Back out on the Make Your Move tour and the band have changed the set each night of the first four shows. Making a welcome return to the list is the song ‘My Hope Is You’ which has a special place in my heart! I first met Third Day way back in September 1998 when they were opening up for Newsboys and I was a speaker on the ‘Step Up To The Microphone’ tour. My first ever tour of the USA, first time speaking, and in front of large crowds-all quite daunting for a man from Cardiff, Wales. Not only did all the guys in Third Day make me very welcome, their music helped me prepare each night to walk on stage and encourage the audience to enrol for Teen Mania mission trips. Amongst all the Third Day songs I listened to, there were two that have become lifelong favourites- ‘Consuming Fire’ and ‘My Hope Is You’. ‘Consuming Fire’ influenced me so much that the ministry I helped birth in the UK is called Ignite, and I went on the write my Master’s Degree Dissertation on ‘The Fire of God in the Bible’. ‘My Hope Is You’ hasn’t brought about such obvious fruit in my life, but has been massively significant as I travel and minister throughout the world. My US cell phone has the words ‘My Hope Is You’ as the screensaver, reminding me what my life, my future, my hope is built on. Psalm 25, which Mac based the words of the song on, has often been a go-to Psalm for me:
To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse. Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Psalm 25.4-5
I am glad these words are sung over our audiences each night. Hope is such a precious commodity in this post-modern world of ours, where most people don't believe we have any purpose or meaning, that we are here by accident, that life has no direction, that there is no BIG picture that we are part of, and nothing to look forward to in the future with any anticipation. As believers we need to be hope livers, hope carriers, hope givers, and hope beacons....and our hope comes from Christ.
Someone once defined Faith like this: what we Hope for is actually waiting for us...even though we may not have seen it yet. So if our hope is in Christ, we can faithfully wait for the certainty of one day meeting him face to face in eternity.