Question: Is your hope rooted in truth? The reason I ask is because there is so much drivel out there trying to pass itself off as reasons to hope. The whole prosperity false gospel traffics in this sort of nonsense, as if God is a cosmic bellhop whose main calling is to provide self-absorbed sinners their every whim. Last week, I read an article in the news where a woman was offering crystals filled with blessings for (you guessed it) a financial donation. I’ll not be donating my hard-earned money to her or anyone else for crystals filled with blessings. But apparently, some folks do. As Vonnegut was fond of quipping in his satirical novel Slaughterhouse-Five, so it goes.

Hope & Truth: In Hebrews 6, the biblical writer puts it this way when exploring wise and rooted hope: “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 6:19, ESV).

Encouragement: No spiritual high jinks in Scripture. No crystals of blessings contingent upon financial donations. In Christianity, the believer’s hope is rooted in the infinite-personal God who is holy, holy, holy, who never lies, who is unchanging and faithful, who spoke the cosmos into existence and upholds it by the word of his power, who preserved Jonah in an underwater leviathan and deposited him three days later in order to preach the gospel in Iraq, and who told Doubting Thomas to not disbelieve but believe, who told skeptics that he was going to the cross, but in three days, he’d be raised. And despite added Roman guards at the tomb of a dead man, after having been publicly flayed, crucified, and buried, he was raised bodily and built his church, just as he said. There are no spiritual high jinks in this, you see. It’s the greatest news possible and the reason Christians have hope. It is because God keeps his promises, because God is faithful, because even though the powers of hell and hucksters continue their ways, the true God does not pimp the gullible with wish projection. It is something altogether different and pervaded with truth and hope. God says to taste and see that the LORD is good (Psalm 34:8).