What’s Your Hope? How Jesus is Better than Winning the Powerball
DEVOTION • “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Rom 15:13).
Read time: 3 min
On New Year's Day 2024, a Michigan man's life changed dramatically when he won the $842.4 million Powerball jackpot. For many, the lottery symbolizes much more than a fun and addictive habit. It represents misplaced hope.
Misplaced Hope Powers the Powerball
It’s little wonder that stores selling lottery tickets are disproportionately located in poor communities and that the most habitual lottery players are typically poor [1]. The lowest socio-economic groups have the highest rate of playing the game, and tickets are mostly bought in poor neighborhoods. Those making less than $10,000 annually, for instance, on average spend $597 on lottery tickets—about 6% of their annual income [2].
But why, then, do the wealthy play the lottery as well? We humans are simultaneously hopeful yet hopeless creatures navigating life in constant search of better days. From the transient happiness offered by the hope of a hot coffee, the hope of the holidays with family and friends, or the hope of enjoying a football game, we’re constantly in search for something to look forward to. And yet many go through life never knowing the singular transcendent Hope that defines the Christian’s existence, gives meaning to lesser hopes, and turns the world from black and white into color.
A Better Hope that’s Sure, Satisfying and Eternal
Romans 15:13 assures us there is a hope far greater than the fleeting promises of temporary ‘wins.’ While the odds of success in the recent Powerball were a staggering 1 in nearly 300 million, the Apostle Paul wrote of a profound hope that is anyone’s by faith in Jesus. In fact, soul-satisfying peace and joy accompany this inestimably valuable anticipation of future glory that flows from God’s indwelling Holy Spirit into our hope-hungry souls.
The hope of eternal life through Jesus doesn't involve improbable odds either. This hope is a 100% certainty!
So I ask, is hope in Jesus the operative expectation undergirding and directing all your lesser hopes today? Let’s invest, by faith in God’s promises, in that which truly satisfies our constant ache for better days (Is 55:1–3).
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Heavenly Father, stir within me the certain, eternal, and deeply satisfying hope of glory found only in Jesus, with the peace and joy that he alone can give. Amen. ❖
