hope

Hope and Disappointment – VOTD.01.23.18

Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:5

Last time we looked at the later life of John the Prophet. In Matthew 11:2-6, John is arrested and thrown in prison, which seems really strange to those who believe the successful Christian life is all mountaintop vistas with sugar-gum trees. I mean, here’s John, the one who correctly understands himself to be the frontrunner of Jesus the Messiah. He has been faithful. In fact, even Jesus would say that there is not a greater man born than John…Then he’s thrown in prison…Then he’s executed.

One of the take-aways from the history of the Israelites is that the relationship between Hope and Disappointment. Same in the New Testament and church history: If we don’t want to be disappointed, forget about hope. Disappointment is always rooted in hope deferred or crushed. (Prov 13:12). We can’t be disappointed if we didn’t first hope that something in the first place. And none of us are exempt. Every one of us has had a plan, a dream, a vision of what we want to happen in our lives that doesn’t work out the way we had hoped at some level.

When that happens, disappointment is natural, certainly not sinful. But disappointment can be the tip of a mean-spirited iceberg if we let it. When our shattered dreams and plans erode our confidence… Our confidence in ourselves, our confidence in our ability to hear God correctly, and even in our God, Himself.

“So do not throw away your confidence, for you are destined for a great reward! You need to reveal God’s will and then you receive the promise in full (Heb 10:36,37) God is working a plan in each of our lives, and that plan is a good plan, but it will almost always play out differently than we think it will…maybe differently than we think it should.

So, here are some things we need to do if we were going to thrive (or at least survive) in the sometimes slower-than-we’d-like revelation God’s good, right plan playing out…even in ways that are also sometimes confusing and don’t seem to make sense [and, at times, if we’re really honest, disappoint us]. (more…)

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Hope Does Not Disappoint Us – VOTD.01.09.18

Now hope does not disappoint us, because the love of God is pouring through our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:5

We often think of hope as something we want, but we can’t be sure what will really happen. We say, “I hope I will get a new car.” “I hope I’ll be healed of this disease.” “I hope everything works out well in 2018.”

But “hope” in today’s verse is a confident and active expectation of God’s goodness. God gives us a confident expectation of His good in our lives because as His child, He favors each of us. Because Jesus is in you and me, the hope of glory (Col 1:27), we can expect the glory of God to shine into every area of our experiences in life. This includes all the things we ‘hope’ for: our families, our jobs, our ministries, our health and our finances, to name a few.

Today’s verse assures us, “hope does not disappoint us”—we’ll find fulfilment and blessing—“because the love of God is pouring through our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”  We may have experienced disappointment in our lives—our hopes dashed and left unfulfilled—but there is a hope that does not disappoint when we are conscious of how much God loves us. It is a hope that springs from the heart of God, who loves each of us individually very much.

Many people think that the Holy Spirit has come to just instruct us…or just to comfort us…or just to give us supernatural power. Each of those things are true. But if we’re to go anywhere in those areas, it’s critical that we understand that the Holy Spirit has come to do all these things through love; because God is Love.

We may be facing a huge disappointment. But if we can say, “Jesus loves me,” we give power to hope. OK, this didn’t go as I wanted it to, but I believe that God is bigger than this setback and He will act on my behalf. The power of believing in and receiving God’s love is that potent. (more…)

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All Things New – VOTD.01.02.17

And the one who sat on the throne spoke to me and said, “Consider this! I am making everything to be new and fresh.” Revelation 21:5

One of the things that runs through our New Year celebration is Hope. Somehow, starting again gives us hope as we consider all that God has for us in 2018. God promises us that He is continuously making things new for His glory and for our good.

1) God restores us to a right relationship with him through the gift of forgiveness and new life in Jesus. He restores relationships between people. And He even restores days and years that have been lost due to our own sin (Joel 2:25). That’s one of the greatest evidences of the extravagant nature of God’s mercy. Not only does He renew our lives and redeem our future, but He also redeems our past.

In the New Testament, we see Jesus live out a lifestyle of restoration. He restored sight to the blind, the ability to walk to the crippled, hearing to the deaf, and new, clean skin to the diseased (Mk 8:22-26; Matt 9:2-8; Mk 7: 31-37; Lk 5:12-25). In all of these accounts, Jesus didn’t just heal a physical condition. He restored lives, giving hope to broken people. (more…)

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Hope in the Word, 2017 – VOTD.01.03.17

For whatever things were written before were written to instruct us, so that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Romans 15:4

One of the points of these meditations which come to you each week is that “through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures (we) might have hope.” Yes, Bible teaching (like reading the Bible) is supposed to give us hope…and it does.

For example, we can turn to God’s breathtaking promises in His Word like this one: “For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’” (Heb 13:5-6). There are times in life when being reminded of God’s faithfulness can make all the difference between hope and despair.

We can follow the example of those in Psalm 107. This psalm recounts all the troubles of people without any hope at all. In each case, “They cried out to the Lord in their trouble” and He delivered them (vv 4-6, 13, 19).

