"Hope is the patient and trustful willingness to live without closure, without resolution, and still be content and even happy because our satisfaction is now at another level, and our source is beyond ourselves."
Hope. It's a powerful thing. It's powerful because it comes from an unfathomably powerful source. Hope is how the omnipotent God chooses to reveal and involve His extraordinary self in the most ordinary, every day affairs of humanity. Why? Because it's who God is and it is His gift to us. Back in the garden of Eden, hope wasn't necessary. Adam and Eve did not have to wish for anything else because walking with God was beyond satisfying. Sin had not deceived them. The goodness of God and His perfection was so undeniably visible at all times; it was enough. Hope of something better was never something that had to be searched for or prayed for because there were no doubts or disbelief in the beginning. Adam and Eve walked with God, they conversed with Him freely. There were no communication barriers. They talked with Him directly and therefore knew His will and plan undoubtedly. There was no sin to disguise God's voice; no sin to distort the relationship between the Creator and His creation. All was perfect. Then came a distraction. (the serpent) Obviously when the serpent introduced a fabricated idea that offered Adam and Eve something better than the best thing they had ever known, they pridefully decided to go against all God had showed and taught them in order to acquire more knowledge and vision than was afforded to them. Upon trusting in someone or something other than God, they were deceived into thinking that God was withholding the best from them. They began to have a skewed perspective of God's character due to this temptation. What they bought into was a lie, a lie that would forever have implications for the rest of humanity on the dynamics of walking closely with God. Despite what transcribed in the garden, we repeatedly make the same mistake. Pride. Thinking we can do it own our own. Seeing ourselves as above or more important than God. Pride is a major distraction that can and will lead to destruction. Thinking that the gifts He blesses us with are entitled, well deserved or a result of anything to do with ourselves, that's pride. The entrance of sin into the world brought with it a broken relationship between God and man. Discerning God's voice amidst the many others that fight for attention became a battle. Now we are consumed by the distractions that we brought into the world and we choose to replace God with them.The perception of God's goodness and His best for us got lost in our sins.So now we may constantly feel like God is holding back from us, like we don't have everything we need in the moment to be happy or that change cannot possibly come. We feel this way because sin has blinded us and separated us from the TRUTH. Mankind's choice to sin came with a price. Death, betrayal, greed and pain became a reality. All results of sin. But along with it was birthed the concept of hope.
Hope. In today's world, hope is defined as "a feeling of expectation for a certain thing to occur". Hope today is fleeting and dependent on our circumstances. Hope today, is something that we wish for but do not expect to turn out as we so desire. Nowadays it looks like an obsessive longing, irrational or misplaced confidence and wavering optimism. Hope, which was brought into being by God, is more than just a feeling, it's fixed..... a.k.a it's a promise. It is not momentary but steadfast because it is rooted in faith of God and the gift of His Son to redeem the vertical relationship.
Hope. Something so concrete/unshakeable that happens and will continue to happen when God is our focus and not our last resort. It's a tool used to restore and strengthen misguided faith. It's more than a positive mindset, it's living with expectation that God spoke and He is going to deliver the unimaginable in His time.
"By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!"
- Romans 5:1-5
God holds nothing back. He is quick to remind us of the love that He lavishes upon us in the here and now and He quick to remind us of what is to come as He promises. He uses hope to continually woo us back into relationship with Him when we have wandered astray or pushed Him away. Fragments of His perfection are found glistening in the brokenness of our self-induced catastrophes. Hope takes our eyes off the distractors of this world that so frequently take ahold of our lives (worry, money, relationships, etc.) yet somehow leave us emptier than we started, and instead places the attention on the One who has overcome all that we will ever have to face. God uses hope to regain our trust though He has done nothing to lose it. Hope speaks to who God is amidst our problems and showcases His power over them. It brings a surge of peace and fulfillment to circumstances that would other wise bring confusion and chaos when they are dwelled on. God meets us right where we are that we may discover Him in all times and all circumstances of our life. His hope is evident every moment of every day. God's word is embedded with loads of promises and accounts of His faithfulness.
