Transforming Hope in Difficult Times

Our vision at St John’s is to see our city transformed by the hope of the risen Christ. I trust that, like me, you are consistently looking for evidence that God is doing this transformative work among us and rejoicing each time you see it. It’s easy to sometimes become jaded about this or lose our sense of expectation.

We might also forget to look for transformation in some circumstances. Where and how is God at work in the difficult times? Can we look for transformation there or are we really simply trying to get through things, waiting for other seasons when God will return to this work?

But it is quite often in those moments when God is most evidently at work and we should not be surprised that this is the case. God’s very best work, after all, happened in what we might consider the very worst of moments - the murder of the Son of God. It is impossible to think of a more evil despicable act or a more tragic event. And yet this is the day that we call Good Friday! It is also the foundation of God’s most wonderful transformative work - the Resurrection of Jesus and the new life that he brings with him to all who will trust in him.

God’s best transforming work is cross-shaped. And the cross of death brings with it what Paul calls in 2Timothy “the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus”. So we need never feel that all has gone wrong when cross-shaped death-tainted moments come - they are so often the moments that God uses most powerfully.

Elsewhere Paul reminds the Corinthians that this same truth lies at the heart of gospel ministry for all of us:

For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

- 2 Corinthians 4:11-12

Next time it feels that our lives are being “given over to death” as we seek to live for Jesus and his gospel, recognise the moment for what it truly is: a cross-shaped moment that God uses to bring life and then look for those shoots of life as the gospel beautifully works amongst us.

It’s the transforming hope that renews our confidence. Even in difficult times.

David Ould
Senior Associate Minister

Pray for Cross-Shaped Hope

Give thanks for the transforming hope of the risen Christ, and for the cross-shaped way God brings life even through suffering, weakness and death-tainted moments. Ask God for confidence, faith and expectation to see his work among us, even in difficult seasons when life feels hard or discouraging. Ask God to renew our trust in the gospel, to help us recognise the shoots of life he brings through cross-shaped moments, and to keep transforming our city by the hope of the risen Christ.