Hope: Lamentations 3:21-23

A few weeks ago, Holy Yoga, a Christian yoga organization, posted this caption on Instagram:

 “Do you know there are two types of hope, and each are incredibly different? There is “worldly hope”, the kind of heart and mind that says, “I hope this works out”, or “I hope He comes through”. And then there is “Biblical hope”, the kind of hope found throughout God’s Word that calls the believer to steadfast and unwavering faith in God and His promises. This is the hope that says, ‘I know in whom my hope lies and I know He is coming through for me.'”

Yes! I love this because it’s so true and it’s so important to have these distinct definitions. The way we talk about hope is often more about wishing. It expresses our feelings about something, not the reality of what actually is. This is not the type of hope God offers us!

When we talk about putting our hope in God, we’re not talking about wishing He’ll come through for us, we’re talking about knowing that he will. And how do we know? There’s a quote that I love from Thomas Smail about Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion. He says, “The Father that Jesus address in the garden is the one that he has known all his life and found to be bountiful in his provision, reliable in his promises and utterly faithful in his love. He can obey the will that sends him to the cross, with hope and expectation because it is the will of Abba whose love has been so proved that it can now be trusted so fully by being obeyed so completely. This is not legal obedience driven by commandment, but trusting response to known love.”

Similarly, the hope we have in God is a “response to known love”.

It’s a response to his faithfulness. I mess up a lot. But I can put my hope in God because time and time again I have seen him not give up on me, and love me and use me anyway. I can start to trust Him because His love is something proven, it’s something known. He is faithful, even when we are not.

Notice that God’s proven love doesn’t lead to a plan with no suffering in it; for Jesus, it lead to the cross. Suffering doesn’t negate God’s goodness. But because we have seen God’s goodness in the past, we can have confidence (i.e. hope!) that His plan will ultimately be for good. God is utterly faithful.

The other day I was blindsided by some difficult bible verses which made me question things. Suddenly, I lost hope. But this quote by Elisabeth Elliot came up; “Of one thing I am perfectly sure: God’s story never ends with ‘ashes.’” We may not know what the future looks like, but we can know the God in charge of it and He doesn’t do ending with ashes.

Let’s practice gratitude (even if we aren’t very good at it). If we don’t remind ourselves of God’s love and faithfulness, we can easily forget that that we’ve even experienced them. And without this certainty of God’s character, our hope can grow thin. If it already has, then remember Romans 5:8 – God loved us so much while we were still sinners that he died for us.

Are we putting our hope in stuff other than God, wishing for it to give us what we need, instead of putting our hope in God, knowing He will come through?