No Hope?

A recent survey shows that many people feel hopeless. The news and the forecasts for the future are beginning to mock even the most optimistic, and they are losing hope for peace, goodness in the world, and well-being in their own lives. Hope is a motivator; hopelessness is not.  

In Bible college (I was already a grandmother at the time), one assignment was an essay to “describe biblical hope.” I drove 17 miles every day to school and parked behind one of the buildings. The campus cooks were famous for their excellent cinnamon buns so as I opened my car door each day, their fresh-baked aroma filled my lungs. I could not see them yet, but I knew they were waiting for me. As for the essay, I used the smell of those buns to illustrate the meaning of hope.

Hope is an anticipation of God’s goodness. Because I know God, and I know His love and care for me, I also know that everything He says is reliable. This includes all promises for the future . . .

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

This is not a hope-so belief but one solidly based on the character of God and my relationship with Him . . .

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” (Lamentations 3:24)

Perhaps the reason for hopelessness is a declining belief in God and in His promises. Majorities say the Bible is not the Word of God, or is unreliable and full of mistakes. Without knowing what God declares or the hope that He promises, there is not much left to rely on, except that hope-so optimism that has no solid foundation. God’s promises are far better!

“Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life. The insolent utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from your law. When I think of your rules from of old, I take comfort, O Lord. Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked, who forsake your law. Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning. I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and keep your law. This blessing has fallen to me, that I have kept your precepts.” (Psalm 119:49–56)

I cannot take any credit for putting my hope in the Word of God or for being able to rely on Him. This is a work of His grace. Faith is a gift, a blessing from the Lord. He gives it because He takes pleasure in giving hope to those who trust Him:

“His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.” (Psalm 147:10–11)

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Jesus, I am so blessed by You! Words cannot express my gratitude for the sweet aroma of fulfilled promises now and still to come. My heart rejoices that no matter what happens in this world, You have promised better things. Because You keep Your Word, I can rely on what You say — with great and delighted hope!

Holding on to Hope

2 Kings 17:6–18:12, Ephesians 1:1–23, Proverbs 8:9–18

Towards the end of the time of kings in Israel, their loyalty to God continued to deteriorate. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria. According to Assyrian records, the Assyrians deported 27,290 inhabitants of Israel to distant locations.

“This occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right.”

They built high places, set up pillars and Asherim, and made offerings to their idols. The Lord warned both Israel and Judah by every prophet: “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”

But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God. “They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them . . . “ They even “burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord” so none was left but the tribe of Judah, but Judah also disobeyed God and followed what Israel had done. (2 Kings 17:6-19)

When the king of Assyria repopulated the cities of Samaria, God sent lions among them. The king was told it was because “they do not know the law of the god of the land” so he sent an Israelite priest to teach them, but every nation still made gods of its own, serving their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children’s children—as their fathers did, so they do to this day. (2 Kings 17:41) These were the origin of the NT Samaritans.

Meanwhile, Hezekiah son of Ahaz, began to reign. “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it . . . . He trusted in the Lord . . . there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. And the Lord was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him.” (2 Kings 18:1–7)

Judgment on Judah was delayed because Hezekiah obeyed the words of Solomon: “The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.” By wisdom, he reigned and decreed what was just. (Proverbs 8:13–15) Yet eventually, most of the OT people of God failed. They were not able to look ahead in faith to the promised Messiah and struggled to love God and persevere in faithfulness.

When the Messiah came, the Apostle Paul described some of what God’s people have in Jesus: an inheritance, predestined according to God’s purpose, and hope in Christ to the praise of his glory. He also said that in Christ, when we hear the gospel of our salvation and believe it, we are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. He is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. All this is also to the praise of his glory.

Paul prayed for the new Christians at Ephesus: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might.” (Ephesians 1:11–19)

While OT believers had faith in the Messiah, many of them did not hold on to that hope until He actually came. Because of what Christ has done, my confidence is that the Holy Spirit will keep me holding on until He actually comes again!

Real or fake?

Fake diamonds can be detected in several ways. One is a water test. A genuine diamond sparkles brilliantly under water, but an imitation quickly loses its shine. Another test is similar; breathe on the stone with it close to your mouth. A genuine diamond loses the ‘fog’ quickly whereas a fake will stay foggy much longer.

Testing also detects character in people. Those who seem normal and nice often do odd or even unlawful things under duress. Hot water reveals human character just as it does in tea bags.

