What is the difference between the hope of a Christian and wishful thinking? How has your hope in Christ aided you this week? (Serendipity Bible Fourth Edition, page 1576).
Wishful thinking is characterized by ineffectiveness primarily due to its lack of practical acknowledgment of facts. On the other hand, in the nurture of life the steadfast love of God has overwhelmingly positive and demonstrable benefits. Wishful thinking lays a shallow veneer over unpleasant reality and is a form of escapism while faith engages even the most painful facts with redemptive love. The Christian faith holds that with considerable cost and sacrifice the cruelty and pain of the world can be assuaged. Wishful thinking seeks to escape all cost and labor--it wants a painless wonderland rather than a harvest field wet from sweat, toil, and tears.
Now it is a tautology that no one knows how human history will end. Will hatred, death, and destruction win the day? The Christian culture on the profoundest level asserts that it will not! This remarkable faith is reinforced individually and communally as reliable and true in daily Christian service--the faith is constantly tested--the results are already in.
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