Category: Hope

Letters whose topic focuses on Hope

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Naomi ~ Hoping in God’s Goodness

Dear Sister,

I am the poster child for Worrier-Extraordinaire. This is not a good thing. Not only does it cause me to fret and age before my time, those around me get to experience the fall out of wife/mom who is stressed, and (the most distressing part of this), NOTHING is accomplished.

I know this, yet I still worry and stress about things that have not happened, may never happen, and over which I usually have little to no control. However, I justify the worry by insisting I am planning, thinking ahead; or by replaying the wrong done to me (or by me), trying to craft a new outcome(?!). In searching the Word for another worrier, I found one who seemed fully justified in her worry and despair—Naomi. Her husband and sons were dead; and she was living in a culture alien, hostile to her own and during a time when women were not wage earners. She was staring into a bottomless pit. She even stated, “the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me.” Ruth 1:13b.

Naomi was so wrapped up in her worry and despair that it took the faith and loyalty of her Moabite daughter-in-law for her to begin to see God’s goodness again. When Ruth came home from her first gleaning trip to Boaz’ fields, Naomi told Ruth, “…it is good my daughter, that you go out with his [Boaz’] maids…” (Ruth 2:22), this ‘good’ is not just a casual “ok”, but it has the connotations of beautiful, best, bountiful, joyful, precious, etc. In the midst of their darkness and sorrow, God had not forgotten, nor were His purposes thwarted. I wonder if Naomi now dances before the King, still wondering why she fretted when He had such magnificent plans for her family.

My family and I recently completed one of those military moves that are fun to joke about when they happen to someone else. I worried, fussed, pouted, and cancelled the move multiple times, yet it still happened. We did finally get a house and our goods arrived, we moved in and got on with the business of living. Yet, the worry and frustration still dogged me. I have come to the conclusion that I may never know what God’s plan was in all the intricacies and difficulties of the move, and that is ok. I can find the good—the beautiful, best, bountiful, joyful precious good He has for me right here, right now.

I am still a planner, but I will try to plan without brooding—communicating my thoughts and frustrations sooner than later. I can identify when I am wronged, not for the purpose of seeking justice for myself, but to determine how to forgive. Finally, I will be more like Ruth who simply got up and started working; and like Naomi, who began to dare to hope in God’s goodness. He is worthy of our hope, and gives abundantly to His children. “Then the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed is the Lord who has not left you without a redeemer today, and may his name become famous in Israel. May he also be to you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age…’” Ruth 4:14-15a.

Running with you,

Rebecca

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Eagerly Waiting with Perseverance

Dear sister,

At first ‘hope in troubled times’ sounded like a no-brainer to me. After all, that oh-so-familiar Jeremiah 29:11 says “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” We have hope because we have Christ, right? …Right? I have to be honest: I can quote verses about hope all day, but I have a hard time knowing what that’s supposed to feel like.

Read Romans 8:16-25. We are children and heirs of God if we suffer with Christ in order to be glorified with Him. Paul says our suffering now is “not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (v18). God subjected creation to unwilling futility (pointlessness or uselessness) “in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption” (v21). He says creation and even we who are children of God “groan together in the pains of childbirth” (v22-23) “as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (v23). “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (v24-25). The NKJV translates verse 24 not just as waiting with patience but says we “eagerly wait for it with perseverance”. That is what hope is.

Okay, eager perseverance, sure. But it’s a lot easier to identify with Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” If we’re hoping toward “the glory that is revealed to us” it may be a long time before we get to see the inheritance we have been promised.

In Romans 12:12 Paul tells the church to “rejoice in hope”. Proverbs 10:28 says “The hope of the righteous brings joy” (NKJV “The hope of the righteous will be gladness”). This reminds me of Romans 5:2-5 “[W]e rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” And that parallels James 1, the ”Consider it all joy…” passage. James tells us “the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Hope—even when it seems like it’s all we can do to hold on by our fingernails, never mind that “eagerly” thing—produces patience, steadfastness, perseverance. And that is the process we are going through, the refiner’s fire, that will make us ready to take the place Jesus bought us as sons and heirs with Himself. And what is that like?

