Keep Hope Alive

One of the essential characteristics that a person needs in order to work with God is Hope. A lot of times we talk about faith, and of course we talk about love, but I don't know if we focus enough on Hope. In reading 1Corinthians chapter 13, the scripture states that in addition to faith and love, hope is essential in regards to our relationship with God.

The reason hope is so significant in serving God is because, a lot of times, God will allow things to look "hopeless." It wouldbe nice to think that when working with God, everything's going to be smooth sailing. Unfortunately, this is simply not the case. God will allow things to get to their lowest point. And when He does, you're going to need Hope in order to persevere and endure.

Hope can be described as the ability to believe in the prospect of tomorrow in spite of the dismal circumstances of today. When you put your faith in God, you're believing Him to be in control of the situation and to take care of you through it. When you put your hope in God, you're not trusting Him just for you, you're trusting Him for the outcome for which He has promised you. You're believing that, no matter what it looks like, the outcome is determined, and your hope in God is reflected in persistent expectation of what the outcome is going to be.

When the children of God were stuck at the Red Sea, with Pharoah's armies closing in behind them, their situation looked "hopeless."  It wasn't just a matter of having faith in God, it was a matter of keeping Hope alive that, regardless of the circumstances, this was not the end. There was still hope that God would deliver them.

When Jesus went to Calvary, and was arrested by the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Disciples lost Hope. It wasn't so much that they stopped believing in Jesus, but the outcome for which they had anticipated no longer looked promising. When they lost hope in what they expected, they jumped ship, even starting to deny that they even knew Jesus (John 18).

However, one of the greatest examples of hope was the thief on the cross. If you closely examine his request to Jesus, it was packed with hope. His words were, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom" (Luke 23). Don't miss the profundity of this request. Jesus was dying, and so was the thief. Both of them were being executed as criminals of the Roman state. How in the world can the thief talk about Jesus "coming into His Kingdom"? Because he had hope. He was not reacting to the drama of the crucifixion. He was not reacting to the political machinations of Pilate or the Sanhedrin. He was responding to the belief that Jesus was in fact the Messiah and that He would be raised from the dead and establish The Kingdom of God on earth.

Saints, my prayer is that, like the thief on the cross, we fixate our faith and our belief on who God is and the promises He has made to us as His children. Don't get lost in how you feel, don't get distracted by temporal situations and circumstances. Make sure to keep hope alive.