Jesus said, “For
anyone who asks receives, and the person who searches for something finds it,
and to the person who is knocking the door will be opened.”
—
Matthew 7:8 (USC)
Hope is
the truest beacon for life.
It is hope that
transcends the given complexities, anxieties, and tumults of the day; what is
hoped for is something altogether beautiful and we survive the grind, the
dilemma, the pain of loss, and the chiding sense of frustration when we hope
upon the hope we have. Hope is what takes us through the Badlands.
In context, Jesus
speaks about the greatest hope; to be saved of God; to enjoy the truth as it is
quickened to our souls; to magnify the hope to which all humanity — deeper down
— clings. We may endeavour to resist God all we want in this life, but God will
get our attention one way or other.
When we consider
that hope is the truest beacon for life, we need, necessarily, to include truth
as the contingency on that hope — for hope based on untruth is a bad faith.
But a good hope
looks like this: to ask in the expectation of being answered; to search for
something in the expectation of finding it; to knock with the expectation that
the door will swing open. But a more fundamental promise lies dormant in the
truth that, when we put God’s kingdom and his righteousness first, all these
expectations will come to be realised in their own time!
The nature of life
is that we will hope and hope and hope. Despair is the sign of real hope, for,
in despair, we still have the vibrancy of hope — a hope that is grieving. When
we are beyond despair — when we have given up — there is no hope and,
therefore, no vision. We might as well barrel on without a single purpose.
Hope gets us through
that despair we face. It forces us to get up in the morning for fear of missing
out on the promised fulfilment. Who knows, it could be today!
How does God know he’s
got a diligent and real disciple? Besides the fact he knows how we will react,
we still have the outworking of our faith-path to accomplish; we prove
ourselves worthy to ourselves of our calling.
One day we will
stand crowned. One day all our hope in sum will be realised. One day we will be
furnished by the corrections of justice — a beautiful but fearful day! But
there is nothing to fear in the hopes we wait upon now; those we don’t give up
on. Because, that final day will be their realisation!
Still, hope now. For
there are many things we do not yet have that one day soon, in this life, we
will have.
***
The presence of
unrealised hope in this life is the assurance of hope’s fulfilment in eternity.
***
QUESTIONS in REVIEW:
1. What is the boldest expression of
faith? What would it look like in your life?
2. Think on a desire or need that
you’ve long been patient for; how is God preparing you for eternity in your ‘patience’
of waiting?
3. Think about a thing that you long
hoped for that was realised. Think about another. Do you see the faithfulness
of God in the delivery of those hopes?
© 2015 S. J. Wickham.
Note: USC version is Under the Southern Cross, The New Testament in Australian English
(2014). This translation was painstakingly developed by Dr Richard Moore, a NT
Greek scholar, over nearly thirty years.
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