Desperate and depleted? Struggling and Searching? Looking for hope?
I’ve been there. I know a little bit about huge problems with no answer in sight. Desperately praying for a miracle and seeing none. Lying awake with a heart crying out to God for a word from heaven. All the while, the enemy is pointing out to me that I haven’t seen an answer, circumstances haven’t changed, consequently I might as well give up hope.
Hope in Spite of the Darkness
In the dark of the night, when sleep has evaded you and you are alone with your problems mounting even bigger in your mind; remember that God is there, too. He doesn’t leave you alone. Furthermore, He walks with you through your situation.
God did bring a word to my heart that dark night. Hope. It was a bright beam of light shining through the darkness. Subsequently, the darts of the enemy bombarded my thoughts with these words, “What is hope? Just because you wish for something doesn’t mean it will happen? Just look at your life. Nothing! I mean nothing has happened.”
With God’s help I pushed back the thoughts of the enemy and let the words of a couple verses that came to mind bring comfort to my soul.
“…Rest in hope” was one of the phrases that came to mind and the other was “hope maketh not ashamed…”
Throughout the next weeks, in between laundry, homeschooling, cleaning and cooking for my brood, I studied that word that had become a shaft of light in the middle of my darkness.
A Certain Expectation
Hope is not just a vague something as the devil would have us to believe. Hope means absolute certainty when dealing with God. In other words, it is a certain expectation; a confidence; a trust. We can “rest in hope”–dwell securely in the certainty that God is taking care of the details of our lives.
We can reach out and grasp the hope that God extends to us. In the middle of our circumstances and in the middle of our mess God will show up. When our path is obscured and our hope ‘most gone, we can run to God with confidence. As a result, of being armed with the knowledge that God is certain and sure, we can face even the most obscured paths of our lives with expectation. It is with certainty we can draw out of the vastness of God’s resources.
In Romans 15:13 we are reminded that God is the “God of Hope”. He is the one we can turn to with our expectations. Especially those expectations that He has promised in His Word. It is in Him we find our refuge and our shelter. When we are hanging on just because God said to, it is then we can seek shelter in Him and are able to rest in hope.
We are like those who have gone before “…who against hope, believed in hope.” Romans 4:18. Problems and discouragements come, but our trust and confidence is to be in God. He alone can fulfill our expectations and aright our world even when the problems are still there.
Hope That Does Not Confound
When looking only at our desperate situations and impossible problems, hopelessness can begin to envelop us. However, it is then we must make a choice to renew our faith. That is to say, we must look forward with a certain expectation that God will intervene.
In Romans 5:5 we read “hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our lives.” When we place our confidence and faith in God we will not be brought to shame. The word ashamed means confound, disappoint, disgrace, dishonor, be a shame or make a shame. Our situation’s conclusion will not be found to be a disgrace or dishonor because of our faith that is placed in God who is our source of hope.
God can take the brokenness, the hurts and the pain of our situations that we encounter and work them into our lives to strengthen us and develop the godly character He desires in our lives. This confidence that we place in God will not lead to disappointment. How dearly He loves us and wants to form us into the likeness of His Son.
Believe in Hope
Numerous references to hope are found in the Word of God. Hope is a close cousin to faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
When we place our faith in God with hope—a certain expectation–the evidence is not evident. Our hope is a trust and confidence that what we do not see will come to pass as God directs our steps and circumstances. We serve a God who sees things that are not as though they are. He already has a plan in place to perfect that which concerns us. We can believe and trust in the Almighty God.
To sum it up, Psalm 42:11 says it well, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God.”
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