I recently wrote about Hope, having read ‘The Hunger Games’. The story is about an oppressed nation that is horrifically punished for a past rebellion, and the resulting devastation of the loss of Hope. The story revolves around how it took one young girl to revive the Hope of the people to take their lives back. And after I watched the movie this past weekend, the ominous words of warning from President Snow have continued to play in my mind, “Hope, it is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective, a lot of hope is dangerous. A spark is fine, as long as it’s contained.”

…and I was gently reminded: so many people today live in a world of lost Hope. They live in “bondage” to finances, poor health, job loss, loneliness…just to name a few. And that is exactly where the enemy wants to keep them…in the devastating oppression of lost Hope. There seems no way “out”…so they continue to wallow in their circumstances…continue to live a life based in fear.

But there is One who has come to offer Hope. In His own Words, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10 NKJV)

Jesus left Paradise–that place that our hearts long for–where there is no death, no sickness, no pain, no hunger… He left with the sole purpose to restore Hope to God’s children by restoring fellowship with the Father. He, alone, could do it…and by dying on the cross for our sins, it is now “Finished”….again, His own words.

And when we truly understand all that was accomplished on that day…Paradise regained, the Promise of God’s Blessings fulfilled; and, as He sits at the right hand of the Father as our High Priest, the Power that is found in our new position as the Righteousness of Christ…that is the most Dangerous Kind of Hope…a spark that can ignite to change lives when it is no longer “contained” by fear. Dangerous in it’s intensity and might…and a deadly weapon against oppression in life. The enemy knows that Hope is stronger than fear…and that Jesus is the Hope that SAVES. 🙂

“For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.” (1 Peter 2:15, 16 NKJV)

“… beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 6:9-15, 17-20 NKJV)

Author acknowledgement― Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games