Hope: the Encourager
Copyright 2006 Ann Stewart
Hope is the master encourager. It nudges you forward; it keeps you anticipating the desired outcome. Hope is much more than ‘a-hoping and a-praying’, knock-on-wood, cross-your-fingers kind of wishful thinking. No! The Biblical Hope is the key to a healthy, happy, abundant life!
Just imagine life without hope. Yes, millions of people are living in that desperate state. They are depressed, contemplating suicide, and suffering from physical and mental anguish.
Without hope there can be no faith! “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1) Therefore, if you’re not hoping for something good to happen, how can your faith be put to work? Hope is the process of making the vision in your mind’s eye a reality. It is knowing that God wants the very best for you and wants you to wait patiently for it. You know what you want. The more you start thinking about the desired outcome and speaking it out loud, the more real it becomes.
“Hope deferred maketh the heart sick; but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.” (Prov. 13: 12) Do not ever let anyone talk you out of your desires. If you know that your desire is God’s Will for your life, then faith kicks in and makes it happen! Hope is the process of expecting, building patience, and accessing the throne of God.
If you are in a desperate situation right now, there is hope! “We glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Rom. 5: 3-5)
Every single promise in the Bible is yours! Keep the vision of what you want to accomplish firm in your mind. Do as Abraham did. God swore to him that he would bless and multiply him. Abraham took His word and, “after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.” (Heb. 6: 14-15) How much more than, are you able to hope? Abraham took God’s Word, started walking, and eventually found the place where God directed him. You will find your desired end if you walk according to God’s Promises. However, you must start “walking!” You are led by the Holy Spirit. Leading someone implies that you are in motion. If a good job is your immediate goal, then go out on your quest to find it. Ask God to close the doors on those that are not his best for you, but open the door wide for the one He has waiting for you!
Hope is the forerunner of faith. It is “an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast.” (Heb. 6:19) Abraham walked in hope before he was ever the “father of faith.” You were “saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”
As your Christian walk progresses, so does your love. Faith, hope and love are interconnected; but the greatest of these is love. (1Cor. 13:13) Therefore, the more your love for Him grows, the more you hope, and the greater your faith becomes. Love “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things.” (1 Cor. 13:7)
“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” (Rom. 15: 13)