Hope: The In-Between
As followers of Jesus, how should we see the world?
“The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And then Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”
“This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
Jim Stockdale
Optimism failed and pessimism only made it darker
Biblical words for hope:
yakhal
qavah
elpis
5I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
Psalm 130:5
29He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:29-31
25The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
26it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
Lamentations 3:25-26
7But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord,
I wait for God my Savior;
my God will hear me.
Micah 7:7
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1 Peter 1:3-7
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33
What tension are you living in?
“We see waiting in horizontal terms – a delay in our forward progress. We measure waiting in miles and minutes that stand between us and our goal. But waiting in Biblical perspective is vertical – depending upon God in our shortfall. It is measured in terms of posture, not progress – yielding, relinquishing, trusting in Him rather than relying on ourselves. From this perspective, waiting is the strong stand of hope, the muscular confidence of faith.”
David W. Henderson