Where is your hope?

Why a 250 year-old hymn brought this young man to tears...

By Onyido Favour

I remember singing the hymn Come thou fount of every blessing for the first time. It was in Church and how I almost cried (I hate being emotional in public).

After the service, I made sure to get a copy of the hymn, I went home, sang it and this time I cried and cried bitterly. Almost every line of the hymn spoke of something: the Christian HOPE.

The last stanza of the hymn really poured out the writer's yearning;

"O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day."

To go straight to the point my brothers & sisters — I hear Christians these days speaking a lot about the new iPad they are getting this weekend, or the summer vacation Dad is planning or even more serious issues like education.

Now all these are indeed good and some like education even important, but I tell you beloved, I hear little of Heaven being discussed, very little. It is as though we are like the non-believers that say it's been 2000 years since the promise of the second coming, and so we start to live as if there wasn't any promise. There indeed was a promise and we have to continually be thoughtful of Heaven.

The reality is, we are not of the world. It is just unfortunate that we are still clothed in sinful flesh. But let's be reminded that we do not live by the flesh but by the spirit of God in us and so as the flesh is to this mortal earth, the spirit is to the everlasting Heaven and so we should not think of ourselves as earthling but rather as certified visa-approved citizens of Heaven (Hebrews 11 13-16).

To be clear though, I am not saying we shouldn't desire or think of earthly things (that is of course necessary). I am only reminding us that as Christians, everything else is ultimately insignificant compared to our salvation.

In Philippians 2: 4-8, we see Paul listing all his qualifications and status he had acquired through his years abut at the end, he counted it all 'refuse' (GN Bible). It would rather be worthwhile to place our hope in that which is forever meaningful.

This is our HOPE as Christians, that we would one day worship our Lord Jesus the Christ in sparkling white robes, with crowns on our heads, on floors of gold. Until that day my beloved, I'll continue crying as I sing my hymn