Psalm 33: 20-22 “Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.” (vs. 22)

 

You know that great hymn “My Hope is in the Lord”? We talk and sing about hope as if we really get it, but often we are left really asking ourselves what is Christian hope?  As I finished up this psalm and read a bunch of articles on hope, I came up with this acrostic for Hope.

 

H: Humility
First, we need to see ourselves as who we really are in light of who God is.  We are sinful creatures in need of a Sovereign Savior.  There is no hope in me, but there is hope in my ability to humble myself before God (2 Chron. 7:14, James 4:10).

 

O: Obedience – during bends in the road/Uuexpected randomness of life
All I have to do is look through Scripture at those that God met along the road and brought them through and I see obedience over and over again.  Hope came into the world on Christmas because of the obedience of two people in spite of the craziness of it all.

 

P: Promises and Purposes
The basis for our hope is found in the way God has kept His promises in the past. Our story begins in the Garden of Eden in those tragic few moments after Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit. From that moment sin spread out across the earth, staining everything it touched.

 

What would God do? How would He deal with people who had chosen to turn away from Him? Would He destroy Adam and Eve and start over again? No, hHope begins with the simple observation that God didn’t give up on the human race. God was determined to do something! He would not let Satan win the battle for planet earth.

 

The rest of the Old Testament is the unfolding of God’s plan to counteract what happened in Eden. At that point in time God made a promise that, while vague, was the first glimmer of hope after the fall. The promise in its purest form was this: God would do something about sin by sending someone to the earth, and that it was and is His desire to have a relationship with us and to be our God and to lead us into a life full and victorious.

 

E: Expectation
We can also find hope in the present, help that comes from the Lord. One of my favorite verses is Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in the time of trouble.”  I find it comforting that God’s help comes “in” the time of trouble. First, you’ve got to be in trouble (something that isn’t difficult for most of us). Second, when we are in the midst of trouble, God sends His help and proves to be our refuge and our strength. There is great hope in the help God supplies in the midst of our troubles. Be patient. Wait on the Lord. Those who hope in Him will not be put to shame.

 

God’s PLANS: It’s very possible that with each New Year you are reminded of your problems and the things in life that are not the way you wish they were. And you may even feel like giving up. In his sermon on this topic, Pastor Walt Gerber reminds us that we have two grounds for hope even in the darkest moments: 1) God is at work engineering your circumstances in ways that you cannot see, and 2) He can forge good out of what seems hopeless and even evil.

 

FUTURE HOPE: Finally, there is great hope in what the future holds for the children of God. “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” 1 Corinthians 13:12. “Now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” 1 John 3:2.

 

Hope means better days are coming. Things won’t always be the way they are now. May you Rest and Live Daily in HOPE!

 

Dr. Lynne Jahns
Christian Counselor