Hope That Waits: Faith in Unsettled Times

The world feels unsettled. Political unrest fills the air with tension. Natural disasters arrive with little warning. Acts of violence erupt in public spaces once considered safe. Families feel strained, and many parents grieve the distance growing between generations. For many, the question is no longer whether the world is changing, but how much more it can endure. 

These realities press heavily on our hearts. Faith does not require us to ignore them. Scripture never asks God’s people to deny the darkness, only to remember who remains sovereign within it. 

Jesus Himself warned that the last days would be marked by fear, division and broken relationships. He spoke of violence, deception and hearts growing weary. These words were not meant to terrify His followers, but to steady them. Christ wanted His people to understand that even when the world feels unstable, God’s purposes remain secure. 

It’s moments like these when the identity of God’s people becomes clear. We’re still a people of hope. 

Habakkuk once cried out in a time of violence and injustice, wondering how long God would remain silent. God’s response wasn’t an immediate rescue, but a promise: “For the vision is yet for an appointed time … though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry,” Habakkuk 2:3 (KJV). 

This has always been the posture of God’s faithful people, living between promise and fulfillment, trusting that delay does not mean abandonment. 

For Seventh-day Adventists, hope is not tied to political systems or human solutions. It is anchored in the certainty that God is faithful and that history is moving toward restoration. This hope shapes how we live, how we love and how we endure. 

Nowhere is this more visible than in the gift of the Sabbath. Each week, as the world continues to rush and react, God invites His people to stop. Sabbath becomes a quiet act of resistance against fear and despair. When we rest, worship and gather with family and community, we testify that the world does not rest on our strength, but on God’s faithfulness. 

Sabbath reminds us that the same God who created the world will one day renew it. In a restless and anxious age, Sabbath stands as a sign that the promised future is still coming, though it tarries. 

Our hope is further grounded in the promise of Christ’s return. This promise does not lead us to withdraw from the world, but to live faithfully within it. We do not ignore the signs of the times, but neither are we paralyzed by them. 

These are heavy days, but they are not hopeless ones. God has not lost control of history, and He has not forgotten His people. 

So we keep the Sabbath. We wait with faith. And we hold fast to the promise. Even now, especially now, we are still a people of hope.

By Antonio Cano

Executive Secretary