The Eyes of Hope
If you’ve ever been lost in a mess (physical, financial, relational, emotional, spiritual, mental) of any sort, or caught up in the mist of continually swirling circumstances, your hope meter may need some adjustment. When this happened to me recently, I sought encouragement and refreshment for my soul from the Lord in prayer.
At first, I didn’t realize that hope was at the center of my distress. We tend to use the word so flippantly, meaning something we wish for. Which could be likened to lucky coins or wishing on a star. The strength of this kind of hope is the strength of the person’s desire. The Bible describes hope as the confident expectation of what God has promised, and its strength is found in His faithfulness.
Scripture tells us what hope holds for the believer: 18 …we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. 19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, 20 where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us (Hebrews 6:18-20 NASB). Stated in a more contemporary mode is the Message Bible translation: We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us …
Where does hope hang out in our lives? How can we keep it focused and working for us – as in building spiritual strength in trusting God? What kind of company does hope keep and how does hope see into you and me?
We get hope to hang out in our lives based on: And now there remain: faith [abiding trust in God and His promises], hope [confident expectation of eternal salvation], love [unselfish love for others growing out of God’s love for me], these three [the choicest graces ]; but the greatest of these is love. (1Corinthians 13:13 AMP)
We see that hope keeps some powerful company! When hope looks ahead, faith is there; when hope looks behind, love is there . Faith and hope are intimately connected. The best expression of the relationship is: One cannot have hope without faith. When we have hope we have faith, because we hold a belief that says “I believe that the future will be better.” And while we have no grounds to “prove” the hopeful assumption, we have faith in it. While faith without hope is possible, hope without faith is not. Hope is a firm and secure anchor for the soul, and neither you nor I want to be without it!
Right in the middle of getting from here to there sit the eyes of hope. From our faith, hope gives the motivation and courage needed to succeed. It’s the fuel to keep moving forward when times get tough. It brings enthusiasm for the future as it pulls on the love of God. And, sometimes, it even supplies enough reason to live. It is very difficult to walk through grim times and cope with life’s challenges without hope. Hope is a powerful thing! The person who’s full of hope is motivated with an energy to welcome life and all the challenges it brings. This is why we must keep hope alive, allowing it to reign in our soul!
Hope dares to give when no one or anything else can! The God kind of hope sees the forces we deal with that affect everyday life, and still holds onto the promises of God. His promises can stand up against our questioning the unjust and critical circumstances in which we have no control. It is in this process that we learn to let go of underlying assumptions, and let God draw out His ideas and plans for our well-being. Ultimately, it is an audacious hope – through its boldness of never-give-upness – that provides an open door to healing and the capacity for godly transformation.
If you desire faith, hope, and love to reign in your life, you have to be intentional about it.
Choose Hope. Do not allow your thoughts to be distracted by the environment or people or your heavy “to do” list. On purpose, think on goal-oriented thoughts, things that suggest the hope you have within. What does that look like for you? How can you choose a new posture of hope thoughts or strengthen the hope you already have? In what ways can a restorative hope create conditions and opportunities for you and those around you to prosper and thrive?
Find Small Victories. Stay present! Look at what you already have and how very much you have accomplished. Nothing gets done without intention and work. Develop hope strategies to achieve real goals. This means putting a process, a method, a new idea behind the hope you have – it will not move on its own. How can you redirect your thoughts and subtle movements towards greater hope?
Change Your Thinking. Bring bold hopeful ideas to the forefront of your mind, and think about what you are thinking about – no idling allowed! Give hope the feet and hands it needs to create change. This also affects your relational hope – creating interactive conditions with people/places/things, based on trust and relationship. Be motivated to expend effort to achieve desired goals.
Hope is the eyes of faith in that it not only sees the promise, but it is also the hands of faith that clings to the expectation of the promise and never releases it no matter what is seen. Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. (Hebrews 11:1 NLT)
