Having Hope

I came across a quote this morning that read, "Hope is putting faith to work when doubting would be easier."   While it's not a definitive word on hope,  it gives it a very practical way of approaching how we employ it in our lives.

When we say, "I hope I get to work on time tomorrow" or "I hope I do well on tomorrow's test" or "I hope I get that promotion," we are not challenging ourselves to believe but simply exercising wishful thinking for which we feel relatively good about the possibilities.

Biblical hope is something much deeper than that.  It is finding the power to believe in an outcome that our circumstnances and our power to control outcomes are not in our favor, when it seems that everything is stacked up against us and the odds makers would give us little to no chance of success.

Biblical hope lives in a place where it cannot be seen by simple observation nor is it found by weighing out the odds or getting a guarantee from someone in authority.  Biblical hope exists in the face of physical helplessness, financial powerlessness and social emptiness.

Biblical hope stacks everything we see in a fallen world, where sin and death rule (cf. Romans 5:12-21) against the promises of God to "work all thing to the good of those that love him" (Rom 8:28).  It rises in the face of the pain and loss and suffering we experience in this life, "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Heb 11:1).

Having biblical hope is to live in confidence under the banner of a good and powerful God, who has "overcome the world" (Jn 16:33) and has given "us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor 15:57).  It exists when the pressure to give up and give in is great but the need to give over to Him is the only possible path to this victory.

An example of this hope is given in the celebration of Good Friday, where nothing good was being seen visibly as Christ went to the Cross but more good than could be imagined was realized on Resurrection Sunday when Jesus walked out of the grave and won the victory over sin and death forever more.  Jus' Say'n.