“Set your minds on things above not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:2
When you hear the word hope, what comes to mind? Wishful thinking or something deeper?
In the book of Job, we are presented with a man so righteous that Satan desires deeply to demonstrate that the reason behind Job’s righteousness is the continued blessings God had bestowed upon him. Remove the blessings, remove the righteousness. In other words, trial reveals where man’s true hope lies. But this is where Satan’s thinking went wrong.
Job may have lost every earthly thing but his mind and heart didn’t dwell solely in that realm, his hope was in something bigger than material things. This is where the difference between wishful thinking and true hope lie. Wishful thinking is banking on luck – circumstances may change but what happens when they don’t? Anxiety and despair can set in. However, hope is having a good expectation, a sort of confidence in a future event regardless of the outcome.
In Job 17:15, Job asks “Where then is my hope? As for my hope, who can see it?” At first glance, you may think that Job is giving up. He is, after all, at a potential breaking point. Yet the preceding verses shine light upon Job’s meaning. “If I wait for the grave as my house, if I make my bed in my darkness, if I say to corruption “You are my father” and the worm, “You are my mother and my sister”, Where then is my hope?” Job knew the difference between despair and hope and he chose to remain hopeful.
CALL TO ACTION
RC Sproul, a theologian, once said that hope gives us stability because it “latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made.” How can you ensure that your hope is in heavenly and not earthly things?
KNOW GOD’S PROMISES – The Bible is filled with God’s promises to His people! He promises to love us, to save us, to protect us, to be a refuge for us in times of trouble, to deliver us, to prosper us, to forgive us, and much more. Our God is a God who does not break His promises!
TRUST GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY – We don’t have to understand the “why” behind every circumstance. As Christians, our hope, our confidence, should be in God’s plan for us and for His Kingdom. If we refuse to let Him take the wheel, than we are insisting that hope is found in ourselves and not Him.
LET YOUR HOPE SHINE – Charles Spurgeon wrote “Hope itself is like a star – not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity.” How many times have you been encouraged by someone’s faith or hope in times of adversity? Let your hope shine in moments where Satan wants you to curl up in despair – you never know how God will use you to encourage hope in someone else.
“Where there is no hope in the future, there is no power in the present.” -John Maxwell
Tracy LaBreche