Various life circumstances can lead us to this question from bodily ailments to broken dreams. If what we hope for is good (healing, deliverance, marriage, children, the salvation of someone who is lost, etc.) there is no shame whatsoever in our hope. Holding onto hope for what is good is a beautiful thing. However, life circumstances and the enemy can really beat us down and cause us to question our hope. At times God prompts us to hope for something and then he seemly takes all visible reasons for our hope away. I believe like our faith, our hope is tested. When everything around us and within us is screaming at us to give up, will we? Sometimes we can look around and think that holding onto hope is just impossible.
Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights. Habakkuk 3:17-19 NLT
I have always been a firm believer in the saying from Stephen Chbosky: “things get worse before they get better…” We can understand that in order to remodel a kitchen you actually have to make do without a functioning kitchen at all for a time which is worse off than when you started, but you know that it’s part of the process of home renovation (building something greater than before). In life though it does not always seem so clear to us, because we haven’t seen what’s on the other side of the demolition happening in our lives. Sometimes we get stuck sitting in the ashes of things lost and we struggle to hope for the beauty that will come (Isaiah 61:3). It can be as simple as letting something go to grab hold of something so much greater, but first we have to let go of the ashes of things lost. Even when everything is taken away from us we can still hold onto hope.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13 ESV
We serve a “God of hope”. The New Living Translation of this verse refers to God as “the source of hope”. It’s certainly an aspect of God’s character that can be seen even in how he created this world. Every year it’s amazing to see the trees release so many of their seeds into the air and onto the ground. Seeds are like little packages of hope. But how many will take root? What percentage of them will actually grow to be full trees? Such a small minute number will ever germinate, let alone grow into a full sized tree. In a forest, they will struggle to get the sunlight they need among the other trees. On a manicured lawn they will just be cut down by the landscaper or pulled out by the root. And yet! Every year the tree keeps producing them and releasing them by the hundreds year after year after year. Despite such terrible odds they hope.
Even the female frog, who lays several eggs and leaves not knowing what will be. The pond where they were laid could dry up in the heat. Other animals will come to prey on them. How many of them will reach adulthood then? Very few if any at all. The female sea turtle buries her many eggs and leaves. They hatch one day and make their way to the sea. Many are picked off by birds before they reach the water. Many more are consumed by predators in the sea they scurry towards. It’s terribly sad to think how few of these little guys make it. But still these creatures continue to spawn season after season and continue to hope. Should they stop breeding because this world is harsh and broken because of sin? Is it all just wasted energy to hope? Against all odds should we stop hoping?
Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping... Romans 4:18 NLT
Hope is a delicate and beautiful thing. Like a tiny little sapling growing out of the muck. In 1 Peter 1:3 Jesus is described as our “living hope”. Hope is something that lives. God is the One of beginnings and not ends, life and not deaths, semicolons and not periods, hope and not despair, light and not gloom, new endings and not rewrites. In harsh times we question why we hope. So we must hold fast to the hope we have! It is not wrong to hope for better days, better seasons, a better life, and our dreams and the requests we make to God. And the hope for a better life…ah, well that one is coming soon.
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Romans 8:22-25 ESV
We have a hope in Christ that extends past this life into eternity. We cannot see this eternity, but we hope. This world is broken and ravaged by sin, but a new one will be made (Revelation 21:1). This body we have now has flaws and shortcomings and weakness, but we will receive one that is perfect (Philippians 3:21). Don’t let your hopes be dashed or crushed or taken away. Satan is a thief always trying to steal it from us. No, it is not wrong for us to continue on hoping! The following verse contains the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows]. John 10:10 AMP