Christians also find out things about themselves when trouble hits. I am often surprised at my responses. They can be godly, but are sometimes negative, even sinful. The big difference for me in difficulties is that I know God intends that those trials bring out Christlike responses. For that reason, I’m not to shrink from trouble but see it as a positive thing and cooperate with God as He works in me to produce Christian character.

And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. (Romans 5:3-4)

I know that patience under duress is not limited to Christians. People have been known to endure every form of privation, torture, and death without a murmur and without even visible emotion. They did it because they determined they would not yield to their pain. They remained strong and came through with great pride in their stoicism.

This firm attitude has nothing in common with the grace of patient endurance. For Christians, perseverance is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, not a self-discipline. It could be described as a meek endurance in trials. Meek means strength under control. That strength is because of faith. In other words, I can be patient because I know that God controls everything that happens to me.

This patience is also a calm waiting. God has promised to work all things for good (Romans 8:28-29), but sometimes I need to wait for that good to appear. It might look like stoicism on the outside, but the difference is that peace on the inside.

Because God is sovereign, I know that He is in charge of all things that happen to me, even bad things. He is fully able to remove the trial or give me the ability to persevere under that trial, but the trial brings out or produces this perseverance. If life was always easy, no one would know that I have it, including myself.

This idea of perseverance producing patience is proof of my faith. So is the idea of patience resulting in experience. In this context, the word experience could also read “proof” as it is translated that way in other verses. In other words, patience is that experiential evidence that I have believed through grace and that God is active in my life. When I remain calm during difficulties, I know God is with me.

The end of this testing is hope, not a “hope so” but a “know so” kind of hope where I am totally convinced of the promises of God. He gives hope through faith, but also through difficult  experiences that back up the things that I believe.

I am filled with hope when I look away from myself to Jesus. Everything about Him is wonderful and true. He fills me with hope by the way He lived and the way He died (for me) and by coming back from death to offer eternal life.

I’m also filled with hope when I look at myself. My life has been transformed by looking at Jesus. Being plunged into trials has brought out the faith that He put in me. The breath of trouble that comes might fog me up, but not for long. I know I’m a rough stone, but He is polishing me. I think differently, have different values than I did before He came into my life. I’ve changed since last week, never mind last year. 

God tests me to prove me, but He also gives me all I need to pass the tests. I shake my head in amazement because I know that the difference between real and fake is Jesus.

Salvation is like a new car . . .

Buying a new car bears some resemblance to the Christian experience. The decision is made that a new car is needed, so we take a look at the model we want in the showroom or on the lot, taste what it will be like with a test drive, put down our money in exchange for a bill of sale, then wait until we can take delivery. In anticipation, we keep looking at that piece of paper, for in it our new car is fully described. Not only that, the paper says that it is ours; we just don’t have it fully in our possession yet, but our hope is secure until that day.

I thought of this reading Psalm 119:18 this morning. The verse says, “My soul faints for Your salvation, but I hope in Your word.”

Salvation is mine in three parts; I am saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved. God has forgiven my sin and removed its penalty from me. I have a whole book that tells me eternal life is mine, just like the car that I’ve not yet parked in my garage.

I’m still in the test drive stage though, discovering that He is giving me victory from the power of sin even in this life. The future looks sweeter and sweeter as those tests help me realize His ability to give victory over sin in my present experience of driving along the roads of this life.

However, that book, His Word, says that one day salvation will take me totally out of the presence of sin. Then full salvation will be fully mine. Until then, I look to the paper, the Word of God which assures me of this fact.

This is what the psalmist is talking about. He knows the past tense of salvation—that he is saved from its penalty. He knows the present tense and this verse might express his longing for more of that experience of being saved from sin’s power. He hopes in God’s Word because it contains the promises of God. From the Word, he knows that God will work in his life and give him victory over sin.

But he also longs for that future salvation where sin is no longer a present issue but past tense. He longs for the time when God has removed sin totally and he is saved out of its presence and into the presence of God.

Every time I am overcome by my sinfulness, I experience the same longing. When I confess my sin to God, I enjoy the sense of being forgiven and His promise to cleanse me from that sin (1 John 1:9), but I also look forward to that day where this sin/confess/sin/confess cycle will no longer be part of my life. Because this is written in His Word, I can be certain that this “hope” is a sure thing. I just cannot take delivery yet.