Hope
Hello, my friends!
When we look at the word “hope,” often in secular use, it's a term used to describe something that might happen, like it'll be good if it does happen. But biblically, the word “hope” is far different in its meaning. Hope in Scripture means something is definitely done; it's completed; it's a done deal already. All we are doing when entertaining the use of biblical hope is fully anticipating that which is hoped for coming to fruition.
Our hope is in Christ Jesus, and Him alone. There is nothing to add to that, as everything else is either in Christ for us, or it's not of Christ and therefore not a thing at all—well, not a good thing, not a God thing, not a thing of the spirit, but of the flesh, a carnal thing, a natural thing, nothing marvellous in His eyes or eternal as we are in spirit.
Interestingly, many Christians put their hope in false doctrines, in religion, in persons or people, in particular practices, in traditions, or in worldly outcomes. Sometimes we can have a knowing, you know, like this sense within that something hoped for is a done deal; it's almost tangible. And this is different because it's welling up from the spirit; it's the Lord saying, “I have this for you, and you have hope in it as you know that it's definitely coming.” We can see it and feel it in faith, even though tangibly it hasn't arrived yet. And there is no merit in this; we aren't earning the result of this hope. The hope originates from Christ, and this hope is planted in us for whatever it is in this particular situation.
Believers often put their hope in transactional giving with God. “If I give this to God, God will honour that gift and give me something I wouldn’t be getting if I hadn't entered into this reciprocal arrangement with God.” God is not transactional. Everything He gives us is a gift. We didn't earn it; He loves us, so He gives to us. We can't have hope in prosperity; we can only have hope in Christ because He will never leave us nor forsake us. His gift of life to us is irrevocable; we can have hope in that because it's been delivered and continues to deliver through the flow of the spirit, through our abiding in Christ, through our walking in the spirit.
Our hope in Christ is a bit like a lucky dip; we never know what this hope in Christ is going to translate into other than eternal salvation. Our salvation is assured, but what the weight of all that is intended to be supplied to us as individuals through that hope is, how long is a piece of string? You can't measure it, you can't forecast it, you can't create an equation to calculate the outcome of hope. Our hope is in Christ, and our Father is sovereign, and He blesses according to His measure, and what is that measure? Only He knows.
But what measure can we have hope in then? Well, the measure that God loves you without measure, His grace for you is without measure. We often try to humanise God and bring Him down to our level and look unto Him through human reasoning. And what do you get for such an endeavour? Confusion, that is what you get because His ways are higher than ours; we don't understand His ways, but we do understand that He is a loving and doting Father that leans into our lives through the hope we have with Him and cares for us in a way that only an infinitely loving Father can.
Word of faith teaching and doctrinal untruths will tell you that if you pray hard enough and long enough, you will get what you asked for, and this isn't the case. Very rarely does this meet the pub test in reality, but people keep preaching it and believing in it because, on occasion, God seems to do what someone petitioned Him for. Why is that? Why only sometimes? Well, it's not according to your faith that He does it. It's according to His measure for you, His love for you. He gives us what He knows we need, and what we think we need is often different from what He knows we need. Does this make sense to us in the natural? Well, no, it doesn't. But our faith isn't in outcomes; our faith is in the hope of Jesus Christ, our hope is in our sonship and His Lordship. Our hope is in that our Father in Heaven is a good, good Father, and that is the same today, as yesterday, and tomorrow into eternity. He's always our loving Father, and we can have absolute hope in that.
If you really want something in your life, you want to be rescued, you want healing for yourself or another, for a change in your financial situation, or just in any human arena or situation really, you don't have control over that. All you can do is chat with the Lord about how you feel, what you would like to happen, and sometimes, you feel a cry of your heart erupt, and in my experience, this is when the Lord is going to act, right then when you are defeated, and you don’t have any energy to put faith in what you want to happen. But He instead erupts a faith in you, a hope in you, and that hope is a done deal, something delivered. It's happened to me countless times; I've come to the end of myself, and sometimes right in that moment, or down the track or shortly after, there is a move of God in my life, and it wasn't me that made it happen or conjured it up in some fanciful or prideful way, but it was Him; it was always going to be Him. And as He knows the end from the beginning, He had always planned to do it in such a way at such a time in that very intersection of my life. When things took way longer than I was comfortable, He comforted me while He worked His works in the background, knowing He was going to provide for me according to His sovereign will in some way that in the end was exactly what I needed, when I needed it according to Him.
Be blessed, my friends, this glorious day as you have hope in the One who loves you. Your hope is in Him, just Him, and Him alone, not tithing, or fasting, or storming the gates of heaven, or prayerfully trying to twist His arm, or skilfully trying to elaborately position yourself so you can be assured of the exact outcome you have been believing for. Your hope is purely in Him who loves you, and He will give to you everything He sees fit for your life. So do not despair; just run to Jesus, let your heart always run to Him, for He is a safe harbour, He is your protection in this life, He is who you can have trust in, and this wonderful hope in—a hope that sets you free and a hope that will carry you into eternity.
Phil