Before I came to Christ, as well as after I gave my heart to the Lord, I needed hope to survive. For you see, without hope life can be extremely difficult to navigate. Hope allows us to live securely in the present and anticipate a bright future. The question before us is how secure is the hope you are relying on. I contend that if your hope is in anything but Jesus Christ, it will one day disappoint you, and in the end leave you hopeless.
Some of the most common things we put our hope in are money, health, people, and religion. All of these things we hope will provide us with present security and hope for a bright future. Let’s take a brief look at each of these things and why they are not the anchor we should fasten our hopes to.
Money
Many people think that if they only have a large bank account they can feel secure in life. Money, however, as the expression goes can’t buy happiness. This is very true since a happy life depends largely on positive circumstances. Unfortunately we often don’t have control of our circumstances and when they turn bad, not only does happiness disappear but so can our money. Unforeseen medical bills, bad investments, and a host of other issues in life can sap you of your finances and strip away what once seemed a promising hope for security.
Health
Many people believe that good health can secure them a happy life. The only problem is that good health, even if you eat right, exercise, and think positive, is not a guarantee. Sickness can strike at any age, accidents can in a moment destroy your once healthy body, and death will ultimately end all hope of good health.
People
Placing our hope in people, hoping that they will always be there for us is risky business. People, even our loved ones, break promises, can betray us, and even break our hearts. Divorce can shatter all hope for living a happy and joyous life. Our children can turn out to be slaves to drugs. And the premature death of a loved one can leave us with a feeling of hopelessness. So, people should not be where we ultimately place our hope in.
Religion
On the surface a belief in religion and God would seem to offer us hope in the present as well as the future. However, since religion is man-made and not based on the one true God – Jesus Christ – religion can only deliver false hope. Man can’t really find hope in a made up god who can only provide one with a false assurance of hope now and for an afterlife when one dies. Religion, in fact, is a false placebo that many sadly, have used to try and provide a lasting hope. But hope in a man-made god is truly hopeless.
Too often we place our hope in people, material things, and false gods that can’t deliver what they claim they can provide – hope! Instead they deliver possible hope which is really no hope at all. Only Christianity and Jesus Christ can give us the blessed hope that our hearts yearn for. Christianity is based on absolute truth and a rock-solid hope. And only this type of hope can help us with our day-to-day struggles and with the certainty of the greatest hope of all – eternal life!
I like how Pastor Rick Warren described what real hope looks like when he said: “Our hope is not in the man we put in the White House but in the Man we put on the Cross.”1 Real hope, my friends, can only be found in Jesus Christ because not only did He go to the cross, but He rose from the dead, thus validating His Deity and providing us with the absolute certainty of hope now and forever!
1 Rick Warren Quote: “Our hope is not in the man we put in the White House but in the Man we put on the Cross.”
This devotion asks the important question, “Where Is Your Hope?”
If we are to properly answer this question, we must turn to the only place that provides an infallible answer, the Word of God.
Hebrews 6 tells us:
“hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf”
Where is our hope?, it’s “behind the curtain.” It’s where Jesus is in the Holy of Holies, our forerunner into heaven. This truth is our hope, an anchor for our soul, which is sure and steadfast. We could also ask, “Who is our hope?”
BEHIND THE CURTAIN, NOT BEHIND THE NUMBERS…
from the Tuesday night Auditor’s Desk.
Curt’s question lands like a clean punch: “Where is your hope?” because whatever you’re leaning on today is what will be holding you up when tomorrow gets ugly.
He’s right to press the issue, and he’s right to name the usual suspects: money, health, people, and “religion” as a man-made substitute for the living Christ.
Dave’s reply sharpens it the way a good apologist should: Scripture doesn’t just ask where our hope is, it locates it. Hebrews 6 puts our hope “behind the curtain,” where Jesus has gone ahead as our forerunner and High Priest, making hope an anchor, not a mood. And Dave’s add-on question is the dagger of clarity: “Who is our hope?”
