Dialogue with Hope
May 23, 2017
Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me ... It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD's hand has gone out against me!" Ruth 1:12-13
"What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient? - Job 6:11
Did I ask you for a son, my lord?" she said. "Didn't I tell you, 'Don't raise my hopes'?" - II Kings 4:28:
... in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel. - Ezra 10:2
Without hope, we shrivel up and die. We atrophy from the inside out. We formulate no goals, develop no objectives, formulate no strategies, and launch no action plans for our lives. We stop dreaming dreams and seeing visions. Without hope, we cease to seek God and God actually becomes an irrelevant sideline to our lives.
Without hope, we die.
Hope is illogical. We can think of any number of rational reasons for discrediting hope in our own lives or the lives of others.
Hope is risky. At the worst, we lose time and money; at the least, we lose face. But without hope, we lose everything.
With all of that in mind, there is one solid, indisputable reason for having hope: Jesus Christ. While the “facts” may argue against hope, the Word of God says, “there is still hope.” Hope is based upon irrefutable truth. It is founded upon ultimate reality and rooted in in dynamic power. If there were no evidence to support hope the still small voice of God’s eternal Spirit would whisper it into our hearts. But there is evidence. Millions of transformed lives through history and alive today attest to it. Embrace hope and live.
Let us resolve to be people of hope. As we are becoming hopeful about God’s bright future, we will be contagious. The hope that spoils from our lives into the lives of other people will infect them for a lifetime and encourage them to rise up and accept the challenge the Lord brings into their lives.
Hope of the ages,
Breathe hope into my faltering heart.
Rebuild the foundations of faith
Within my troubled soul
That I may bear witness to Your
Constancy and faithfulness
As long as I live.