For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."
Psalms 16:9-11
I like the idea that we can rest in hope. :) It's also interesting that it says that God won't "leave" our souls in hell... perhaps meaning that we are going to suffer, but that the suffering has an ending, which I think we all already know, but the reassurance that that's the way it is *supposed* to be is comforting, rather than saying that good people will never suffer. If we know that bad things will come, but that in time things will get better... that is a huge reason to hope.
Also, of course, we can hope and rejoice in the fact that God is going to show us the path of life, and that joy and happiness are to be found in his presence.
Maybe some of the reason that we lose hope in the first place is that we somewhere in the back of our minds think that bad things happening to us is a punishment for our mistakes... and although we and the rest of the universe have to deal with the natural consequences of our actions, I think that not only does God work to ameliorate those consequences, I think that he withholds any punishment or judgement until after this life, giving us during our entire lives the chance to repent and change... as well as making a clear difference between mistakes and sins. To earn punishment in God's plan means not only that we have to be intentional in choosing something bad / causing harm, but also that we remain the people who would continue to make that choice. If we change who we are, and become people who would no longer make those bad choices--that's repentance.
Today, let's work on being better people who make better choices, knowing that God won't leave our souls in torment, and let's be glad and rest in the hope of Christ.
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