My Faith is Built on Nothing Less
1 Corinthians 15:55-58 King James Version (KJV)
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
Yesterday marked another birthday for me. Another year has passed that has been one of my most difficult. I think back over the events of the last year as I sit here in the cool stillness of the night while the rest of the house lay sleeping. I am reminded of a hymn I learned as a youth that came rushing into my thoughts tonight. I’m sure many of you are familiar with it but have you ever really thought about the words and their meaning to you?
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.
I was speaking tonight on the phone with a dear nephew. Among many other things we spoke about Stephen and his life cut short. We talked about how Stephen had lost all hope and how the loss of a person’s hope can lead them down many paths, all too often tragic paths such as Stephen walked down. He asked me how I was doing and I was able to tell him that I was okay, and that through the events of the year, my faith and hope still has not been shaken. If anything, my own hope has grown stronger as I have had to lean more upon God’s Word, and time in prayer and scripture study.
Our conversation tonight led me to think about this hope that has sustained me. As I ponder the meaning of the word hope, I went back to an early English dictionary for the definition of the word. It states that hope is “expectation of some good” or alternately, “confidence in a future event”. So conversely, to have no hope would mean no expectation of some good or no confidence in a future event. So when a person is bereft of hope and has no expectation of anything good and no confidence that anything ever will ever be different, that must shake that person to their very core and leave them in a state of complete and abject emptiness and loneliness. To them, this state of being must be totally unbearable and shake them to their very core.
I must confess that I have been through dark valleys in my own life that have brought me close to this state of hopelessness. I too have turned down that path toward its destination, but somehow I think most of us have traveled it even briefly, it if we admit it. But for me, most importantly, I always have found a thread of hope to hold onto like a lifeline in the turbulent ocean of life that would bring me back, sometimes little by little but bring me back it would.
You see for me, that thread of hope is faith that I mentioned earlier from the hymn I learned as a child. The words to that hymn describes it perfectly for me. Not just any faith, but faith in the person of Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior on who my own personal hope is based. In my own life, with so many ups and downs, I have always been able to hold onto that hope and it has never once left me or let me down. I have to admit that there were times when that thread of hope was very thin and I wondered if I would let go of it, but I thank God that He was always there to carry me through.
Dear reader, the verses in 1 Corinthians 15:55-58 speak loudly of the results of that faith and hope. They speak of the subject of that hope, Jesus Christ, and that victory comes to the believer in Christ when we are together with Him in Heaven. The believer is promised a life eternal with our Lord where there is no more death. Where there is no more sin. Where there is no more hurt. Where there is no more pain. This is not just something we feel, its something we KNOW by being His child. We have a wonderful hope. We have confidence in that future event when we are with Him!
Even though today our life may be hard and filled with pain and grief and suffering, because of that hope we CAN be steadfast in that same hope. We CAN continue our daily journey and battle against the struggle of life here in our physical bodies on earth, because we KNOW that that our struggles and battles are NOT in vain when we trust in the hope that comes from our Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, faith in Christ is not just a feeling, or an emotion, or an experience. It is absolutely and unreservedly KNOWING that Christ is our Lord and Savior. It is a daily conversation with Jesus through His Holy Word and by talking with Him in prayer. When we live our lives for and with Him each day, that becomes our conversation. He becomes our identity. We are in Him and He is in us. Do you have that hope?
About The Author
Shelby Cooper
Shelby Cooper is a retired IT professional that worked in the oil industry for 33 years. He is a former minister of music/youth and religious education where he served Baptist churches in Oklahoma. He is also an amateur radio operator and also enjoys photography and writing.