Hope for the Future

 What is hope for?

As we continue to read Paul's writing about hope in Romans, we move into one of my favourite chapters in Scripture. I regularly go back to Romans 8 to be reminded of the incredible truths in this chapter. 

But there is a section of this chapter that I have spent less time on. They're the verses not highlighted or underlined - or, they were before I really took the time to understand the hope they talk about.

Romans 8:22-25 says:

"We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes  for what they already have? But if we hope  for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently."

Paul writes that the hope we're holding onto has a future focus - an eternal focus. That's what gets us through when life gets hard. We know there's something coming that's worth the struggle now.

The challenge is how easily we forget this. We get caught up in our earthly circumstances and that's all we see. And we lost our hope.

We have to remember to lift our eyes off our circumstances. To set them on what is coming. To set them on eternity with Jesus.

When I think about this challenge, I remember another conversation I had with my Grandma. This one didn't come on the golf course. It came in a few short minutes before church on a Sunday morning.

I don't remember when we had this conversation - I'd actually forgotten about it until I was studying what Scripture had to say about hope. I know this conversation was a few years before she ended up in long term care, but well after Parkinson's disease had made her require a wheelchair for much of life. She was waiting for the service to start and for my Grandpa to be finished greeting people and come to sit with her.

She told me quite honestly how frustrating it was to her to be stuck wherever her wheelchair got parked and have to wait for people to come over to her. How frustrating the limited mobility, even at home, was. But, then she began to talk about her hope for eternity. That she knew a time was coming when she would no longer be limited.

I missed the significance of those words at the time, but they hit me as I was studying this passage. My Grandma was groaning as she struggled on this earth and waited for what she knew was coming. She was hoping for what was to come in the midst of a challenging disease that was slowly stealing her independence. And, although she would tell you she wasn't always good at waiting patiently, there was a grace to how she waited and held onto the hope of eternity.

It challenges me about where I'm looking. 2021 was a hard one for me and I struggled to hold onto hope. I see now, just how important it is to lift our eyes if we're going to hold onto hope.

Where are you looking for hope?

Where are you placing your hope?

Does the place you're looking for it need to change?

Hope & Faith

 As I've kept studying hope, I kept being drawn back to one particular book of Scripture. The book of Romans has a lot to say about hope.

It doesn't take Paul long to start pointing toward our need for hope. Although the word hope doesn't appear until chapter 4, everything up to then points to our need for hope. 

As Paul outlines the fallenness of people, the sinful choices they have made, he is making a case for something. Even as Paul moves to talk about God's faithfulness to us, he's laying the groundwork for hope and its importance in our lives.

Abraham is widely remembered in Scripture and in our conversations for his faith, but alongside that comes hope. Romans 4:18 says:

"Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as had been said to him, 'So shall your offspring be'."

From and earthly perspective, Abraham having children and being the father of many nations wasn't possible. These words came when "his body was as good as dead" and "Sarah's womb was also dead." (Romans 4:19). Yes, Abraham still had hope that God could do it.

After reading this about Abraham, we see Paul move into talking about hope specifically. Romans 5:1-5 says:

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith in this grace in which we know stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us."

This makes sense with hope being "a characteristic of genuine faith in God" (Bridgeway Bible Dictionary), as I wrote about last week. And Abraham's story as recalled in Romans 4 is an example of this.

Hope is not in the things of this world. It is in God. It it in His promises. In His glory.

The hard part of all of this is that hope often grows most in the hard times of life - it's also when it is most challenged. That's when we're looking for something more, something beyond what this world offers. Because know so much of this world disappoints us. We put our hope in something on earth and it fails us.

But, Romans 5 tells us that when our hope is in God's glory, it doesn't put us to shame. Other translations say hope does not disappoint. Hope in God is something that won't fail us.

As William Barclay writes:

"When a man's hope is in God it cannot turn to dust and ashes. When a man's hope is in God it cannot be disappointed. When a man's hope is in the love of God it cannot be an illusion, for God is loving us with an everlasting love, which is backed by an everlasting power." (William Barclay, Letter to the Romans, pg 73)

It all comes down to where we place our hope. When our hope is in God, it is secure.

What is Hope?

 Hope . . .

What does it mean?

How do you hold onto it when it seems to be taken away regularly?

Is there a place we can actually place our hope that won't fail or disappoint us?

These are questions I asked in a post a few weeks ago.

I didn't have answers then, but they were questions that were pulling me to dig into Scripture to look for answers. I've spent the last few weeks looking at all the places in Scripture I could find the word hope - looking for answers to my questions.

I actually started with looking up the dictionary definition of hope.

The definition, according to Merriam-Webster dictionary, was actually much broader than I expected. I realized that when we use it in our everyday lives, the problem doesn't come from the way we define it; it comes from somewhere deeper.

I've tried to figure out to summarize the definition I found and I couldn't. So I am going to share the definition here. (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hope)

intransitive verb

1 :to cherish a desire with anticipation :to want something to happen or be true

transitive verb

1 :to desire with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment

2 :to expect with confidence

noun

1 :desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment

     also :expectation of fulfillment or success

2 :someone or something on which hopes are centered

3 :something desired or hoped for

All of that seemed like what I hear and what I've talked and thought about when it comes to hope. So, there has to be something about it that we're still missing.

Why does the Bible talk about hope as being something we can be sure of?

If there's one thing we've learned as a whole in the last couple years, it's how quickly hope for something can disappear and we're left disappointed - trying to pick up the pieces again. Yes, as I read what the Bible has to say about hope, it seemed to point to something more stable, more sure.

As I was studying this, I found a definition of hope in my Bible dictionary that I found helpful. It says:

"Hope is a characteristic of genuine faith in God. Such hope is different from the hope people in general might speak of. It is not a mere wish for something, but a strong confidence that is placed in God." (Bridgeway Bible Dictionary, page 180)

That makes sense with my thoughts about it comes down to where we place our hope. 

The things that have disappointed and been suddenly yanked away in the last couple years are the things of this earth.

But God hasn't changed.

His Word hasn't changed.

His promises haven't changed.

So, a hope placed in God can't be taken away by something that happens in this world.

This is what gave the early Christians the boldness and the confidence to stand in the face of the opposition they faced. The book of Acts and Paul's letters are full of these declarations.

Near the end of his life and ministry, Paul says there words:

"And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today." (Acts 6:26)

We only have to skim a few of Paul's letters to the early church to know the price that he paid while holding onto this hope. There was something compelling about hope in what God has promised that kept Paul going, even in the face of difficult circumstances on earth.

So, I guess it all comes back to where we're placing our hope.

If it's in the things of this world, then we're going to find our hope easily shattered.

But, if it's in the things of God, then I can hold onto it no matter what this world brings our way.

It doesn't somehow make everything easy to place our hope in God and His promises. Life is still hard. But, it makes it possible not to lose all hope.