The title of this blog is something that I found written in my notes from sometime over these past few weeks, & the words make my heart swell every time I read them.
Hope is something I have run from time & time again in my life. It’s always been easy for me to tell others why they should have hope, but having it myself? No, thank you. I was perfectly content with my next-to-nothing expectations of what the Lord would make out of my circumstances. Because if I didn’t have hope, there were two possibilities; things go poorly & I can’t be let down, or things go well & I’m pleasantly surprised.
This, in the end, is just another way that I have tried to cling to some sort of control over my life. I figured that if I couldn’t control the outcome, I could at least control how attached to it I was. If I didn’t have hope, I couldn’t be let down, right? (Wrong.)
This is a miserable way to live, & it’s not even close to the way God intended for us to think.
Hope, by definition, is to cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true: to desire with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment: & to expect with confidence.
Biblically, hope is the confident expectation of what God has promised & its strength is in His faithfulness.
That sounds like such a good thing.
So why was I so afraid of it?
Probably for the same reason as the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4.
In 2 Kings 4, Elisha is passing through Shunem when he meets a well-to-do woman who insists that he stay at her home to eat & rest up as he travels.
To thank her, Elisha asks his servant to call the woman into the room.
He then says to her, “You’ve gone through all this trouble for us. What can be done for you?” He suggests that he could speak to the king or the commander of the army on her behalf.
She simply replies, “I have a home among my own people.”
I believe that this wasn’t the Shunammite woman showing humility, but fear; she was afraid to ask for a good thing because of the possibility of it not coming true.
But then Elisha says to the servant, “what can be done for her?”
& the servant replies, “she has no son, & her husband is old.”
Bingo. Deep down, what the woman longs for is a child — but she’s too afraid to make such a request.
Elisha declares to the woman, “about this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.”
The woman is distraught over his prophecy. “No, my lord!” she objects. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant.”
I can only imagine all of the thoughts she didn’t express in that moment. Why would he get my hopes up like that? Does he not know how badly I want this? I can’t bear this kind of disappointment.
Because that is how we often think, as humans plagued by our flesh.
It is easy to forget how good our God is.
We can place our hope in any & all of the Lord’s promises with full confidence, because He will never falter or go back on His word.
The gist of all of it? We don’t need to fear hope, because He is good, He is kind, He is faithful, & He is the God of abundance. It’s the truth; we just have to believe it.
He’s not going to dangle a good thing in front of you, allow you to desire it in your heart, & then rip it away from you. He’s not looking down on you with a smug look on His face when you allow yourself to hope for something. He’s not a teasing God.
He’s a God who provides for His children, & He doesn’t just give the bare minimum. He’s our father, after all. He wants what’s best for us. He wants to shower us in blessings. He gives nothing but life & He promises life abundant to those who seek Him first.
By not putting our hope in Him, we rob ourselves of the fullness of a life with Christ. Living without hope is living with disbelief. Lack of hope is lack of trust, & lack of trust is lack of faith.
So, let’s put our hope in the Lord. Let’s believe that He is good. Let’s hand Him our fear & give Him control. Let’s toss our safety nets & let go of the steering wheel.
He’s a much better driver, anyway.
Oh, & in case you were wondering – that Shunammite woman in 2 Kings?
She gave birth to a son about that same time the next year, just as Elisha had told her.
