Chapter Chat: Faith creates hope in an uncertain world, says Royal Black ​Imperial Grand Chaplain Rev John Noble

Yet, what will 2024 bring? Will life have changed much for us before it is over? That is something which none of us know!

However, we do know one thing. We know that we live in the aftermath and consequence of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection over 2,000 years ago.

For centuries before the Saviour was born, people looked forward to His coming. Since then, the world has looked back to that night in Bethlehem when ‘The Word became flesh’.

Thus, the certainty we have amid all uncertainty is that, through faith, whatever comes, we have Christ and in Christ, there is always hope.

Many who ignored the Christ of Christmas will, most likely, continue to ignore Him in 2024 and, thus, many will carry a sense of hopelessness and helplessness, both of which are represented in the increasingly downward spiral towards Hell and destruction.

Yet, despite how the world ignores Jesus, God has not left us without hope.

The words of Romans 5 – “Whatever comes, we have Christ” – were written just 50-60 years after Christ’s birth, but they remain words of great hope today.

In an era when there are many concerns across this world, these are great words of encouragement which teach “since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ … and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God”.

Setting aside the usual temporary nature of new year resolutions, here is a much more positive outlook for these early weeks into 2024. That no matter what comes, irrespective of how weak we are in keeping our resolve, we have Christ – and that is enough.

The positive message we need to embrace for a confident future with all its uncertainty is that, in Christ, “we have been justified through faith”.

This is appropriate not only for the first month of a new year, but at any time. It is about confidence in the Lord and His ability to direct our ways. It is about trusting in Him and holding fast to Him so that we can look to the future with positivity and confidence.

A new year, of course, is often regarded as an opportunity to put the mistakes of the past behind and start afresh. Yet hopes of a brighter tomorrow can quickly turn to more of the same from yesterday and a new era becomes nothing more than a false dawn!

Yet in Christ, a person can be confident with a hope not in the things of the world but in the love and mercy of God.

Paul writes that “hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us”.

The only certainty we need to face the uncertain is a faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. But how can we be sure of even that? The eighth verse of Romans 5 declares, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.

This clearly tells us that God sent His Son into this world to take the punishment of His people’s sin upon Himself.

In Him alone we find the joy of soul salvation and every person who seeks hope for all their tomorrows must turn to Jesus.

In Psalm 39 v7 the Psalmist writes, “And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You”.

Whatever comes to us this year, we need Christ as our hope. It is better to know Him now than having to search for Him when uncertainty becomes a reality.