July 18 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Devotional

We have been made to live—not to die. Although nothing is more common to the present life than death and dying, death is unnatural.

All that has breath hates death. People and animals fight for life, even at the portals of death. Death is accepted only by unhealthy people—by some philosophers who have rationalized the irrational or by ordinary people who are too sick and tired to go on.

When the creation is true to character, it wants to live. No creature submits willingly to corruption and death. And since we cannot deny our origin, we continue to hope. We know that all is subject to frustration, but we bang our heads against the bars in hope.

We keep hoping, amidst the tombstones, that somehow a new world may come, that somebody may someday invent something. Creation hopes for what it knows not. And thereby it testifies to the fact that it is the unwilling prisoner of decay.

Christians share this hope and understand this hope. The yearning for life and the groaning in prison are intensified in us because we, of all people, know about the new life and the new world. We have the beginning of the new world now. The firstfruit of the new country is in our hearts. It is the Holy Spirit. Already the first grapes of the promised land are tasted by the pilgrims. The first flowers of paradise are in the church of Jesus Christ.

When Christians hear the groaning of creation in this prison of decay, and when they hear on every side the song of hope God has laid in all his handiwork, they are confirmed in their faith that the new world is coming. We are now able to explain to our fellow sufferers why there is pain and why they keep hoping. And we are the vanguard of all who hope and pray and work for a better country.

Christians are the guides to that country. By God's grace they know where the renewal comes from, where it begins, and how it will be completed.

REFLECTIONS

Reflect again on what gives you undying hope in a world that's subjected to frustration and futility. How would you explain your hope to an unbeliever?

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published by Paideia Press in 1977. This updated edition is copyright 2009 by Faith Alive Christian Resources. You can order a copy of this revised version of the book directly from the publisher.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this updated edition of Daylight are from the Holy Bible: Today's New International Version copyright 2001, 2005 by the International Bible Society.