Dare to Hope - Jonathan Voos

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Dare to Hope

America faces serious problems but Christians should never lose hope.

America faces serious problems but Christians should never lose hope.

July 27, 2024

Dear reader,

It’s been a while. Over the past seven months, I’ve finished another semester of law school, taken over a law review journal, worked three internships, and spent a lot of time getting to know my wonderful girlfriend. I’ve flown to Vegas and Virginia for law school events, witnessed the worst national anthem in history, driven all around Texas for jobs, weddings, and other events, and generally kept myself pretty busy. It’s mostly been a great year!

In addition to providing a brief life update, I wanted to discuss the rampant negativity I see in Christian circles about politics and culture. 2024 has been a crazy year. We went from a Biden v. Trump rematch to a Harris vs. Almost Assassinated Trump matchup in a matter of days. We’ve seen the Republican Party—once known for its commitment to American exceptionalism—morph into a Party whose leader calls America a failing nation. A glance at New Right Twitter1 shows that this sentiment has permeated into the most vocal factions of the Party.

Meanwhile, we’ve seen the Democratic Party enthusiastically fuel this sentiment by preventing Christians who won’t affirm radical gender ideology from adopting children, pushing from within the Biden Administration to encourage transgender surgeries for children, and otherwise running roughshod over moral and societal norms. Covid-inflation is still a serious problem—as is the border. Every federal election we have seems like an existential crisis. There are major wars in Israel and Ukraine. People are suffering.

How can we hope in times like these?

Dare to Hope by Resting in God’s Promises.

As Christians, the answer lies in the promises of God. In recent days, I’ve studied Jeremiah 33:13–14, Isaiah 46:9–10, Habakkuk 3:17–19, Ecclesiastes 7:8–10, and Micah 7:7. The three themes that stuck out to me as I studied these verses and their context were: 1) God is sovereign; 2) God will restore what He has promised to restore, so we should dare to hope no matter our circumstances; 3) We shouldn’t rush to anger or dwell in the past.

1. God is Sovereign

The first point is perhaps best illustrated by Isaiah 46:9–10, which exhorts Christians to remember that God is in control. At the end of verse 10, God says: “My plan will take place, and I will do all my will.” Because we know that God’s plan will take place and because we trust that God’s plan is good, we can be confident that God will do what he promised. See Isaiah 42; John 13:3; Psalm 8; see also Romans 13 (reminding us that God is sovereign even over our governmental authorities).

2. God Keeps His Promises

This brings me to my second point: We should dare to hope because God will keep his promises.2 Take, for instance, Micah 7. Micah, describing Israel’s moral decline, laments in Micah 7:1-6 that “Faithful people have vanished from the land; there is no one upright among the people,” and that “a man’s enemies are the men of his own household.” Surely these are very dark times. Nevertheless, Micah follows up this lament in verse 7 by saying: “But I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.”

This message of hope in God is echoed continuously throughout the Prophets. For example, Habakkuk 3:17-19 is best paraphrased as saying “even if everything goes wrong, I will rejoice in the Lord who is my strength.” Furthermore, Jeremiah’s discussion of Israel’s restoration and God’s covenant with David in Chapter 33 reads:

The flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them in the cities of the hill country, the cities of the Judean foothills, the cities of the Negev, the land of Benjamin—the areas around Jerusalem and in Judah’s cities, says the Lord. “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will fulfill the good promise that I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah. (CSB)

Even Paul when discussing the centrality of love in the Christian life exhorts us that love always hopes. 1 Corinthians 13:7; see also, e.g., Romans 5:3–4; Romans 15:13.

3. Don’t Rush to Anger or Dwell in the Past

This brings me to my last point: Because God will keep his promises, we should not rush to anger or overly reminisce about what once was. We are explicitly exhorted of this by the writer of Ecclesiastes 7 in Verses 8–10:

Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools. Say not, “Why were the former days better than these? For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. (ESV)

These verses finally bring me back specifically to Christian politics and culture. What is our first reaction when we see things we disagree with on social media or the news? Are we quick to quarrel or slow to anger?3 Do we yearn for how it was “back in my day,” or do we live to serve God in the present? Are our actions rooted in the desires of our flesh or the fruits of the Spirit?

According to Paul in Galatians 5, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are evidence of Christ’s transformation of our lives. Meanwhile, fits of anger, strife, dissension, division, conceited provocation, etc. are evidence of the desires of our flesh. What does this say about our Twitter and Facebook posting and consumption?

To be clear, exhibiting the fruits of the Spirit doesn’t mean Christians can’t or shouldn’t acknowledge worldly problems. Even anger can be an appropriate response to things like pedophilia, child abuse, etc. That said, walking in the Spirit does mean that our attitudes and solutions should be rooted in our faith in Christ as we love God and love others. So, dear reader, as we navigate through this tumultuous election season, let’s strive to rely more on God’s sovereignty and promises and let hope be the anthem of our souls!