Without hope and without God

There have been examples recently in the news that should remind us of how relevant and important the Christian message is for our society today. Firstly, there was a programme on television about the fact that the biggest cause of death among young men aged 18-45 is suicide. That’s a shocking piece of news that should stir us to prayer. Other news revealed that a quarter of young women have self-harmed because of the pressures they feel that come from social media and the insecurities they feel on questions about body image or facing online bullying. That should cause us similar grief and lead us to compassionate concern and action.

Think what these statistics mean. We live in one of the richest countries in the world. We have the best education and health care. Life is generally safe: our roads are among the safest in the world; workplace accidents are minimised because health and safety policies are usually strictly enforced; and modern medicine protects us against the killer diseases that used to sweep away many when they were young. There is little to threaten us directly today, so why is it that people are so disturbed?

One broad answer that can be given is that people are attempting to live without God in their world, and that means that they do not have hope. Jim Packer once wrote about this and he said that the situation in the West is that people have pushed God out of the way and arrogantly claimed that they can manage without him. His response has been to stand back and say, “Go ahead then. See how you get on.” And the sadness we see at the moment in our young people is the result.

We are not designed to manage without God. On the contrary, we are created to know God, serve him, love him and be loved by him. Push him away and we are denying the very heart of our being. When Jesus was tested in the desert he responded to one of the devil’s temptations by saying, “Man shall not live on bread alone , but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” If we live without reference to God and his word, we are effectively starving ourselves.

So it is tragically not surprising that our young men and women are fainting under the pressure they feel. They have no ultimate hope to sustain them, so we should be grieved and moved for them. Compassion and love should stir us to action for them, not least of which will be that we pray for them, that they come to know the hope that there is in Jesus. Paul, when writing to believers in Ephesus, says that they once lived “without hope and without God in the world”. But they came to know Jesus and discovered him to be their peace. He took them, though they were far from God, and brought them near. He welcomed them into his presence and gave them a new identity as members of his household. Surely there is security and well-being in those gifts that our hurting younger generations are longing for.

The outworking of this for those of us who are Christians is that we must be outward-focused and reaching out to those around us. We need a combination of caring for those who are hurting, inviting people to join us, and going out to find those who are lost. Why not make a short list for the autumn of those you know who are outside of the kingdom, who need to know the hope that there is in Jesus. You might be the only person in their friendship circle who will do this for them. Then pray that you might be able to sit alongside them in their need, speak about Jesus to them in their darkness, and be the instrument in God’s hands to bring them near so that they find their true and everlasting hope in him.

(First published in Salway Evangelical Church blog)