ελπίδα (Hope)

 Hope is a funny thing. We as humans put our faith in some many things day in and day out. In the things we can see, in the daydreams we hoard, in the delusions we’re hiding. We just keep hoping. It’s impossible for humans not to hope in something. It’s in our DNA. Believe me I’m aware that the enemy and the world tried his hardest everyday to shatter what little hopes we are preserving. Easily crushed because we too often put our hopes in the things that are fleeting. In created things and created begins that so easily change. Like the spring breeze fragrant and sweet pushed aside for summer’s heat. 

So then where you ask should we place our hope, our faith. My answer sound cliché but it’s the answer that has carried me through season of sunshine and season of rain. I place my hope in Jesus. My soon and coming king. Please make no mistake the walk with Christ has been frustrating. There have been disappointments that seem to follow me. But the distinction I must make is that the disappointments have come from life during the following not from the One I am following. 

In the following I come face to face with my humanity. I wrestle with flesh and the sins that so easily tempt me. I pick up my cross daily and often it feels too heavy for me. In the following there has been grief and surrendering. Dying daily to who I used to be. To who I thought I would be. There is loss and refining and sometimes it’s scary. But He… He has never been disappointing. He has been better than they claimed Him to be. He’s loved my humanity and wrestled with me. Forgiven my sins and carried the weight of my burdens with me. He has led me through valleys and wept at graves with me. Traded my dreams for His glory. Pulled me out of the refiner’s fire and said He was proud of me. He has loved me, waited for me, promised me eternity and everything in between. He is never disappointing. So in Him I continue hoping. 

Romans 3 : 3-5 in the CSB (Christian Standard Bible) it reads “And not only that,  but we also boast in our afflictions,  because we know that affliction produces endurance, ” “endurance produces proven character,  and proven character produces hope.” “This hope will not disappoint us,  because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts  through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

https://bible.com/bible/1713/rom.5.5.CSB

It was in the moments most painful I came to know Him. In those moments that He made me strong. That I learned to endure. That I tapped into a praise that truly saw me through. And what was proven to me above all was the character of God. He was everything He claimed to be and everything I would need. I saw laid out to me the truth of who He claimed to be in every verse, song, dream, sermon, and genealogy. That’s what produced the hope in me. That’s the hope that never disappoints me. It’s the knowledge that no matter the mountaintop or lowest of valleys He will be whatever I stand in need of. He is the same continuously from Genesis to Revelations and every verse in between. Poverty ? He’s a provider. Heartbroken ? He’s near. Weary? He gives rest. Trapped in sin? He gives forgiveness and correction. Fatherless? A good father is what He is. And when you are disappointed by misplaced hopes, He is hope to the hopeless. The list is truly endless. Choosing to put my hope in Him is the one decision I know I am sure to never regret. 

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