Curt names the false anchors. Dave names the true anchor’s address. The Bible names the anchor’s Person.
FALSE ANCHORS ARE EXPENSIVE, LOUD, AND TEMPORARY…
Money can pad your lifestyle, but it cannot pad your soul. Jesus’ warning about storing up treasure without being “rich toward God” is not subtle (Luke 12:15–21).
Paul adds that wealth is unstable by nature, and the rich are commanded not to set hope on it (1 Tim. 6:17). Your portfolio can rise, fall, freeze, or evaporate, and none of that changes the one fact it cannot purchase: resurrection.
Health is a gift, not a god. James reminds us we don’t own tomorrow (James 4:13–15). Even the healthiest body eventually hits the wall called mortality (Heb. 9:27). If your hope is built on “I’m doing great,” it collapses the first time your lab results disagree.
People are precious, but they are not weight-bearing beams. Scripture is blunt. Don’t put ultimate trust in princes, or in man, who cannot save (Ps. 146:3–4). People can fail, leave, die, betray, or simply run out of strength. Love them, serve them, forgive them, but don’t worship them with your hope.
“Religion” without Christ is spiritual cardboard. Jesus Himself warned that religious noise can exist without a saving relationship (Matt. 7:21–23). The gospel isn’t “try harder.” It’s “Christ has done it” (John 19:30.) There is no other Name that saves (Acts 4:12).
TRUE HOPE HAS A LOCATION AND A NAME…
Dave is bullseye right to anchor hope “behind the curtain” (Heb. 6:19–20). That isn’t poetry, it’s theology with steel in it. In the Old Covenant, the curtain guarded the Holy of Holies.
In the New Covenant, Christ enters the true sanctuary as our High Priest.
So Christian hope is not wishful thinking, not optimism, not denial with a Bible verse taped to it.
It is tethered to a living, reigning Jesus.
“Where is our hope?” Behind the curtain, where Christ is.
“Who is our hope?” Christ Himself. Scripture says it plainly: “Christ Jesus our hope” (1 Tim. 1:1), and “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). Peter calls it a “living hope” grounded in the resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3). Dead heroes don’t anchor souls. The risen Christ does.
Curt quoted it well: “Our hope is not in the man we put in the White House but in the Man we put on the Cross.” That’s the point. Politics matter, health matters, work matters, but none of them died for you, none of them rose for you, and none of them is seated at the right hand of the Father interceding for you (Rom. 8:34).
GRACE IS THE ENGINE THAT TURNS HOPE FROM THEORY INTO SURVIVAL. This is where “hope” stops being a devotional word and becomes the thing you breathe with at 2:00 a.m.
When pain doesn’t leave, God’s answer is often not removal, but sufficiency. “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9–10). That’s not a consolation prize. That’s the operating system of Christian endurance.
Romans 5 explains the chain reaction. Suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance produces character. Character produces hope. Hope does not disappoint because God has poured His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:3–5).
Hope isn’t fragile. It’s forged. It’s what grace manufactures in the furnace, not what comfort hands you in a gift bag.
It all rests on this: salvation is not earned, it’s received. “By grace you have been saved through faith… not a result of works” (Eph. 2:8–9). When grace is the foundation, hope isn’t something you hype up. Hope is something you stand on.
Curt is right: hope placed anywhere but Jesus will eventually cash out as disappointment.
Dave is right: Scripture locates hope behind the curtain where Jesus has gone ahead.
Put them together and you get the full, steady answer: our hope is not a thing, not a feeling, not a system. Our hope is a living Savior, reigning now, and already there on our behalf (Heb. 6:19–20).
If your hope can be audited, insured, medicated, voted in, or taken away, it was never an anchor. It was a rental. The only hope that doesn’t get repossessed is the One nailed to the Cross and seated behind the curtain.
Many thanks, gentlemen.