Hope

There are nights when we go to bed with hope.  There are mornings we rise with it knowing that without it, we might as well fall back into deep sleep.  It is what keeps us going even when the deck is stacked against us and impossible is the only word which really makes any sense to us.  Hope is an amazing thing.  It is that gift which keeps us going.  It causes us to look for God to act even as we have been wondering in the deep places of our heart if He is even around watching.  Hope keeps us from giving up.  It keeps us pointed toward going.

 

In the 8th chapter of Romans, Paul was inspired to write so many wonderful words that some of the in between verses slip away into the obscurity.  If you are a verse of scripture, you do not want to be a verse after Romans 8:1 which trumpets, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."  The same can be said of those verses which follow Romans 8:11 and Romans 8:18.  And, of course, no verse in its right mind wants to follow Romans 8:28 or Romans 8:37-39.  Paul simply outdid himself when he penned this particular section of his letter to the Romans.  One of those more obscure verses is the 24th and 25th.  "For in hope we are saved.  Now hope that is seen is not hope.  For who hopes for what is seen?  But, if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."  What a Word!  It is food for the broken spirit, the crying heart, and the thirsty soul.

 

Is it not amazing the way God speaks to us through His Word?  Is it not true that the Word written so long ago, inspired by the Holy Spirit, sometimes seems to us like a Word written just yesterday with our very life in view?  Is it not amazing that God could and would write such a powerful and timeless Word for those He calls to be His own?  Ah, this hope in the heart.  It is indeed the very thing which connects intimately to the God who saves us, delivers us, and is intending to bring us home.