Hope is kind of a wistful word - and yet, it can be very strongly determined. Hope is the main part of faith as defined by Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Romans 8:24 says that hope that is seen CAN NOT BE hope!! Verse 25 goes on to explain, "But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." Hope waits patiently because it believes firmly in something or Someone. It is expectant and trusting.
I think everyone has experienced HOPING that something would happen that did NOT happen. Sometimes you HOPE things will get better, and they don't. "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick" is how Proverbs 13:12a describes it. So, if love HOPES all things, how do we avoid disappointment?
Because the only "person" who will NEVER let us down is GOD, then I think we need to HOPE in all things that revolve around HIM ... and not around a human being or a situation. Believing that God is at work - even when things are NOT going the way we expected - is the only HOPE we have. We can hope our spouse will change or our circumstances will get better, but the only HOPE we really have is that God knows and is working on our character and personal holiness.
Yesterday I said that Matthew Henry's Bible Commentary
stated that when love "cannot believe well of others, it will yet hope well." We might be tempted to give up on someone or think a situation is HOPELESS - but we should always hold on to HOPE.Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark. ~George Iles
Hope is putting faith to work when doubting would be easier. ~Author Unknown
When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you're slamming the door in the face of God. ~Charles L. Allen
Hope never abandons you, you abandon it. ~George Weinberg
Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops... at all. ~Emily Dickinson
1 comments:
I think I told you about the BBC's 'Lark Rise to Candleford' that I've been watching via YouTube. It's striking me more and more as a period drama in a soap opera format (tho' more acceptable than what's available on US television). Occasionally there are good little tidbits. One series of episodes involved a man who was determined to DO things to impress others, overcome his penniless childhood, etc. (Hard to give this in a nutshell!) But in the end as he's leaving town for good, he says admiringly to his foster mother that she accepts life as it comes, while he fights against it. The woman is not a complete picture of Christian virtue, but her character has a sense of Providence working in each person's life.
Sorry this was long, but I guess it strikes me that the idea of hoping in God helps us *accept* what each day brings as within His will... instead of *fighting* and attempting to accomplish our own agenda/will and to overcome perceived difficulties in our own strength.
Are you still with me?? :-)
♥ Good study, Conny! ♥
Post a Comment