This week we continue our X-Ray Questions series, as we look at where we bank our hopes. You can read the other posts in this series by clicking here.

X-Ray Question:

(4) Where do you bank your hopes? 

The future dimension is prominent in God’s interpretation of human motives. People energetically sacrifice to attain what they hope for. What is it? People in despair have had hopes dashed. What were those shattered hopes?

Understand

When we bank our hopes in something or someone other than Jesus Christ, we will always be disappointed. When we place our hope in something other than Jesus we are really placing our hope in an idol. Idols will never satisfy us, in fact, they will always disappoint us.

If we place our hope in our husbands and wives, finding ultimate meaning in the way they treat us, then we will always be disappointed. Man is sinful, and at some point that sin will cause us to treat others unkindly.

Alternatively, if we place our hope in a raise, promotion, or new job, we can almost always be guaranteed to be disappointed. Oh, we may get the raise, promotion, or new job, but when we do, we will find it did not provide us with the satisfaction or significance that we were hoping it would.

Riches will not satisfy us either. 1 Timothy exhorts us not to place our hope in the riches of our current age because riches are uncertain. One minute they are here, and the next minute they are gone. The bursting of the real estate bubble and subsequent recession a few years back, of which we are still feeling the effects, attests to the uncertainty of riches.

Repent

We should repent by realizing that our only hope lies in Christ. He is the only one who will never disappoint us. His value will never diminish, and we will always be satisfied in Christ. Where people, jobs, and riches fail us, Christ will not.

Scripture

Here are a few passages from God’s word to meditate on this week, as you consider where you place your hope: 1 Peter 1:13; 1 Tim. 6:17

All X-Ray questions taken from David Powlison’s book Seeing with New Eyes.