“’Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’” (Revelation 21:3-4)

My prayer for you this month is with Paul: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” (Romans 15:13)

 

Rejoicing in hope,
Sarah

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Christmas Hope: Painted on the Scene of Despair

Cheer and hope is in the air this season, as we all flit around giving gifts and taking in the Christmas lights and sights.  But on that cool night in the Bethlehem inn, there was hardship, discouragement, and I’d bet there were even moments of despair.  Mary had been given a joyous task, but I am certain it was a chore to take the journey away from home, quite pregnant, to give birth to the Holy Child, Jesus.  And Joseph had his moments of discouragement and despair, I am sure.  His beautiful betrothed was with child…and before he had the vision to let him in on the what was happening, I can only guess that he was losing hope, having planned to ‘to divorce her secretly’, Matthew 1:19, HCSB…if my wedding had been called off, after all the excitement of planning and preparation, I’m sure I would have been feeling lots of despair.  Even the time in history God chose to paint the landscape of the Nativity Story was a dark one.  The governmental powers and challenges were tense, the rebuilding of the temple was slow and not nearly as grand as the previous one, and there had been no revelations from God for hundreds of years.  [source:  my knowledgeable former-pastor husband]
The events leading up to the birth of Christ were despairing in many senses.  And yet, isn’t this often how God chooses to work?  I know in my own life, numerous times, God has chosen dark times to break forth with the grandest displays of joy and hope.  My mid-twenties proved to be quite discouraging, but this was followed by a season of such joy, meaning, and encouragement.  You’ve heard the saying, ‘the night is always the darkest just before the dawn…” Joy and Hope shine brightest after the darkness of despair.
​But what does this have to do with you, this Christmas?  I believe it not only relates to what was happening on that quiet, holy night in Bethlehem, but it is what happens in each one of our souls on a regular basis.  We are all going through personal and public struggles, fighting against our sin nature, the world, and the devil.  We are striving to put aside our sin and despair, to CHOOSE the hope, peace and joy that are ours in Christ.  This Christmas, may I encourage you to keep fighting that fight?  Whatever your struggle may be, there is always hope in Christ.  Christ came on the scene during a dark time….and I urge you, He wants to come on the scene for you personally this Christmas…to be born anew in your heart, to be the hero for you, for your situation, for this lost and dying world.  That is the joy and hope of Christmas, my friend.  And it is ours for the taking.  
 
Hope is a candle
A light in the window
Showing the way for
A heart to come home
Hope is a Savior
Who was born in the manger
Sent down from Heaven
To rescue our hearts
Our Christmas hope
 
–The Christmas Hope, NewSong
 
Merry Christmas to You and to All You Hold Dear!  Ruth

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God’s Plan Is My Hope

My Dearest Sister,

You may or may not know this, but I am the kind of person who likes to have a plan for everything. Knowing what’s going to happen next makes me feel grounded, secure and like everything is under control. You could definitely say that I am not a “fly by the seat of my pants” kind of person. While this may just seem like a funny little quirk, as I’m sure my husband will tell you it can be a real problem sometimes, especially when my plans start to fall apart. Being an Army wife, it can be especially difficult at times because there’s so much of the future that is unknown. Where will we be stationed after flight school? When will my husband get deployed? How long will it be until I can see my family back home again? It’s hard to plan around the unknown. But if I don’t make sure everything is in order, who will, right? Maybe you have felt this way yourself at some point.

This anxiety about the future has been on my mind a lot lately. It wasn’t until I had utterly “freaked” myself out about what our plans for the future were going to be that I remembered a favorite passage in Jeremiah: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). It was almost as if God was saying “Hey, Lauren, you need to calm down and relax. Remember the peace I have in mind for you. Hope in me and the future I have planned for you, not the plan you’re designing for yourself.” As soon as I read that passage, it was like the floodgates of hope just opened up. God has everything under control. Even if I don’t know the plan, I can be sure that He only has my good in mind. I can always hope and rely on God’s goodness. What a reassurance that was to me! No matter how thoroughly I plot my plans can always fall apart, but God’s plans for me never fail. I always have a hope for the future in Him.

