Standing In Hope

9/11/05

 

 

What’s it like to be robbed of hope?

 

Pr. 13:12  Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

 

The word "deferred" literally means “delayed in fulfillment.”

 

Just because hope is delayed doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

 

Satan is a liar, a cheat and a stealer.  He wants to rob you of your hope.  Hopelessness leaves you in utter despair.

 

Clare Booth rightly wrote, "There are no hopeless situations; there are only men who have grown hopeless about them."

 

As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is a mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength. Like all the Christian virtues, it is as unreasonable as it is indispensable.

G. K. Chesterton

 

I like what Robert C. Shannon wrote:

 

"The situation is hopeless, but not serious." The child of God is never left without hope!

 

No one has immunity against periods of hopelessness.

 

Luke had given up all hope.

 

Acts 27:18 We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. ¹⁹On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. ²⁰When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.

 

Hope is something others can see in you.

 

1 Pet. 3:15 But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

¹⁶ keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

 

Life with Jesus is an endless hope, without him a hopeless end.

 

It is never the will of God that His children be without hope!

 

God wants us to see that life without Him is hopeless.

 

Eph. 2:11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)—¹²remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. ¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

 

How does hope grow in our life and how do we protect it?

 

1.  Be careful where you put your hope.

 

Ps. 33:16 No king is saved by the size of his army;

no warrior escapes by his great strength.

¹⁷A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;

despite all its great strength it cannot save.

 

1 Tim. 6:17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

 

2.  As we study God’s Word and take it into our heart, our hope grows.

 

Rom. 15:4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

 

How do we know His promises if we don’t study His Word?

 

Jer. 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

 

3.  Hope cannot grow if you isolate yourself from others.

 

Heb. 10:23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

²⁴ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

²⁵ Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

 

4.  Being teachable and desiring to know God’s ways develops godly hope.

 

Ps. 25:4 Show me your ways, O LORD,

teach me your paths;

⁵guide me in your truth and teach me,

for you are God my Savior,

and my hope is in you all day long.

 

5.  It is impossible to have faith without hope.  So it is impossible to please God without hope!

 

Heb. 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

 

Heb. 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

 

6.  We guard our hope when we walk with spiritual eyes and not our physical eyes.

 

Rom. 8:24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?

²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

 

Rom. 4:18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be."

¹⁹ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--since he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah's womb was also dead.

²⁰ Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,

²¹ being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

²² This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness."

²³ The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone,

²⁴ but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness--for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

 

7.  It’s extremely hard to have hope if you doubt God’s love for you.

 

Pr. 33:18 But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him,

on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,

¹⁹ to deliver them from death

and keep them alive in famine.

 

8.  Hope must be patient.

 

Ps. 33:20 We wait in hope for the LORD;

he is our help and our shield.

²¹In him our hearts rejoice,

for we trust in his holy name.

²²May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD,

even as we put our hope in you.

 

9.  Having a hope that goes beyond all reason requires supernatural power.

 

Rom. 15:13 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.

 

10.  Your spirit man has to take control over your flesh man.

 

Ps. 42:5 Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and ⁶my God.

 

Ps. 42:11 Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

 

Ps. 43:5 Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.