Faith: Where do you place your faith?

You open the paper or turn on the news and there it is right in front of you.

Today alone, a police officer shot in a normal traffic stop. A mass shooting killing eight and wounding seven. High gas prices, high food prices, lowering wages to the cost of living.

All this bad news — where is our hope?

We can easily see that hope in the world is misplaced.

Hope in politicians? Well, they run the world so there is no hope there. Hope in ourselves? That’s how many in my generation were raised — if you want something done, you do it yourself.

How is that working for you? Even if it goes well for a while there will be a day when it doesn’t.

Is there any good news out there? Is there any hope?

That’s an easy question. Yes there is! There is good news and there is hope.

1st Peter 1:3-9 says: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

"In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

There it is. Even if you go through some pretty rough times, there is hope waiting for you.

Just a few weeks ago the world celebrated the Christian holiday of Easter. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we can all have hope. We can have great hope!

Pain entered the world through sin. All those bad things that happen to us are a result of sin turned loose on mankind. Jesus came to change all of that. He paid a price we could not pay.

If someone pays your utility bill, you don’t have to pay it again. You don’t have to go to the utility company and rake their yard or clean their windows. The bill is paid. You don’t have to do anything else; no amount of good work pays the bill anymore.

When Jesus paid the price, it is paid in full!

So, where will you place your trust? People, government, yourself? Jesus?

As you go, keep this in mind from Romans 15:13: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Troy Nelson is the senior pastor at The Log Church in Crosslake.