Hope in His Promises

At the beginning of this year, I attended a church service in which the pastor started out by encouraging everyone in the congregation to find something in the scriptures that they can ponder on and seek more of in the new year. As part of his sermon, the pastor preached from Romans 4, The Faith of Abraham. In it, my mind immediately turned to the hope Abraham held on to because of the promises that God had given him, which was that Abraham would be the father of many nations. It was then that the word hope stuck out at me like a sore thumb.

Through the weeks and even months that followed, I thought of what it meant to have hope in something. I thought of ways that we use the word in our daily vocabulary and ways in which the Bible uses it.

In our daily lives, we so often throw this word around without thinking. We say things like, "I hope to be able to take a vacation this summer", "I hope you feel better", "I hope I have time to work out tomorrow with my busy schedule". By using the word hope in this way, it becomes easy confuse it's true meaning with that of wishful thinking. This misinterpretation made it difficult for me to discern between the two and I was truly baffled at how because I have always used the word in the wrong context, I couldn't wrap my mind around what it truly meant to have the kind of hope that Abraham had. When I thought of the word hope in the terms of the Bible, two scriptures immediately came to mind- 1 Corinthians 13:13, which says, "Three things will last forever- faith, hope and love- and the greatest of these is love" and Jeremiah 29:11 which states, "For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." Though I am sure that I have run across hope hundreds of times not only in these scriptures, but in countless others as well, and though it has been a mere six months since I decided to set on finding the true meaning of hope, it wasn't until recently that I finally discovered what it is that God intended by giving us hope. I suppose I needed to experience it first hand in order to better understand.

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were faced with an unforeseen challenge that has rocked our world. Through a chain of events, our life has made a complete one hundred and eighty degree turn and the plans that we have been making for the future have had to take a back seat to our new found circumstances. It is through these circumstances that I have learned to remain hopeful in what God has promised us; that He knows the plans He has made and He promises that all He does is for our benefit because He loves us. So instead of wishfully thinking for certain things to happen in our life, we can rest easy in confidence, knowing that by our faith we have already conquered our circumstances because of what He has promised for our future. And that is hope.

"And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you." Psalms 39:7

We put our hope in The Lord . He is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name. Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord , for our hope is in you alone. Psalms 33:20

"Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping—believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, “That’s how many descendants you will have!”    And Abraham’s faith did not weaken, even though, at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead—and so was Sarah’s womb. Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God.  He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises.  And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous.  And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn't just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded  for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead." Romans 4: 18-24