Let Christmas Renew Your Hope

Christmas is a time of great joy for millions of us, a time when we gather with family and friends to celebrate the birth of Christ – to renew our relationships.

But we also know that Christmas can be a time of pain for many who face persecution and are imprisoned. For those Christians, like American Pastor Saeed Abedini or Pakistan’s Asia Bibi, who face prison and even death for their faith, Christmas is another day they spend in chains. For their families, Christmas is another day of fear and worry.

It can be all too easy to lose our sense of joy.

But we can never lose our hope.

We are commemorating the birth of our Savior, and the fulfillment of the promise that all things will be made right, that the people of God will be united with Him forever.

It is this hope that empowers us at ACLJ, that gives us the will to confront even seemingly insurmountable odds, to continue fighting when the fight is unpopular or the world assures us that we’ll lose.

Grace will triumph over judgment. The lion will lay down with the lamb. Swords will be beaten into plowshares. This is the reality that gives us hope.

May Christmas renew your hope. And may God bless his persecuted people.