Hope is our fuel for life.
It drives our actions.
Hope gives us the desire to keep going or strive harder in our pursuits. On days that are filled with hope, we accomplish great things, but days with no hope are days spent looking for a reason to keep going.
The world defines hope as “cherishing a desire with anticipation, or wanting something to be true”. We hope in things like an unfaithful spouse returning, children practicing obedience and respect, an illness being cured, getting a job promotion, or marrying someday. We so often put our hope in vain optimism, that we will get what we want or have our difficulties disappear. But, the suffering we go through is real; life is hard and there are difficulties. We all face them in some form. So, how are you preparing to face these trials? Are you just hopeful that there won’t be any or that you can manufacture your way around them? Are you hoping the world will fix any problems that come your way?
Biblical hope, on the other hand, is a confident expectation based on God’s character and promises, not our desires. Biblical hope is a living hope! This is where we lay our foundation as believers for the hard times in our life.
“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction,
that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Romans 15:4
Just as an unfaithful or unbiblical hope is wrong, so is a lack of biblical hope in the Christian’s life. According to Romans 15, it is God’s desire for his people to be full of hope. Hope that is grounded in truth from the scriptures.
I have found that hopelessness, depression, and despair can be difficult to get out of because they become a cycle of sin. One step of wrong belief leads to a wrong action, which leads to wrong thinking and wrong feelings. It is a slippery slope. It must be stopped immediately upon first thought or else it will continue on and on.
But there is hope! For hopefulness can be a cycle as well. This biblical cycle brings joy and purpose to our life. Romans 5:3-5 says:
“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings,
knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character,
and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame,
because God‘s love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
In these verses we see a cycle of hope. God’s word is a wonderful source of hope for His children when they purpose to obey what He has put forth! This cycle of hope is important to remember when our natural flesh or our feelings make us feel hopeless. Losing hope can happen during a hard time, or maybe a really great, or happy, time-like after having a baby or being freed from a sin that has held you captive for many years.
God gives a living hope that will not disappoint. Have you ever seen a woman with hope in a time that she shouldn’t have? How beautiful it is to see her smile and work and speak with a light that others cannot explain, because it’s not natural to feel that way. It is natural to be upset during a situation that is upsetting. But someone with hope decides by faith to be skeptical of their feelings about the situation and trust God instead to produce the fruit. Usually, this is not an overnight change, so don’t be discouraged with the time it takes. God is not working according to your timetable. Rejoice in the work that God is doing in your life.
When we are in a hopeless situation, or when we encounter hopeless feelings for some reason, obey God and walk by faith. There is great hope that God is glorified in our obedience because we are denying our natural feelings of hopelessness and trusting God to do what He has said. John Piper says, “Everything starts with God. If there is hope for joy that is deep and eternal it will be hope founded on God.”
We must believe that there is no greater cure for vain hope or a lack of hope than to realize the power and love of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. This is our living hope. Praise God!
Love,
Ashley
