With ever increasing rates of mental health issues, addictions and anxiety evident in Western society it begs the question what are we missing?
In Australia we are offered an abundant lifestyle, offered enormous choice, for those less fortunate we even have a free healthcare system and social security.
We flick on the TV and can browse hundreds of channels across free to air, Foxtel, Netflix, Stan, and that’s ignoring the myriad of channels offered through the internet. We can listen to virtually any choice of music through iTunes or Spotify. We can even home deliver our favourite dessert using UBER Eats.
At the coffee shop we can tailor our preference of bean, style, flavour, additives.
Supermarkets boast products to suit every desire, whether first principles cooking or ready-made meals that we can throw in the microwave and eat 10 minutes later.
We seem to have it all.
But where is the HOPE?
Our smart phones have made us dumber. We use online maps to get around the corner. Calculators to add or subtract. We Google every question to make sure we have the right answer – yet retain none of it.
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter … apparently meant to connect us all – yet there is greater isolation than ever.
Where is the HOPE?
We fill our spare time with convenience and comfort, yet never feel rested. We fill our minds with media and visual stimulation, yet there’s never anything on. We can custom make virtually anything to suit any desire and still we don’t feel complete.
So where is the hope?
Why are more people feeling anxious? Why are there increasing rates of suicide? Mental health? Addictions?
Don’t we have it all?
Hasn’t everything been served on a platter?
What more could we possibly want?
And yet … where is the HOPE?
Galatians 6:8, “Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”
Hope is not found in things. Hope is not in our possessions. They all wither and rust. Even our flesh is destined to the same end.
Hope can only be found by the fulfilling of our Spirit. Hope can be found leaning into God.
You can be filled with a hope that is beyond the hopelessness offered by the world. 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.”
If you are anxious, fearful, downcast, isolated, worried, burdened, depressed – there is HOPE! There is light! There is a way that leads to joy.
Ask the Father to open the door, to fill you with the Holy Spirit and seek guidance. Trust Him and see what He can do with this life that is seemingly lost.