Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is
being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
It
is common for Christians to wish one another “good luck” when events,
challenges or important circumstances are faced. Now, some readers may remark, “Well,
but that’s not what I mean when I tell someone, ‘good luck’”. But really, what do we mean? I would venture to say that in some
cases, we actually mean that we “hope” things go well. What are we hoping for, though, and in
whom are we depositing that hope in?
To
write about hope is usually easy when things are going well. As long as we are on top of our game
or things seem to be fine, we can agree that hope is an easily attainable
outlook. In addition to the
ease that favorable life situations present, the ability for us as human beings
to distance ourselves from the needs others, helps us to buffer our hearts and
minds from our neighbor and it makes hoping easier. At least we hope so.
For
Christians, hope should be defined as the diligent expectation in the
faithfulness & trustworthy nature and sovereignty of God. It is faith in God that nurtures and
nourishes the hope I address here. If
He is faithful to His word, we can trust Him, no matter what. Throughout human history, God has been
faithful to His children even when we have abandoned Him for other idols. He will keep His promises and never
forsake us.

The
issue of sovereignty also needs to be understood. Without entertaining long and cumbersome
theological language, let me say that sovereignty is understood as the
unquestionable power God has over all creation. In Matthew 5:34-36 (NIV), Jesus
says, “But I tell you, do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's
throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem,
for it is the city of the Great King. And
do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or
black.” The earth is God’s
footstool. We know that the
universe is His and He controls all things. Therefore, we know that God’s power
covers all of our circumstances. His
care, protection and favor, are indisputable.
We
may know these things, but do we believe them? We may have heard of God’s
faithfulness and sovereignty, but do we believe that He can take our situations
and care for them in good ways we cannot even imagine? Hebrews 11:1 speaks of faith as what
propels us into the heavens of hope. The
certainty that God is who God is will not come through intellectualization or
blind faith. Rather, it is
measured by the intimacy we have with God. Only then can we live in faith, hoping
in the certainty of God’s goodness and love toward us.
One
final item of consideration, though. What
about those times when God doesn’t seem to answer? What about those times when it seems
as if God didn’t answer us in the manner we prayed for? Our hope will falter. It will be bruised and battered at
times. Yet, God doesn’t
sleep or slumber. His
promises are eternal and steadfast, even when life seems to drop the entire
dead weight of the world upon us. He
will be there to take on the entire weight on His shoulders for us. Yet, none of this is easy or should
ever be taken lightly. There
are many Christian men & women burying their children somewhere and lifting
up holy hands to heaven asking why. The
issue of hope isn’t about whether we do lose it on occasion or not. It’s the mystery of hoping in spite of
what we see. It’s about
hoping in spite of hope, knowing that even though all things seems to be in
darkness, God’s light will breakthrough at the perfect time. That’s faith for you... I hope.
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