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Hope That Will Not Be Denied (Part 1)

This blog has two parts. This first part, Hope That Will Not Be Denied, considers what undying hope accomplishes for the believer, and the second part reports HOW God instills hope in us in the midst of life’s storms, “Hope Walks the Path Ahead with Inner Peace.”

Abraham’s life is proof of the necessity of faith to personally receive and live by God’s promises. His faith was lived out in the presence of the God “who gives life to the dead” (think Jesus Christ raised in glory) and “calls into existence the things that do not exist” (think a Holy Spirit-infused Christ-follower). What has captured my attention is that Abraham’s active faith, like my own, could be described as an undying hope, or in the words of Abraham’s Romans 4 story, a “hope against hope” (Romans 4:13-25) Later in Romans (Romans 15:4, 11-13) the Scriptures teach faith like Abraham’s can be described as an “abounding hope” — or being born again to a “LIVING hope” as Peter describes it (1 Peter 1:3-6). Now, that is true comfort for the soul in trouble! And in the perspective of this blog, proof of the Holy Spirit’s power rising up within us who believe in Jesus Christ.

Now, that is true comfort for the soul in trouble! And in the perspective of this blog, proof of the Holy Spirit’s power rising up within us who believe in Jesus Christ.

This blog has two parts. The first will consider what undying hope accomplishes for the believer, and the second will try to answer the question in practical terms, “How does God comfort His people?”[3]

Hope That Will Not Be Denied

What is the difference between the following two thoughts?

“I wonder if there really is someone beyond me to believe in and center my life upon? Yes, there is! I know with absolute certainty there is. His name is Jesus Christ.”

“When it comes right down to it, I am really all alone, no one really understands and accepts me (I don’t even understand and accept myself) and I wonder why there is any reason to keep living in this messed up, crazy world.

What is the word that captures what’s at stake between those two thoughts?

HOPE!

The difference between those two thoughts points to either the power or the emptiness of a living hope in my spirit.

Twice in my life I’ve felt a visceral terror rising up in my soul. I’m thankful it has been only twice because both times it felt as though I was adrift in an ocean, couldn’t swim any longer, and no rescue was in sight.

The first time I felt Fear was the night Julia died, and the second during a more recent Sunday night. Both times that gut-level fear came at the thought that perhaps God was just a nice idea and in reality, I was all alone in this vast universe and life was truly meaningless.

The first Fear followed on the heels of the undeniable fact that Julia was GONE from this life —  and the feeling there was no God loving me, for me. The second Fear came as I looked at the weaknesses emerging in my aging body, my physical exhaustion, and my inability recently to get a sense of purpose for this season of my life.

The life-changing difference…

BOTH times God comforted me with a hope that would not be denied.

Adrift in an ocean of FEAR when I couldn’t swim any longer and no rescue was in sight, HOPE rose up in my soul and anchored me in the life-giving presence of God’s Spirit.

Hope returned the first time when the Abba Father’s presence seemed to come and fill the silence and emptiness of my home. His love became so real that I began to equate the stillness of my home in Julia’s absence with His love for me.

The second time hope would not be denied came after I quoted all the Scriptures I could remember against the darkness, praying for the Lord Jesus to deliver me from the spiritual attack and lift up my struggling soul. He did by giving me the gift of hope.

Hope was threatened to death in my soul by life events, but both times it came back — like dawn after a dreary, dark night — because the GOD of hope was more real than the Fear. [4]

That rising up of hope when all for a moment seems lost is perhaps the most fundamental way God comforts and revives us.

The rising up of POSSIBILITY that this is the time when the promises of God I’ve been banking on could be fulfilled for me and mine is not an accident. It is evidence that cannot be denied that the Holy Spirit is operating in my soul just as Jesus promised He would.[5]

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 8:11 ESV

When hope dies, why keep living? But when hope revives, the wickedness of that dark moment is revealed, and the Spirit of God gives our souls strength to rush to, and cling to the God of Hope.

“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 ESV

[1] Romans 4:13-25

[2] 1 Peter 1:3-6 ESV — “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials”

[3] Romans 15:4, 11-13 ESV — “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. And again, ‘Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.’ And again Isaiah says, ‘The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.’ 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.”

[4] Matthew 19:26 ESV — “But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’”

[5] John 14:16-17; 16:5-11; Romans 8:1-11

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