Some days feel full of hope. While the very next void of it.
How do you share hope with a friend when life seems against them? When this friend has to discover truths on their own? When they need a burning bush? When so called believers have beat them down with their own legalistic way to the point of showing no mercy. Or judging without merit or knowledge.
Where is the hope for those of us who feel things deeply? Perhaps too deeply. We see the disparity in every facet of life. From the desperation of the third world to wasteful first world problems. We see those who stand preaching Christ yet their interactions lack grace and love. Modern day Pharisees concerned with their own law.
Hope can only be found in grace and in trusting the one who created us. Our hope is found in Christ.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
So simple to say. Yet why is it so difficult at times?
You hear others say just let go and let God. Oh how I hate churchy cliches.
But we’re human. Trust does not always come easily for many of us. For most of us I imagine. Products of a fallen world how can walking in His hope be easy?
Friends spew hurtful words. Why should we trust to only be hurt again?
Releasing control opposes what the world teaches us. Opposes our own nature.
Yet we must learn to trust.
Maybe in learning to trust is where we find the hope. Reminding ourselves, even disciplining ourselves, to think upon all He has done. If we look back and see the ways He has carried us we will remember we can trust.
I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work And muse on Your deeds. Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples. (Psalm 77:11-14 NASB)
And that is the crux isn’t it? The hope is found in the trusting.
As I researched the Hebrew words for wait two struck me. Qavah is often translated to wait. Qavah means “to bind together” perhaps by twisting strands as in making a rope. Isn’t it in the binding that trust is found?
The second word damam means “to be dumb, grow silent, be still.”
I do not claim to be a theologian or expert in Hebrew.
So we bind ourselves through prayer. Discipline our minds and hearts to seek Him through study and prayer.
And then we. Simply. Be. Still.
We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust his holy name. Psalm 33:20-21
If we daily wait on Him, twist ourselves into Him, meditate on all He has done and learn to be still resting in Him then our heart will know how to trust.
How to hope.
