A few years back I read the book Tiger Force which tells the horrible tell of a Vietnam special forces platoon that because of poor leadership, little supervision, and hatred committed numerous war crimes on innocent villagers.  They did horrible acts like killing innocent civilians, murdering babies, and raping women.  This quote from the book has stuck with me and been useful as an illustration in my preaching.  After eight years of research the investigating officer summarized why these things happened by stating:

“This was a part of the deeper and larger struggle between good and evil.  It wasn’t so much a fight for power as a battle over whether platoon solders and commanders would succumb to their own dark instincts. . . What they never confessed was that somewhere between their ambushes, booby-traps, and humping in the glaring sun they lost hope.  Somewhere in the blackness of the night they lost faith, and in the end there was nothing to separate them from the devil!” (ch. 23). 

Wow!

How true this statement is for all humans.

Without hope and faith, we lose our goodness and desire for righteousness.  Humans turn into selfish, hateful, jealous, vengeful, blood-thirsty, despicable people who do unbelievable horrors!  Faith and hope make the difference.  Without them we are turned over to sin and sin is its own punishment (Rom. 1:18-32).

Remember:  Hope and faith in God make the difference.  Whatever you are going through, don’t lose hope!  When you do you have lost it all and there is nothing to separate you from the devil (Eph. 2:12-13).