"Do not let yourselves get tired of doing good. If we do not give up, we will get what is coming to us at the right time."
Galatians 6:9
His very creation screams of hope and new life. I mean each sunrise declares a brand new day! All of creation. How beautiful! And big or small things, they are there for us simply to delight in. Maybe hope is found when a particular song is heard at just the right moment. Maybe there's a sermon or a conversation with a friend and what seemed like a random topic or issue is brought up that you've been praying about and needs addressed in your life. Maybe a stranger asks if they can pray for you. Maybe someone apologizes for how they've hurt you. Maybe it's one smile that gets someone through their day. Coincidences? Maybe there's no maybes about it :) What I've been learning is that God loves to use us for His glory! He uses our pasts to provide hope for others. God knows not only the desires of our hearts but our needs. He knows what we long for and we know that God is faithful to deliver what we need. But when do we take the time to allow Him to do just that? When do we quiet the distractions and give God our complete attention? When do we give Him the chance to fill the voids? Truthfully I were to answer for myself, I would say that I seldom do that. It's hard to set aside time and quiet down the loud noise of a busy life. We pass the time other ways (mainly worrying). We fill the voids with earthly pleasures that never satisfy. We wonder why we aren't happy, why we can't see the bright side of things. When our eyes are on our problems instead of what our God can do with them, hope cannot be found. Thankfully God is love. His love is so vast for us and His love has so many dimensions that it takes on every form we will ever need in order to be sustained. Out of His love comes true forgiveness and out of that forgiveness, hope. He offers it freely, like everything else. Hope turns us from our distractions back to our decision to trust God in all situations. And the best part? Like I said before, God's hope is a promise. (The whole Bible is an account of promise after promise of the hope that a divine being fosters as a result of His fallen creation's imperfection) It's something that the world can't take from us because it's guaranteed to those who believe, it is going to be available always.
It's not something that we are just sitting around wishing for. We won't waste our whole lives away waiting for God's hope because it has already been given. In every single moment of your life there is hope. Hope is God's cry to have your heart at all times. He's beckoning you, begging you to seek Him in the good and in the bad. Will you take the time to quiet the distractions? Make the decision to confide in God? Will you mindfully pray to see and experience God's hope in your life? Well you should because hope is power from God and the neatest thing is God's power is available to us to us too. Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."
Power to persevere, to face our tribulations and power to boast in our weaknesses. Because when we are weak, He is strong.
"Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me."
2 Corinthians 12:9
What has hoped looked like for me recently?
Two weeks ago was the last first week of classes for me as this is my senior year of college. Because of deciding on my major late and then deciding to double major, I have been playing catch up to graduate on time. I just came back from taking four summer courses and now I am heading into my fall semester with 19 credit hours to be accompanied with over 120 hours of teaching. That is intimidating. Anyways, I have been praying ever since I found out about how this last year would look that God will get me through this. After the first few days of classes, all the talk of the class requirements was enough to begin to overwhelm me. Like always I began to question myself and ultimately God. I was asking, "Can I really do this?" I was taking a walk with a friend outside my dorm a few hours later. We were talking and somehow rainbows got brought up in the conversations. I mentioned that I had not seen a rainbow in a really long time. This is bothersome to me because I love rainbows as I know them as a sign, a promise of God's faithfulness. (hope) And I used to see them at just the right times. I would be wrestling with something and then I'd see a rainbow. Something that was so reassuring to me, it gave me hope to just put my anxieties in God's hands. But I hadn't seen one in forever. And I mean it rained all summer back home and I didn't see one sticking rainbow!! Thankfully there are other ways that God gives me hope but that one is one of my favorites. Anyways, a few minutes after saying that I hadn't seen one in a really long time, it began to rain for a few minutes. Then it stopped abruptly. Right above my dorm where I just had came back from classes and started worrying without cause, was a riveting rainbow plastered in the sky. God sure showed me :) Here's the rainbow...God's timing is perfect and so is His hope. He gives us just enough strength to live for today and then some :0)
