Hope is a powerful force! As the holidays approach, I hear of those in my circles of influence that are going through difficult times and in need a little hope. My heart aches for those who feel they have no hope and think of giving up. Often times, distraught folks have been clinging to a false hope that is only an escape from reality and is never lasting. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary has several definitions for the word hope; one being “to cherish a desire with anticipation”. Another definition - and this is more representative of the biblical usage of the word - “to expect with confidence: trust”. Hope may refer to the activity of hoping or to the object hoped for. Either way, hope is never passive. Authentic hope is a vitalizing, life infusing force that nothing can destroy. Hard times may disturb hope… but never destroy it.
So what does this hope look like? Well there are so many examples in God’s word of girls who had twenty-four carat hope…the real thing…one being Mary, the mother of Jesus. Did you know that she was probably only 12 or 13 when an angel appeared to her and told her she would be a mother? She was just an ordinary girl who was engaged to a carpenter and probably looking forward to marriage…. a poor, young girl being given a pretty shocking telegram from the Maker of the universe! This angelic report was Good News…she would be the vessel to usher in the Messiah, the Savior of all men. This assignment presented a few hardships and possible outcomes. Mary would be pregnant before her wedding and likely subject to a whisper campaign against her reputation for the supposed scandal when she had done nothing wrong. She might even lose her fiancé due to this premarital muddle. And even though it was difficult for her to understand how she might conceive her Savior, she responded in a way that was a breathtaking exhibition of the hope she unmistakably clung to. Mary’s example is the ideal for how real hope changes a person. Not just small change, but significant change! For starters, hope changes our perception of ourselves. It turns our reflection into one that is that of traveler here on earth and the portrait of life here as it really is; a fragile thing and not at all permanent…merely a doodle on a page. It points our attention to God who is the perfect creator of our earthly life and heavenly promise. As the angel said to Mary, “…no word from God will ever fail.” Luke 1:37 This is the certainty that caused Mary to say “I am the Lord's servant…may it be to me as you have said." Luke 1:38 A girl who hopes is a girl who says, “I am yours Lord, do with my life what you will because it is yours.” Hope also changes what is important to us. Heaven is the home we are inching towards and the hope of that dims everything else by comparison and affects how we spend the time we have been given.
Like many girls out there, I personally have had moments of melancholy and feelings of gloominess. But like Mary, the trustful expectations of the fulfillment of all of God’s promises are what have held me in hope’s grasp. It is not a flimsy or baseless optimism, nor is it a superficial longing for some marginally attainable good thing. True hope stands in the face of suffering and has its confidence in the God of the Bible and His saving acts.
“That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.” 1 Timothy 4:10
Oh Lord, You are my only Savior, my only Hope. I trust in You no matter what and You destroy the dark places that try to envelop my heart.
