Many approach each New Year with a glimmer of HOPE for a fresh start, “Off with the old and on with the new.” However, just saying the right slogans doesn’t make it so.
True hope is not a wishful thinking of something desired; true hope is found in a personal relationship and covenant with God through Jesus Christ. That is a mouthful that often gets stated, but the true meaning and impact of that hope is lost in the rote repetition and mindless rehearsal we often give to scripture.
Music is a great way to infuse your whole being with the meaning of scripture. One song that resonates with hope for me is “The Solid Rock.”
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand: All other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace; In ev’ry high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the veil.
His oath, His covenant, His blood, support me in the whelming flood; When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.
When He shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in Him be found: Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand: All other ground is sinking sand.
(Lyrics Edward Mote and Music William B. Bradbury 1863)
Look at the date of the writing of “The Solid Rock.” It was written during the American Civil War. Our current world conditions may push us into a dark and hopeless direction if we ONLY look at the physical world surrounding us.
God wants us to look at Him and place our HOPE in HIM and not our circumstances. Circumstances will rise and fall. If our hope is attached to those circumstances our emotions will also rise and fall.
God has established Himself to us as THE SOLID ROCK. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He has known and knows history from the end to the beginning. He knows the plans He has for each of us, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:11-13).
As we approach this New Year, let our glimmer of HOPE for a fresh start, of “off with the old and on with the new” be grounded in making Jesus the center of our focus. With Him as our focus and foundation “all other ground will be sinking sand.”
