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There is hope ... love ... joy ... peace.

“Come and see the shining hope that Christ’s apostle saw;
 On the earth, confusion, but in heaven an open door …
… Love has the victory for ever!” (Mission Praise, 86).

“On the earth confusion” - Is this all that we have to look forward to, or is there more than this? Is there nothing but bad news, or is there Good News - from God?

As we head towards Easter, we need to be reminded that there is hope.

Where does our hope for the future come from? Are we just hoping that everything will turn out fine, or are we looking beyond ourselves - to Jesus Christ, the risen Lord. If, in our reading of the story of Jesus Christ, we stopped after we had read about His crucifixion, we would be asking ourselves, “Is there any hope?” When we read about His resurrection, we move on - from “Is there any hope?”, to “There is hope”.

When we look back - from Jesus’ resurrection to His crucifixion, we see that there is love.

At the cross of Jesus, we learn that we are loved. From the resurrection of Jesus, we learn that Jesus’ love has triumphed over our sin. His love changes us. It brings us out of our darkness. It brings us into His light.

In the light of Jesus’ love, we see that there is joy and there is peace.

We look for joy, and we do not find it. We look for peace, and we do not find it. What’s our problem? Are we not too busy looking into ourselves, when we should be looking away from ourselves - to Jesus, our Saviour? We say to ourselves, “I would have more joy, more peace and more hope - if I had more love for Jesus”.
There’s a problem with this way of thinking - there’s too much about my love for Jesus, and not enough of His love for me. When, we read about Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, let us remember this - this is not about us, it’s about Him. It’s about what He has done for us - not about what we do for Him. His love for us is always much more important than our love for Him. Focusing on ourselves - my love for Jesus, my joy, my peace, my hope - is always bad news. It just reminds us of how much we have failed our Lord. Focusing on Jesus and his love for us - this is always Good News: Jesus keeps loving us, even when we don’t feel very joyful, very peaceful or very hopeful.    

May the Good News of Jesus’ love bring to you His joy, His peace and His hope.

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