2012 The Year of Hope!

It seems the prognosticators are predicting that 2012 will be a bad year. I've read it could mean everything from a partial collapse of our economy, to a total collapse of  our economy, and of our nation as we know it, or...the end of the world. The predictions come from media, political, government, business, economic, and christian sources. Each one, speaking from their center of expertise with strength and conviction, is saying that at the minimum, 2012 will be the most challenging year the United States has ever known.

I heard one recognized TV voice who forcefully expressed that one evidence of this would be that the November election campaign will be the nastiest campaign we have ever witnessed. That it will so polarize America that hatred of one another will not be unusual.

Still others are saying, that if you think 2007-2011 were economically ruinous, you haven't seen anything like 2012 is going to be...worse, they say, than the 1929 crash. Many other statements of these impending doom-like predictions have been written and declared. They are too numerous to express here. But, it's not the predictions I'm concerned about. My concern is what do we do about it!!

Whether all this is true or not, isn't really the point. Though, I do believe that with so many diverse voices addressing the matter with similar conclusions, we need to "sit up and take notice." We should do our own reading, listening, and conversing so we will be knowledgeable enough to make decisions for ourselves and our families as 2012 plays out in our lives, homes, churches, and cities.

The point, however, is that regardless of what we will experience in 2012, we are not without hope. Whatever our situations will look like, whatever the circumstances will demand of us, we are not left hopeless. The scripture says, "Hope in God. In the time of your trouble, you must hope in God." The Bible also says that, "Even when there is no reason to hope - keep on hoping,"... because God can be counted on to keep His promises.

2012 offers you and me the opportunity, regardless of any predicted crisis, to find out just how real and trustworthy God really is. Hope is the confident assurance that God will keep His promises - His word. Now this is vastly different from "the indomitable spirit of human hope" often invoked after a tragedy of some description when everyone is challenged to rally around and work together to "rise from the ashes of this defeat." That kind of hope is limited to human willingness, discipline, and ability. That's no more than hope in hope.

God's kind of hope is never automatic. Though it is always available, His hope must be chosen, accepted, and activated by believing He will keep every word He has established in the Bible.

Happy, Hope-filled 2012!!