On Hope

hope/hōp/

Noun:	A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.
Verb:	Want something to happen or be the case: "he's hoping for compensation"; "I hope that the kids are OK".
Synonyms:	noun.  expectation - expectancy - expectance - trust - promise verb.  trust - expect - anticipate

It seems to be quite a wishy washy subject before you look into it. We cannot predict the future. We can have a good guess based on past events, recognise patterns that might repeat themselves or habits of behaviour. But we cannot in all certainty reliably foretell what is coming. Even TV schedules change.

Yet we all hope. To be let out of work early. That the things we want to buy will be on offer. That the bus will be on time (or late!). I would suggest our day to day mundane hopes are not really hopes at all. They fall into the category of "things that would be nice if they happened", I might call them wishes. The impact on our lives if they happen or not is quite small. I might also add to this category things that count as fantasy, like my running away idea of being a scuba instructor in the summer and a ski instructor in the winter in ooo lets say New Zealand.

The definition above uses the words expectation and desire. When we truly hope for something, we are actually expecting it to happen. We WANT it to happen. And we are definately disappointed if it doesn't. There is a risk involved in hoping. A risk that our expectations will not be met. To hope requires faith: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Heb 11:1 NASB) because it is that assurance that changes it from a wish into a hope.

I just want to stop a moment here and acknowledge that bad things happen. People get ill and die, relationships break down. There are wars and starvation and trafficking and many other atrocities. So why should we hope? HOW can we hope when there is so much out there that would tell us hoping is pointless? Should we ignore this, shutting our eyes and ears to the world around us? I don't think so. Lamentations 3 says this:

It's a Good Thing to Hope for Help from God

I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness,
   the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed.
I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—
   the feeling of hitting the bottom.
But there's one other thing I remember,
   and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:
God's loyal love couldn't have run out,
   his merciful love couldn't have dried up.
They're created new every morning.
   How great your faithfulness!
I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over).
   He's all I've got left.
God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,
   to the woman who diligently seeks.
It's a good thing to quietly hope,
   quietly hope for help from God.
It's a good thing when you're young
   to stick it out through the hard times.

v19-27 MSG

Lamentations was written after the sacking of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. The writer is mourning the loss of men, women and children, their homes, their temple, their way of life. People were being taken from everything they knew into exile hundreds of miles away. Imagine walking from John O Groats to Lands End, but instead of the beautiful countryside and refreshing rain it was arid desert, and you were being whipped to keep up with smelly camels, that's about right I think. From this place of complete devastation they begin to look towards the future. I find that quite incredible.

I can imagine myself in that situation feeling very sorry for myself. When times are tough we actually sometimes try to stop ourselves from hoping for better to come, because any delay makes us feel worse. "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But desire fulfilled is a tree of life." (Pro 13:12 NASB)



It comes back to faith again. Faith in the fact that God is who the bible says He is. I believe this is true. I believe that "with God all things are possible" (Matt 19:26 NASB). The key word for me there is "with", we have to be on the same page as God and able to hear what He has to say. Jesus enables us to do this:

So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into "the Holy Place." Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The "curtain" into God's presence is his body.
So let's do it—full of belief, confident that we're presentable inside and out. Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.

Heb 10:19-25 MSG

We can pray to God for things that are on our hearts. We can pray for healing, restoration, inspiration, freedom from addictions, the list could take me a while to type out! The bible says that "I [Jesus] came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of." (John 10:10 MSG).

Real, eternal, more and better THAN YOU HAVE EVER DREAMED OF.

He wants us to be well, to find enjoyment in our lives and for us to have and fulfil a purpose. I find it funny sometimes to think that the things that are on our hearts were put there by God in the first place! 

So we have to trust that God is on our side, making sure that we are on God's side by having Jesus as our priest and changing our ways when they don't match up to God's ways. I like The Message paraphrase of Hebrews 11:1-3:

The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.
By faith, we see the world called into existence by God's word, what we see created by what we don't see.

One last quote:

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.'

Jer 29:11 NASB