Hope

Hope is the confident expectation that the Lord will perform what he has promised. Hope is inseparable from faith. Faith says, “I trust in God; he is faithful; none of his promises will fail to come to pass.” Faith folds into hope, supports hope, and in turn is supported by hope: “God can do this, and he has promised to do it, so I will be confident in him. The future is not bleak,” as unbelief complains, “but bright, for God has promised.”

                Hope is willing to wait upon the Lord. Hope does not need to see the sun to feel the warmth of God’s promises. This is the reason “we are saved by hope” (Rom. 8:24). The hour and way of a specific promise’s fulfillment is hidden from us. We do not know when deliverance will come or when we shall see the face of Jesus Christ. But we know, for God is faithful. Hope thinks upon God’s faithfulness and faces the future not with sober-minded confidence that God is working and keeps his promises.

                Hope is so important that it is part of God’s armor: “the helmet of the hope of salvation” (1 Thess. 5:8 w/ Eph. 6:17). The helmet of salvation that defeats Satan’s discouraging attacks is hope. Specifically, hope of salvation – these present shadows of grief will one day in an instant be a distant memory and an occasion to bless the Lord. The Lord will one day soon save us completely from sin in all its ugly consequences – mind, soul, and body. The cloudy, discouraging thoughts that plague many believers will one day never again trouble us – never. In heaven, there is no depression, no tears, no pain, no sighing. All the causes for distress, disillusionment, and disappointment will be conquered fully by the fellowship and glory of the eternal God enjoyed in Jesus Christ.

                Hope is on our head like a helmet because headspace is vital. We are thinking, reasoning creatures. We are to love the Lord with our minds (Matt. 22:37) and cast down our false, worried, worldly, or sinful imaginations (2 Cor. 10:4). We may not obsess or think how bad things are likely to become, or plan for the worst, or allow the downward spiral of circumstances to lay hold upon our thoughts. We are to cast off all these vain imaginations. If we give them free rein, they will crush hope and make us discouraged. Worse, they will rob God of his rightful praise as the most blessed Person in the universe and our joy to know and serve! It is much better to stand inside the fire with him like the three Hebrew children, than like Nebuchadnezzar watching the fire outside.

We are to hope in God. We are to think about what he is doing through our struggles, how they are working for our greater joy and peace and praise in the future. In the present, hopeful thinking is part of our armor. Hope is not the fruit of everything going your way and no cloud on the horizon. Hope is the fruit of feeding your thoughts, filling your heart, and praising God for his (1) promises, (2) his character, and (3) his glorious future for us.

First, hope as armor means that the flesh (the old man of sin in every believer that fights to regain supremacy) fights to discourage us, or to give only worldly encouragement so that we trust not in the Lord but in worldly means to feel better about ourselves or about our lives. Despair is one of Satan’s best tools – despair that God will not keep his promises, or has forgotten you, or allows bad things to happen to you. Faith looks at God’s character and slays these monsters of doubt with (1) God’s promises: “I will never leave or forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). “There shall no evil happen to the righteous” (Prov. 12:21). “And we know that God is causing all things to work together for good to those who love him” (Rom. 8:28). “It is I; be not afraid” (Matt. 14:27). “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are unworthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18). Hope grows as we bind our thoughts to God’s thoughts, to his promises that are a blood-sealed covenant with us in Christ. His thoughts must define our reality, and then we must praise him for his promises. Praising God for his promises is vital, for praising kills a brooding, complaining, and morose spirit. It drives away unbelief’s dark shadows with the melodies of heavenly promises.

Here is where we often fail. We are tempted to think, “Yes, but these things do not apply to me.” Or “My circumstances, mental issue, and sins are too great for such promises to make much difference.” Wait – we put more stock in how we feel than what God has promised? More stock in the strength of our circumstances than in the omnipotence, love, and loveliness of our great God? This is what doubting and hopelessness come down to: my darkness is more powerful than God’s light, my circumstances than God’s power and promises. To affirm this, I warn us all, is to affirm that the devil is stronger than God, darkness stronger than light, and evil stronger than our Savior and his cross. Hopelessness in God is thus satanic, and in the believer, a satanic attack we must fight with God’s armor.

For, (2) God’s character is faithful and true, holy and sovereign. Fill your thoughts (“be renewed in the spirit of your mind” – Eph. 4:22-24) – with who he is. Repent of the atheism that makes him less than he is, or elevating your problems above his power, above his wise designs for you. He is our God and Father, and he works all things according to the purpose of his own will (Eph. 1:11). And since he has chosen us in Christ, this means that our present hardships are part of his design to perfect us, to do us good, to teach us to depend upon his strength, and to give us greater joy in heaven. The pain in the present can be real, and the discouragement, but hope says that God and his promises are more real. Therefore, it yields: “Hope in God” (Ps. 42:5). Yes, I will hope in the God who made everything, rules everything, has ordained good for me, and promises to work all things together for the good of his people.

Hope, then, keeps looking at future glory, (3) God promises a glorious future. Faith and hope do not have to possess heaven now to believe in heaven and to enjoy the glorious future of heaven in the present. Hope never believes that present troubles can pull down the cross of Christ, or dislodge him from his throne, or ruin his wise designs. Again, however, hope is like a helmet – you have to keep pulling it down tightly over your head. Missiles of doubt knock the helmet crooked sometimes, may even knock it off. Pick it back up, believer. We are not Christians on the condition that we shall never lose hope but on the promise of the risen Christ that he will always pick us up again.

If you have lost hope, spend time each day thinking what God has done for you in Christ. Prayerfully read over Ephesians 1, Romans 8, and 2 Corinthians 4-5. Put your helmet back on. Hope must be fed with God’s word. Think also that through your present difficulties, the Lord is working glory for you. How will you ever enjoy heaven as paradise and rest if you did not fight here as a good soldier of Christ? Think what Christ is presently doing for you – praying for you, advocating for you before the Father, ruling over all your enemies and his, gathering all things under his headship, and waiting expectantly until all his enemies are placed beneath his feet. Yes, our Savior is hoping also in his Father’s promises. Hope with him. Soon, faith and hope will be realized in perfect love and glory. Trust God to use his promises to drive away the night of despair and rebuild hope in your life. Hope in him. He is the light that guides us through the darkest caves of fear.