“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”
~Romans 5:5 (NIV).
Like love, which never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8), hope sustains us. Paul writes of hope, in this section of Romans, as a product of many character growth processes underpinning it—necessarily, hope is required before, during and after.
It’s difficult to conjure a world of any good without hope.
It seems to me, from my reflections on life, that so much rides on hope. Hope is a construct made and predestined for humanity by a wholly-loving God. Building the human unit with the capacity for thought and emotion has necessitated the need for a backdrop of safety. This is hope.
Without teasing out the nuances of the interplay of faith, hope and love, it is sound to say that hope is at least the antecedent quality most obvious to the triad of Christian virtue. If we struggle, it’s our lack of hope that screams loudest. Behind it, sure, there’s a doubting faith, but hope is most resplendent in our living of life, to the positive or negative.
God Alone Engorges Hope
For the Deity, hope stands between us and living the salvation life. Hope is what comprises the resurrected life certainly in the ‘felt’ realm.
Hope—true hope—is not really available beyond, or without, God. The good news, however, is God’s Spirit simply awaits our invitation now, to enter or re-enter our hearts (in a ‘felt’ way—because the Spirit never leaves), augmenting the mind—fixing our erroneous thinking.
The really pleasant thing about hope is the track to it can become so well worn we find ourselves jumping back upon it easier and easier as we practice this process with God more and more.
The Holy Spirit was not given to us temporarily. The Spirit is now a permanent fixture within us. This Holy Spirit is our hope.
© 2010 S. J. Wickham.
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