This isn’t positive or wishful thinking. It’s biblical thinking, thinking that agrees with what the Bible reveals is going to take place one day: God is going to create a new heaven and a new earth (Rev 21:1).
Real hope is in short supply, not only today, but from the Fall on, the world has clamored for real hope. But seeking it here, we’ve come up miserably short. The progress of man has not immunized us from natural disasters, economic crises, wars, disease, and worst of all, our own mortality. The wages of sin is death, and sin and death have no mercy on us.
But God does. He holds out true hope. He calls everyone who thirsts for hope to go to Him and drink from the spring of the water of life at no cost (Rev 21:6). He calls the world to drink from His Son who gives living water by pouring out His life on the cross for our sins. And to the one who overcomes this dying, sin-cursed world by faith in His Son, the Father will be his God and he will be His son (Rev 21:7). He will not fail to deliver on this promise: He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end (Rev 21:6). You can trust Him.
The springs of this world offer only temporary relief at best. But they all deceive us. There is no real water in them, only gravelly muck (Jer 2:13). No amount of health, wealth, or pleasure will quench our deepest thirst for joy. Yet this is precisely what God offers us in Christ – through His death for our sins, we have abundant life by faith in Him. And in that life, we will one day arrive at a place where God will wipe away every tear and remove all death and pain (Rev 21:5).
The first things will all pass away to usher in the new…where God and Christ live among us…where His glory outshines the need for sun and moon…where all our hopes are fulfilled.
I know it’s hard to see this, but it’s true. I need to keep preaching it to myself. So, let’s fix our hope on the glory God will reveal to us on that day. Let’s persevere together by faith in Christ. He is faithful and true. He is best.
