Hope in God!

Advent Week 1–HOPE

By Mike Main

Psalm 62:1-8 ESV

My Soul Waits for God Alone
To the choirmaster: according to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

For God alone my soul waits in silence;
    from him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

How long will all of you attack a man
    to batter him,
    like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.
    They take pleasure in falsehood.
They bless with their mouths,
    but inwardly they curse. Selah

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
    for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and my glory;
    my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

Trust in him at all times, O people;
    pour out your heart before him;
    God is a refuge for us. Selah

Psalms 42:6 TLV

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why are you murmuring within me?
Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,
    for the salvation of His presence.

---

Hope in God!

By Mike Main

I feel confident in suggesting that we are a hopeful people, both believers and unbelievers alike.  In Genesis 1:27, Moses clearly states that “God created mankind in His own image…”  Later, in the 15th chapter of Romans, Paul tells us that God Himself is “the God of hope.”  Thus, since we were created in the image of God and God is the God of hope, it must follow that we are a people of hope.  How is it, then, that hope can at once be utterly profound and of particular consequence, yet also commonplace and routine?  

Hope, in the sense that the world uses it—and, frankly, many, many believers, too—is burdened with unbelief and uncertainty.  “I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow.”  “I hope we are having spaghetti for dinner!”  “I hope my flight isn’t delayed.”  There may be an element of knowledge or experience that lends some certitude to what is hoped for, but in the end, uncertainty is the principal architect of what we are, in this case, “hoping for.”  Maybe it will go our way, maybe it won’t.

On the contrary, in the sense that I believe God intends for believers, hope is understood to be really the exact opposite.  Not an uncertain yearning, but a confident desire and expectation for positive future outcomes.  In Jeremiah 29:11, we read “…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.”  God, Himself, is plainly asserting his plans for believers—prosperity, an established future, and HOPE!  In Psalms 33 and 62 (and many others), David teaches us that our hope is in God, but also that our hope comes from God.  Hebrews 10:23 affirms this notion in saying “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”  

As people of faith, we ought to have a more complete understanding of hope and the role it is intended to play in our life.  God’s Word tells us that we have much to look forward to, promises yet to be fulfilled, blessings and prosperity, health, and gladness.  God’s kind of hope is not a passive concept but is instead a constant companion with whom we engage daily.  Hope provides strength when we endure weakness.  It is a compass, pointing the way when we have lost ours.  God’s kind of hope comes with a certainty that the lost do not have and cannot comprehend.  From the story of the Prodigal Son, through the many experiences the apostles witnessed alongside Jesus, to His eventual death, burial, and miraculous resurrection, we see hope woven through the tapestry of God’s Word.  It is, then, this type of hope—Gods definition of hope—that we should and must learn to lean on.  Hope saturated with an assured expectancy, knowing that God is faithful, and knowing that God is good.

Reflection:  

Are you confident in your hopes?  Are you confident that God is who He says He is?  His Word is full of hope, with ample instructions on how to use it.  Believe with positive and confident expectation that God will accomplish His will, that God loves you, that God sees you and that He knows you and calls you by name.

My prayer for today:

Father, thank you.
Thank you for your steadfast love,
Thank you for your unwavering integrity,
and thank you for your gift of hope.
I pray that your fingerprints are all over our myriad hopes. 
I pray that we see them, that we recognize them and that we earnestly believe in what their presence means.
In the mighty name of Jesus, Amen