As marvelous as this promise is, the concept of hope extends even further. Not only do we have a reason to hope for our future in this life, but we have a greater and more glorious hope in the next eternal one. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 highlights this hope: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day…. we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” When we are in Christ, we have a hope that surpasses our earthly troubles and worries. Too often we focus on the temporary of this life, the perishing things around us. What we should be focusing on are the spiritual things that are eternal and don’t pass away because that is where our hope is secure. So while the sea of life may be rough and toss us about in its swells, as Hebrews 6:19 says about the promise of eternal life in Christ, “this hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.” Even the waves of trials and heartaches – though they may be great – cannot overcome our hope in Christ. For you see, dear sister, even the pain and suffering on this earth have an end. When we start looking past the temporary and focus on the endless hope we have in Christ, suddenly the temporary isn’t as daunting anymore.

Even though I am trying to hope and trust in God’s plan for my future, it is very difficult sometimes. At least if I write down a schedule, I can see it and understand it because it’s directly in front of me. It is much harder to hope in the unseen things. But as Romans 8:24 so poignantly says “hope that is seen is not hope, for why does one still hope for what he sees?” Therefore, we can only hope in the unseen, the spiritual truths of God, not in the sure things of this life. Oh, how marvelous the Word of God is, the way it challenges us to change! And so, dear sister, I urge you to join me in focusing on your hope in Christ for your future, and not leaning only on your own plans for yourself; to remember your hope is not just in this temporary life, but in the eternal. What a better season to change our focus than this Christmas? Let us celebrate together the birth of the One who brought hope to the world, not just a temporary hope, but an eternal one. For while the visible things of this world will pass away, nothing can take away the hope we have in our Savior.

Your loving sister in Christ,
~ Lauren

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Our Rock, Our Hope

Dear Sister,

Are you enjoying the festivities of this wonderful Christmas season?  Christmas is my favorite time of year and it is my heartfelt expectation that you would be joyful as we celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Redeemer, Savior, King and our only HOPE.

Amazingly enough, the sound of HOPE permeates the air through the ringing of Salvation Army volunteers, children’s lists for Santa Claus, and the resolutions for the New Year.  There is hope for the store retailers that their shelves will be emptied by December 24, and that there will be no returned items on December 26.  There is hope for a father to keep his job.  There is hope for a family to be reunited with their loved one serving in the military.

Every moment in our life there is hope—that the car will last another month, or that the bills could be paid, or that the marriage will get better, or that the cancer will go away.  We hope for an early spring, for a job promotion, for a winning season, for a good report card.  We have hope…that longing, sometimes, aching of the heart, which appears as a light at the end of the tunnel, the silver lining of a cloud, the smile that follows a sigh.

Have you felt sometimes that your hope is dwindling dear one?  Perhaps I can encourage you.

“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” Are you familiar with this hymn? Remember the refrain? “On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.”

This old hymn is eternally relevant and reminds us that we may enjoy the beauty of God’s creation, the loveliness of seasons, the coziness of home and family, the security of a job, and safety in our country—but we must not make these things our hope.   Alongside all these blessings, we might, also, suffer poverty, illness, tragedy, confrontation, heartache—and we must not bear these afflictions with hopelessness.

With the God-given gift of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are able to enjoy and endure, knowing that our eternal home is not in this world, but in heaven with Him.   Jesus Christ, our solid ROCK, is our hope! “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  Colossians 1:27.

Stand on the ROCK with me, my friend, and be encouraged.  There is no one better than Jesus Christ to know all about life in this world.  He created this world, lived in this world and sustains this world.  What glory He receives when a person’s heart is touched by the Holy Spirit and that person trusts in Christ alone for his eternal joy!

Mild he lays his glory by;

Born that man no more may die,

Born to raise the sons of earth,

born to give them second birth.

Hark! The herald angels sing;

“Glory to the newborn King.”

 

Have a Blessed Christmas, full of joy and hope!

Mimi