Christian Living
Benefits of Biblical HOPE.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. Jeremiah 17:7.
I am writing on hope because many of the folks I minister to live in a world of false hope; they hope in alcohol, all sorts of drugs and people. Many believe that if they live in the River of Denial long enough all will be well. Experience teaches us, often severely, that this is not true.
The word, hope, is used 122 times in the Bible. The first use is in Ruth 1:12 and used in conjunction with a woman involved in a hopeless situation concerning finding a suitable husband. (The Great Blonde remarked that things haven’t changed over the centuries).
Hope as it is used scripturally means: To cherish a desire with expectation; to trust, to expect with confidence; to desire with expectation of attainment.
Solomon wrote in Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.”
Solomon was expressing the obvious truth that hope is essential to a fruitful life, hope is essential to a positive life and hope must often be rekindled, for we frail humans often look at circumstances instead of looking unto Jesus. In dealing with aging people and prisoners I have learned that the loss of hope is more devastating than the loss of a loved one, the loss of income or even health. Hope is made for humans, for God or angels do not need hope. If you have lost hope due to some tough event in your life, ask Christ to help you to get your mind and heart off the loss and to restore true hope. Jeremiah 17:7 gives the key to this in our text; our hope must be in the LORD and not the things or people of the LORD, but the LORD Himself.
Sometimes hope is all we have and we have to learn to keep on going with hope alone because empirical evidence demands that we give up. Such was the case with Abraham, called the father of the faithful in the New Testament. Abraham and Sarah were long past the age for bearing children, yet in spite of a hesitancy to believe God, they learned to cling to his promise of a son in their old age and in God’s time Isaac was born, the seed of promise, making Abraham the father of many nations. We are told this belief was put on his account for righteousness!
Romans 4:18 says of Abraham: “Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.”
While this passage carries enormous theological importance, the practical teaching is simple, God is bigger than huge, human problems, therefore I can trust Him, His word, His promise. The principle is simple; As long as God lives, you have hope!
Romans 5:3-4 explains why we who believe have trouble or as the writer calls them, tribulations:
“And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 and patience, experience, hope.”
I’m sure you see in the cycle of your life and in of each of us; we come to the knowledge of God through Christ, we trust, then comes trouble, through the trouble we learn to be patient, this helps us to learn from the experience, which in the course of time, brings about true hope. When we look forward, we have hope in God and this hope is cemented because when we look back, we know from experience that God is faithful and can be trusted. We often sing a song titled, “We’ve come this far by faith leaning on the Lord.”
The thought is further enhanced when Paul writes in Romans 15:4, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”
That many who know Christ in our day do not also know the scripture is such a sad state of affairs that I feel certain the angels weep when they see men and women who are truly saved, yet devoid of any grasp of biblical truth that instead of living the life victorious, they are floundering like a fish taken into the boat. If you do not read and know the scriptures, they are not available when you need them. It was recently said of a well known preacher that he sent throngs away from a huge meeting with hope, but no doctrine. The emotional hype, which was given, will soon fade away. Peter assures believers of a lasting hope when he writes in 2Peter 1:3-4 in part “hath begotten us again unto a living hope…that fadeth not away.” The verses in the New Testament which give hope, give the reason for such hope, and that dear heart is doctrine or to be politically correct “teaching.” Hope without a rock solid base for the hope will wither and fade away into doubt and confusion. It is important to know that true hope is not based on how we feel, but rather, on what God says.
I have lost track of the numerous times over a long life of serving the Lord when the scriptures gave me hope when everything else not only seemed hopeless, it was hopeless from the human perspective. An old song, “Since Jesus Came Into My Heart” has a stanza reading: “I’m possessed of a hope that is steadfast and sure, Since Jesus came into my heart! And no dark clouds of doubt now my pathway obscure, Since Jesus came into my heart.” A steadfast course, meaning no deviation from a predetermined course, is impossible unless we know some facts that do not change. Thankfully Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever! Take courageous hope in Psalm 119:89, “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.”
That Christians are expected to live a life of positive hope is told with gusto by Paul when he wrote in Titus 2:13, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
The verse powerfully teaches that Christians are to anxiously, expectantly peer longingly over the horizon for the coming of Christ.
I remember that prior to my earning a pilot’s license, my wife took our little daughter, Dawn, up to Maryland from Virginia. She left from the New River Valley Airport in Dublin on Piedmont Airlines. I watched as the plane flew out of sight. In a few days she returned and I watched longingly and closely to see the plane approaching. Dublin was a small airport and at night part of the landing procedure was to fly low just above the runway to shoo the deer or cows from the strip. On the evening Joyce returned, sure enough the plane followed procedure and shooed the deer away. I was so thankful that my girls were now safe. I am still at a loss for words. Yet how can the mortal tongue discover verbiage to communicate the longing of the Christian heart for the golden daybreak when Jesus comes. That He is coming is more certain than the Sun rising in the East. By His word He established the course of the Sun, and by His word He states He IS coming again.
The apostle John tells us that if we have this Blessed Hope in us, this hope produces something wonderful that many attempt to produce by other means, the purification of our life on earth. Look at 1John 3:3, “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”
Organizations, denominations, preachers, universities, medieval torture chambers have all tried without success to produce the person who is real on the inside. Only God can do this, and He uses The Holy Spirit, The Word and the HOPE of His appearing as the prime tools in accomplishing this.
Dale Carnegie said it well, “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”
No matter how bad things are right now, God has a blessing in the future for every one of His children, let this hope possess you and you will begin to experience the benefits of purifying hope.
Surrender to Christ today. LML
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