. It is interesting to ponder if Adam and Eve's punishment would be less severe had they immediately taken full responsibility of their sin.If we are to really live a life of obedience to God, we must immediately stop blaming others, including Satan, of our own sins and take full responsibility when we do sin - God has given us sufficient tools to fight and flee from sin so we have no excuse when we do sin.

In this episode, I will be sharing my personal journey in Faith. Born into a Christian family, I knew a lot of Bible studies but didn't have a personal relationship with God. I only viewed God as a list of Rules and Regulations to follow, and punishment if I don't follow them, hence developing an unhealthy fear of God that I'm still battling today. A healthy fear of God on the other hand, recognizes that God is holy, but at the same time, we obey God out of love and not simply due to negative consequences that arise out of sin.

In this episode, we will be exploring 1John, where it describes what true fellowship with the Lord really means. When we say that we fellowship with the Lord but keep walking in darkness, we are only deceiving ourselves. When we say we fellowship with Lord but hate our brothers and sisters, we are only deceiving ourselves. We can only love the unseen God if we love our seen brothers and sisters.

This episode addresses a serious question - are we still sinners despite being Christians? The answer is a resounding NO. If we truly believe that Jesus has taken away all our sins unto himself, why do we still think of ourselves as sinners? If we keep on labelling ourselves as sinners despite our conversion, we have given ourselves an excuse to keep on sinning. After becoming Christians, God has given us the ability to not sin, and any true Christian as mentioned in 1 John, cannot keep on sinning. That is not to say we don't sin anymore, but true repentance always leads to less sinning over time and a lifestyle change. Also, why would God hear our prayers if we are still sinners? God only hears those that are holy, and we are made holy because Jesus died for our sins, substituted for our sins, and that our hearts turn towards him in sincere repentance.

Are we the elder son or younger son in Matthew 21's parable? The elder son initially told the father he did not want to work in the vineyard but later changed his mind and went. The younger did the opposite - he said he will work at first but ended up not working. What we need to understand is that we become the younger son when we know deep down we don't wish to do what God says, yet put up a front with God and with others. But our hope is in the lord if we simply admit to God that there are things we don't wish to do for him, then ask and trust in him to change our unwilling hearts. The reason we can anchor our hope in God is because he gives everyone who genuinely repents a new heart, so that we can obey him willingly.

As Christians, we might often say we trust in God. But deep down, do our hearts and outward actions indicate that we trust God to provide for our daily needs? Or do we prefer using our own intelligence to fund our lifestyle?I'm not saying having a 9-5 job is wrong, but can we honestly say to God that we will accept his means of provision if his will is not for us to have a 9-5 job? Trusting on God for our provision is not in our fallen, sinful human nature. Let's explore how we can grow our trust in God's provision through this episode.

The ability to hope on God is not natural - it takes dedication and intentional practice on a daily basis. In Deuteronomy Chapter 8, we see that Moses specifically instructs Israelites to understand and know in their hearts that God disciplines as a man disciplines his son, and asks them to meditate on the fact that despite wandering for 40 years in the desert, their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.We need to meditate on the seemingly "small things" that God grants us, such as the ability to wake up every morning and do his work given to us. It is through meditation that we can be thankful towards the Lord from the bottom of our heart, allowing us to understand that even when he disciplines us, he is doing it out of true love for us. If we truly understand that God is for us, not against us, we can easily place our hope on God.

Hope often comes with suffering, suffering often comes with hope. It is against human nature to want suffering - we love pleasure and comfort a lot! But as followers of Christ, we promise to give up everything for him, which includes comfort. We often invite persecution because of our faith.In Romans 5 verses 3-5, Paul says that we can rejoice in our sufferings, because suffering produces perseverance, character and hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. God often allows suffering to draw us closer to himself, and we can be rest assured that we can still have hope during sufferings because he has given us the greatest gift - the Holy Spirit, which abides in us. If dealt with in the right attitude, suffering will build our character and help us obey God, fulfilling his destiny for us in this short life we have on Earth, after which we can finally depart to our eternal resting place.

If you follow UK politics, you will know that the UK received its 7th Prime Minister in a decade in Andy Burnham, and one of his frequently used words in speeches is the word "hope". This episode explores the difference between hope that Governments and the world offers, and hope that God alone can offer. Governments can only offer physical needs, such as free services and benefits, but what we truly need as humans is spiritual food that God alone can offer.

We often hear about this famous promise by God that he has plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future, but what we often forget is the context. In Jeremiah 29 where this promise is given to Israelites exiled to Babylon for 70 years, Jeremiah also told in the same breathe that Israelites that they will seek and find the Lord when they seek God with all their heart. Do we seek the Lord with all our heart? If not, why do we think we can seek him? We can only place our hope on the Lord if we know him - we need to build up our relationship with him by reading the word and putting it into action. This builds up not just intellectual knowledge but gives us biblical revelations from God himself, which translates into hope we can draw upon regardless of life's circumstances.