The Value of Hope
Facilitated by Pastor Joedy
God made 3 things – rather, these 3 things remain: Faith, Hope, and Love. You can simplify the entire Bible through these three things. Everything else can be discussed and eventually forgotten, but these things, as mentioned, would remain.
Today’s discussion is focused on Hope.
While there is life, there is hope.
Pastor Joedy recalls the time when folks from the Philippines fled the country because of political turmoil, and he quoted how a good number of people left because they thought there was no hope left for the country.
The word ‘Hope’ in the Greek is ‘Eltis’, or expectation. When we hope, we expect, or we anticipate. The problem with hope as defined or determined in the world or in this reality, is that it is not grounded in faith.
Hope without faith can be equated to a false hope. This is even the case when people, ‘hope for the worst’.
But we have hope, and this hope is not without faith; and this faith is defined in the book of Hebrews as the substance of things ‘hoped’ for. This Christian faith, and this hope is not without its positive expectations.
Pastor Joedy points out that this hope is not necessarily the same of faith, in the sense that it has a futuristic element to it. Faith is our expectations for the here and now, and the hope is a sure expectation of the good that will happen.
In fact, it is good to hope. It’s not mere wishful thinking, but it is a good demeanor rooted from the faith we have that not only does good happen, but good WILL happen.
To clarify, so far:
Hope is expectation of good.
Faith is belief of good.
And this good is coming from God, who does not merely love, but IS love.
And that’s how it all comes together, doesn’t it? Faith, hope, and love.
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
The LORD is good to those who wait (HOPE) for him, to the soul who seeks him.
Lamentations 3:22-25
The hope we have is not a worldly hope, because the God we are placing our hope in is a God of love. We see in these verses that in our recognition of God’s love, we automatically have hope in Him.
Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. Psalms 146:3-7
We’re being directed to the possibility of misplaced hope. We see in these verses how if we place our full hope in men, we wouldn’t be doing much, considering that men die. We’ve placed our hope in politicians, and people have had their hopes fade, indeed. Misplaced hope is based on the limited understanding we have as humans… and it leads to disappointment, for sure.
Faithfulness is not something we could produce. It’s a fruit of the Holy Spirit. We can lose our hope if it’s something we generate. We’re limited in our faith, and in our hope. Indeed, when we die, so our own faith and our own hope dies.
But if we’re to have a sure hope, our hope ought to be in God… and take note, I believe that if it’s Christ who authors and finishes our faith, the Holy Spirit is not far behind, producing the hope we have, and this hope is towards no other – no princes, no sons of man, but the Son of Man – Jesus Christ.
We can be unfaithful, but God is powerful and able and willing to faithfully stand by His promise and His proclamation – Is there anything too hard for Him? When our faith fails, behold – it’s written there – He KEEPS faith forever. The God who IS forever is faithful to us, unto forever.
Our full hope is in God. He alone is worthy. We acknowledge leaders. We acknowledge government. But our hope is in the Lord. It’s not that we have hope while we have life – no, we have hope while we have God… and God, who is Love, always has us, as we have Him; all through Christ.
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”Isaiah 55:10-11
Our hope in the Lord is not without acknowledging His Word; That is, when we hope in the Lord, we hope in His Word. In these times that our hope is tested just as our faith is, well, we’re to come back to His Word – and the God of Hope, who is also our God of Love, is faithful to remind us of Christ, who is the Hope of Glory.
In closing, Pastor Joedy says that in Christ, we do have HOPE: Hope Overwhelming, Peace Everlasting.
May we be voices of hope in this hopeless world. May we stand firm in faith, coming from He who is the Author and Finisher of our faith, even in this world that would have us place our faith in the finite.
Amen.
Until the next post, God bless us all.
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