HOPE FOR THE HOPELESS

Hello Hopeful Ones. How's your HOPE FACTOR?

HOPE: elipis (el-pece')= to anticipate (usually with pleasure), expectation, confidence, confident expectation.

"Now...faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title-deed) of the things [we] HOPE FORE, being the proof of things [we] do not NOT SEE and the conviction of their reality--faith PERCEIVING AS REAL FACT...what is NOT REVEALED TO THE SENSES." (Hebrews 11:1 The Amplified Bible)

Sometimes what we assume is HOPE...is really WISHFUL THINKING. The worlds hope is wishing something will happen...but probably won't. It is usually the last straw...the end of the rope...the fading wish. Biblical HOPE is confident expectation that God's word is real. Our hope is not in human beings, situations, circumstances, politics, religion, dreamed up dreams...but in GOD HIMSELF. As soon as something shifts in our expected results...our hope dissolves into fear, doubt and worry. We become like George Baily in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE... when everything falls apart...where dreams of leaving Bedford Falls is constantly deferred...where our wishes and dreams become dashed nightmares on the shores of our "hope"...we are pushed to the brink of suicide.

When we are faced with HOPELESSNESS....we need to have our EYES ENLIGHTENED...to the HOPE that will get us through in the face of the impossibility of our abilities to accomplish anything. Sometimes that means our dreams of visions dying to how we have envisioned them being accomplished.

God has been called the God of 11:59...who comes in just before 12:00 strikes the clock...BUT sometimes...there are a few more clicks on the clock after 12:00 before God comes into play...and if we have abandoned hope because we have put God on our timetable...then we give up.

Abraham...had a PROMISE from God...BUT the promise was way beyond Abraham bringing it to pass. As I have said many times in the Ruminator Sunday School Class (that meets at 9:00 A.M. Central Standard Time at Smyrna Assembly in Smyrna Tennessee)...Abraham had dried up and Sarah's womb was a tomb. All Abraham could do...was look down at what he thought could bring about a child...and only see the place of circumcision...a symbol/sign of THE COVENANT PROMISE. All he had left was the PROMISE. It was way past 11:59...into the wee hours after 12:00. ONLY GOD COULD MOVE ON HIS BEHALF NOW.

"As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations. He was appointed our father---in the sight of God in Whom he believed...who GIVES LIFE TO THE DEAD...and SPEAKS OF NON-EXISTENT THINGS that [He has foretold and promised]...AS IF THEY [ALREADY] EXISTED. [For Abraham, human reason for] HOPE BEING GONE...HOPED ON IN FAITH...that he should become the father of many nations, as HE HAD BEEN PROMISED, so [numberless shall your descendants be (Genesis 15:5). He DID NOT WEAKEN IN FAITH when he CONSIDERED the [UTTER] IMPOTENCE of his own body, which was AS GOOD AS DEAD because he was about a hundred years old, or [when he CONSIDERED] the BARRENNESS OF SARAH'S (DEADENED) WOMB. (Genesis 17;17; 18:11). No UNBELIEF or DISTRUST made him WAVER or DOUBTINGLY QUESTION concerning the PROMISE OF GOD...but HE GREW STRONG and was EMPOWERED BY FAITH....AS HE GAVE PRAISE AND GLORY TO GOD...fully SATISFIED and ASSURED THAT GOD WAS ABLE AND MIGHTY TO KEEP HIS WORD...AND TO DO WHAT HE HAD PROMISED." (Romans 4:17-21 The Amplified Bible)

HOPE was gone...but Abraham...HOPED ON...in FAITH. So many times... we desire to "see a miracle"...but to see a miracle...you need a miracle...where there is no way on earth...that you by your own means can pull off that needed miracle. Usually we see that our HOPE was not in the Lord...but in our own abilities...or our hope was not really hope...but WISHFUL THINKING ON OUR PART. We are walking along on the water...UNTIL WE SEE THE WAVES...and then FEAR sets in. We begin to look at our ability to walk on the water (which is not our ability in the first place)...and then SINK...until Jesus comes along...and reaches out...and lifts us up out of our HOPELESS IMPOSSIBILITIES. (If you see me with my guitar...ask me to sing you WALKING ON THE WATER...a song I use to sing with that rockin' little trio...Hosanna...who could not only sing...but praise the Lord just as much as we want [tip O da hat to Archie Bell and the Drells).

If you are going through a HOPELESS TIME...I would like to join in agreement with the Apostle Paul as he prayed in Ephesians..."I do not cease to give thanks for you...making mention of you in my prayers. {For I always pray] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, that He may grant you a SPIRIT OF WISDOM and REVELATION--OF insight INTO MYSTERIES AND SECRETS--in the [deep and intimate KNOWLEDGE OF HIM. By having the EYES OF YOUR HEART...flooded with light...so that you can KNOW and UNDERSTAND...THE HOPE to which He has called you and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints--His set-apart ones." (Ephesians 1:17-18 The Amplified Bible)

Listen...I don't want to be someone who gives you FALSE HOPE...getting your HOPES UP...only to be dashed again by reality...BUT...I will say that REALITY is...well...REAL. We don't deny what is going on in our world...BUT...Jesus defined what is TRUTH..."sanctify them by truth...Thy Word is TRUTH. (John 17:17) I am convinced...that TRUTH trumps REALITY...if we have a WORD... a PROMISE from God.

"Remember...that you were at that time separated (living apart) from Christ--excluded from all part in Him; utterly estranged and outlawed from the rights of Israel as a nations, and strangers with NO SHARE in the sacred compacts of the [Messianic] promise--with no knowledge of or RIGHT in God's agreements, His covenants. And you HAD NO HOPE--NO PROMISE...you were IN THE WORLD WITHOUT GOD. But now...Christ Jesus...you who once were [s0] fare away...through (by, in) THE BLOOD OF CHRIST HAVE BEEN BROUGHT NEAR." (Ephesians 2:12,13)

This is talking about...the inclusions of the Gentiles (you and me)...into what was once for the Jews (to the Jews first...then also to the Greeks/Gentiles Romans 1:16). This is the great MYSTERY that has been revealed. The way that you go from NO HOPE to HOPE...is JESUS THE CHRIST (yoke breaking, burden lifting, oppression removing, healing power of the Holy Ghost).

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY.

The last picture is a picture of a set of SURPRISE LILLYS in our yard. The neat thing about these flowers...one day...they are not there... and then the next day...SURPRISE. Oh they may have been silently growing...but I never noticed them...until one day BAM...full bloomed SURPRISE LILLYS. HOPE...does not go based on what we see or don't see on the surface...but one day...when you least expect them...BAM...what we have been praying for...trusting for...believing for...even in the face of NO HOPE...we HOPE ON.

Love and Hopeful Kisses
Rodney "Surprise, Surprise, Surprise Lillys" Boyd