A Word Fitly Spoken: HOPE

Hope... it's a powerful word!  Lately, I've been seeing it in print, hearing it sung and reading about how God spoke hope into the hearts of His people.  Did you know the Bible mentions the word hope 150 plus times?

 

We usually use the word in expectation with a bit of doubt mixed in... "I hope I get an iPod for Christmas" or "I hope we'll go to Disney Land for vacation".  But when God speaks the word hope, it carries the idea of a confidence that something will happen.  Throughout the Old Testament God spoke of the coming Messiah and the people waited in confident expectation for the coming of their Savior and King.  In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit fills our hearts with the confidence that one day Jesus will come back to rule and reign on the earth.

We can tolerate a lot when we know there is hope.  A women can undergo a difficult pregnancy because she knows there is hope for relief at the end of nine months.  A person can endure a painful illness if they have hope the treatment will cure them.  A mom can survive a rough day at home with the kids if she has hope that dad will be home by supper.  A child can "suffer" through their chores when they have hope that they can play video games or play with their toys at the end of the day.

So, I've been seeing, hearing and reading about this word and wondered why.  I knew God must be trying to tell me something.  I began writing this article last evening still wondering why.  Then as I asked God and waited for Him to speak to my heart He told me!

God has spoken hope into my heart, but I'm not very good at speaking it into the hearts of my children.  I find myself holding back all the time.  They ask me if we can do something special over the weekend and I can't seem to give them a positive, definitive answer... I hold back with a "maybe" response.  I asked myself why I respond that way and the answer is that I'm afraid of disappointing my kids... if something should come up that is out of my control or maybe more honestly, if I don't feel like doing it when the weekend rolls around I have an "out".  I want my kids to understand, grasp and cling tightly to the hope they have in Christ and I believe God is telling me and showing me that I need to show them what hope can look like even though it's coming from a flawed mom.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."  ~Jeremiah 29:11

"So that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."  ~Titus 3:7

 

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."  ~I Peter 1:3

 

"For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."  ~Romans 15:4