Why do we hope? That is a question that I would like to know the answer to. Of all the things that God has blessed us with why did He see fit to allow us to hope? My hopes are at the root of many of my fears, hurts, and pains. I don't lie awake at night knowing something will happen - I lie awake hoping that it doesn't, or hoping that it will. My hopes run me ragged. My hopes tie me down. I seldom feel that liberating freedom that comes with hope in all of those movies I watch. Whatever a hope that becomes realized is supposed to bring me is minimal in relation to all the unfulfilled hopes I still have, or the higher hope I now have in light of hope that has become real. Hope. That word is not positive. That word, the very concept of hope, brings fear and trepidation with it. When I feel hope looming on the horizon and the lure is so strong that I begin to run towards it I know that it hangs at the edge of a cliff. I run, head-long, after it and just when I'm about to grab hold of it I completely understand how Wile E. Coyote felt every time he tried to catch the Road Runner. I look down at my feet and find that the ground beneath my them has disappeared. Soon I am resolved to nothing more than that tiny poof of dust at the canyon floor. Yup, I know all about hope.
I think God did understand that this would happen to me. In the Old Testament of the Bible the writer of Proverbs had this to say:
Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. - Proverbs 13:12 NIV
So, if that is the way hope works then what's the point. My life has taught me so far that hopes will be deferred more than they will be fulfilled. I'm gonna see more things I put my hope in not happen than happen. I feel tempted to do more that scream and pull my hair out. What is the point! To put it mildly: This sucks!
God knows all of this. He has pointed the way. Read these following scripture passages and come up with the answer for yourself:
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul;
in you I trust, O my God.
Do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.
No one whose hope is in you
will ever be put to shame,
but they will be put to shame
who are treacherous without excuse.
May integrity and uprightness protect me,
because my hope is in you. - Psalm 25:1-3,21 NIV
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint. - Isaiah 40:28-31 NIV
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. - Romans 5:1-5 NIV
Hope. If I hope for something I care about it. If I didn't care about it why would it bother my thoughts and emotions. Fear. If I fear something there is a certain amount of care there, too. My hopes and my fears can cause me anxiety if I place them in things that are uncertain, or worldly. Peter urges us with these words:
Cast all you anxiety on him because he cared for you. - 1 Peter 5:7 NIV
We must give God all that we care about - our hope and our fears. If Christ is our life then those things are His. We must place our hope in God. When we do that we can rest in peace knowing that He loves us and will never harm us.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. - Romans 8:28 NIV
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint. - Isaiah 40:28-31 NIV
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. - Romans 5:1-5 NIV
Hope. If I hope for something I care about it. If I didn't care about it why would it bother my thoughts and emotions. Fear. If I fear something there is a certain amount of care there, too. My hopes and my fears can cause me anxiety if I place them in things that are uncertain, or worldly. Peter urges us with these words:
Cast all you anxiety on him because he cared for you. - 1 Peter 5:7 NIV
We must give God all that we care about - our hope and our fears. If Christ is our life then those things are His. We must place our hope in God. When we do that we can rest in peace knowing that He loves us and will never harm us.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. - Romans 8:28 NIV
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. - Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
We can hope in a God who loves us beyond our understanding. We must trust and be patient. It is not God who is messing around with us - it is the fact that we have placed our trust, our hope, in things of this world. The things of this place are no good. They cannot make us truly happy or satisfy. My timing is hardly ever perfect - except from my perspective: I want what I want when I want it. When we place our hope in the the proper place our focus becomes renewed. Our hopes and desires change - something we fear happening - but once there we realize that it is all for the best. For those of us who are broken and hurting. For those of us who have hoped and now hope that we never hope again think on this:
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD : "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
Then the word of the LORD came to me: "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. - Jeremiah 18:1-6 NIV
