This post is Day 17 in a series of studies about “Hope”. I strongly suggest you begin with the introduction to this study, please click here to read it.

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Hope – Day 17

I believe that in these verses, the writer is telling us that those who have a relationship with God are alive. They have a living hope of better things to come, those who do not have that relationship are as good as dead, because they have nothing to live for.

Ecclesiastes 9:4-5

Anyone who is among the living has hope – even a live dog is better off than a dead lion! For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing.

The Thought

One can suppose that all of us reading this today consider ourselves “among the living”! But what does that really mean? The majority of the people Jesus spoke to when He walked the earth, were among the living in an every day sense of the word, (although He did speak to a few dead people and bring them back to life: real life!) But how many of those people had such changed lives that they would tell you they didn’t know what real life was until they met Jesus. He gave them a hope and a future.

I believe that in these verses from Ecclesiastes, the writer is telling us that those who have a relationship with God are alive; they have a living hope of better things to come, those who don’t have that relationship are as good as dead, because they have nothing to live for.

Remember that Jesus told the people listening that He had come to lead people to Father God and that He was (and still is) the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

Earlier in John’s gospel we read that Jesus said that He was One sent so that people might have life; life in abundance (John 10:10).

If we have that life that Jesus gives, then we certainly have more hope than many of our contacts, family, friends or neighbours.

Action

As you go through your day today, take note of the faces of the people you see. Do they look hopeful or hopeless? Happy or sad? Ask the Lord to give you a word of encouragement for some of them. You will find yourself encouraged as you speak His word to others.

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