In His Word, God “has given us his exceedingly great and precious promises” (2 Pet 1:4) both for now and for the future. Knowing how God has worked with people in the past and His promises for the future can encourage us and give us hope. (more…)

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Hope for 2017 – VOTD.01.02.17

“Be very careful then, how you live—not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. (Eph 5:15-17)

Happy New Year, 2017. Some of us have had an awesome 2016 and are hoping for even better next year. Some of us have been beaten up this past year—we’re excited about a new start—to press the reset button. In today’s verse, Paul has a few thoughts on new starts. If one year from now we’re going to look back on 2017 as a good year, there are a few things we might want to consider:

“Be very careful then, how you live”. Some things we’ll bring on ourselves in 2017, and some things will be unavoidable. This is true of joys as well as problems. For the things we bring on ourselves, “live—not as unwise, but as wise”. Living wisely is simply living in such a way that we minimize the regrets we will be experiencing a year (or years) from now. Do that and many of the “unavoidable” problems in 2017 will be less severe, or maybe even dodged completely. When we live wisely, unanticipated blessings will find us.

“Making the most of every opportunity”. Whether we’re faced with blessings or problems— Either way, we don’t squander the opportunities God puts in our lives. We change the things that we can change, and trust God in those unavoidable problems:
•       we trust Him to be with us (Matt 28:20)
•       we trust him to be working it all for the good (Rom 8:28)
•       we trust Him to see us through (2 Thes 3:3) (more…)

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Overflowing with Hope – VOTD.12.27.16

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

Let me start out with a question: Do you know anyone who is overflowing with hope? I don’t mean do you know any optimists. That’s altogether different. Someone who’s overflowing with hope is a person whose life is firmly planted in the joy and peace that comes from God as they trust Him. That’s what today’s verse is telling us.

Our hope is not in a specific thing or a specific result. Our hope is not even in what we hope God will do. Our hope is in God Himself. And that is an important distinction between optimism and biblical hope. We trust Him even if our life events may not be what we expected or desired. We walk in the certainty that God will prove Himself faithful to us, and that He will not disappoint us (Is 49:23).

One caution: this doesn’t mean that God’s goodness and faithfulness are always conspicuous and unambiguous. We may be afflicted, but we will not be crushed; We may be confused, but we will not be not driven to despair (2 Cor 4:8-9).

“The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him” Lam 3:25
“The LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.” Ps 147:11

Sometimes it’s only in retrospect that we can see how God has been caring for us, providing for us, protecting us. Sometimes when we’re right in the thick of things, we can’t see any evidence of God working at all. But if we continue to trust Him, to place our hope in Him, He says we will not be disappointed. “Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed” (Is 49:23).

So where does this kind of hope come from? Let’s be real. It’s one thing to say, “put your hope in God.” It’s another to actually do it, especially when the pressure is high and our circumstances look hopeless. Where do we get the faith we need to do this? Faith comes from God (Eph 2:8). We have to go to Him to get the faith we need to place our hope in Him. (more…)

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The Hope for the Hopeless – VOTD.12.26.16

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:1-2

Christianity is all about hope. It is a faith that looks forward to the future, to the time when God’s promises will be fulfilled. That was true for God’s people prior to Jesus’ birth, as they looked forward to the coming of the promised Messiah. It’s true of us today as we look forward to the return of Jesus. Our faith is a future-focused faith…it’s all about hope.

That doesn’t mean Christianity has no relevance to the here and now. Paradoxically, our focus on “things above” allows us to live this life here-and-now to the fullest. It enables us to be servants in a world that is in desperate need. It gives us the perspective and the pace of God as we live in and among the multitudes of needs – around us and in distant places.

I’m tempted to end this meditation right there. Because hope is the bottom line. And I would stop right here except for one thing: Hope is not automatic. In fact, sometimes hope is very difficult.

Sometimes our circumstances seem anything but hopeful; sometimes things can seem totally hopeless. We’ve all faced situations where there seems to be little objective reason for hope—in our jobs, in our churches, in our homes… Some of us are facing seemingly hopeless medical or financial problems. Sometimes it’s so tempting to give up hope. To keep from throwing in the towel is emotionally painful.

So how do we stay hopeful in the midst of disappointment and difficulty? How do we keep from being completely overwhelmed by trials and pain? How do we maintain an attitude of hope when everything in us wants to yield to despair? (more…)

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The Hope of His Coming – VOTD.12.20.16

We were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son… to redeem those under the law. Galatians 4:3-5

We don’t have to read very far into the Bible to find out that we have 2 big problems:

1. We all sin—we all do destructive and unloving things. Today’s verse calls that “slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world”.
2. None of us measures up to the glory that God planned for us walk in.

This situation would be bad enough all by itself, but we discover in our own experience and the experience of people written about in the Bible, that sin separates us from God who is our only hope, it produces misery in our own lives in in the lives of others. And we have no successful solution to this problem.

God, however, has a solution. As we read through the Old Testament, we find promise after promise that God made concerning how He was going to save people from the mess that sin makes in our lives. His goal is to restore us to the glory that He had planned for us.

His plan: He would send a Savior. (more…)

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The Hope of Christmas – VOTD.12.19.16

Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

Arguably, the best-known story in the Bible is the birth of Jesus. Why? Because in a biblically illiterate society, most people have seen Charlie Brown’s Christmas special that comes on TV each year. In it, Linus quotes a large portion of Luke 2’s account of the Jesus birth. Crazy, yet it’s all part of how God has chosen to reveal Himself.

It’s been more than 30 years since I saw Charlie Browns Christmas special, but I remember it’s simple theme: Charlie Brown is discouraged by how Christmas celebration panders to the materialistic spirit of selfish and entitlement-demanding people around him. He’s given up hope, when Linus recites the words of Luke 2. The show ends with hope being restored.

Hope is a fragile thing. When life disappoints us, our hope can be replaced by feelings of discouragement and hopelessness. Hopelessness turns into cynicism and pessimism, believing there is nothing in which we can confidently hope. (more…)

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