Hope is an indispensable value in life that we all need, but too often we fail to acquire it nor to strengthen the hope we have. Hope is the force that propels us to overcome obstacles in life and enables us to accomplish unimaginable things like discovering a medicine like penicillin that cures a multitude of sickness, or maybe building something that changes our life like cell phones. It use to be that those who had hope in God’s loving kindness were among the leading scientists who discovered cures and medicine that changed our lives for the better. Today greed and money seem to be the drivers for discovery, and there is often a big price tag for those of us on the receiving end.
Hope is the rocket fuel that makes the difference between failure and success. It is the substance that can generate unimaginable strength in a person, like king David had when he faced the giant called Goliath, or Elijah when he faced the widow who just lost her only son and he raised him from the dead. Hope makes the difference every time we are tempted to give up when faced with something hard or seemingly impossible.
David said many times in the Psalms that our hearts receive courage when hope is available, especially when that hope comes from God. My suspicion is that we often put our hope in fantasy rather than in God himself. When we do the first we tend to fail miserably, but when we place our hope in God and his character of being trustworthy and loving, we overcome.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Psalms 31:24
Be strong and let your heart take courage, All you who hope in the LORD.
David goes on in the psalms with the illustration of a solider putting their hope in a horse in battle. The horse can, and does, provide added strength in battle but it in no way should fool us into believing we are secure to win. David, as a great military leader, knew the advantages of having a horse but he says don’t put your hope is such a thing more than you put your hope in God.
Psalms 33:17
A horse is a false hope for victory; nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength.
Hope is that rare commodity that has no true substance in the natural, but is real and powerful. Hope provides us with the ability to see beyond what is before our eyes and becomes a bridge to the possible. But David also says there is a catch to having God as our source of hope: that is the “Fear of the Lord,” something few believers understand in our modern times. It seems most people have lost a biblical key to finding hope in their time of need and that is a very dangerous place to find oneself.
Psalms 33:18
Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His lovingkindness,
The problem with today’s theology is that we are being trained “NOT” to fear God, but rather to think of him solely as our friend and companion. I fear for most of us we are uneducated so much that to think of fearing God seems to go against the grain of our souls. We often reject such a notion of fearing God because it seems negative, but David and others looked at the fear of the Lord as the key to their success.
Paul, in his writing to the Romans about Abraham, said that Abraham “Hoped Against Hope,” meaning he knew that trusting God was a long shot, but that’s where he made his stand in faith. Even though in the natural he was past the point in his body of getting his wife pregnant he believed more in God’s ability than his own.
Romans 4:18
In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, SO SHALL YOUR DESCENDANTS BE.
Here is a problem many of us get trapped in when it comes to the idea and substance of hoping in God: Do we hope in God’s “HAND” or hope in God’s “CHARACTER?” Hoping in God’s hand is about God’s willingness and ability to do what we think is good and fair. Hoping in his character is about putting our trust, like Job did when everything was taken from him and he didn’t know why. When we hope in God’s provision what happens if that provision never materializes? Do we blame God or are we angry with God? When we put our hope in God’s character we are trusting the person of God and his character to act with wisdom and integrity in either providing or withholding things as he sees best. Will we be disappointed when he doesn’t provide? Absolutely. But, our hope is still intact because we trust in the most reliable person in the universe.
Romans 5:5
And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Paul says we are saved by God because God is trustworthy. We believe and trust what God has said in his Word because we have discovered his Word is trustworthy, unlike humanity. Scripture says God does not lie so we trust that as fact when calling upon the name of the Lord.
Romans 8:24-25
For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
Look at what Paul says about being adequate in our ability to find hope in our time of need. He says God is the source of our trust not our abilities or brain power. It is the person of God that we trust and so hope becomes available to us even in tough spots in life of storms we encounter.
2 Corinthians 3:5
Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.
Finally, Paul says that we are able to have great boldness because our confidence is not in ourselves as much as it is in God. Granted we have to apply ourselves to trust God, but it is God’s reputation that pulls us over the finish line of finding hope for endurance and success.
2 Corinthians 3:12
Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech.
Paul says that he prayed for the body of Christ to have “Enlightenment” about our hope of his calling. Why? Because unless we become enlightened we will never trust God enough to cross the finish line in acquiring the hope we need. You and I need the help of the Holy Spirit to grow in our awareness of God’s character so that we arrive at a strong confidence in God. It doesn’t happen over night, but with diligence in reading God’s word and listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit we will grow up in our faith as we should, which means hope becomes more real day by day.
Ephesians 1:18
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
Questions:
1) When was the last time you asked God for hope? Remember we have not because we ask not (James 4:2)
2) Have you realized that the fear of the Lord is linked to the character of God for acquiring hope? There are over 1,500 verses about the fear of the Lord because they lead us to wisdom (Ps 111:10)
May God help us to acquire the hope we need today,
Pastor Dale
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