i talk a lot about, think a lot about, rest in the beauty that is hope. sometimes hope feels ever present and easy to walk in. other days walking in hope feels much more like walking in mud up to your thighs. the smallest amount of hope is more powerful than anything i can think of.
i am not talking about how i “hope” to go to xyz or “hope” to get married or anything you could substitute the word wish for. that is not hope. hope is that thing that God promises won’t leave us disappointed or looking like a fool (romans 5). hope is built on truth about who He is, who He was, who He will always be.
hope is powerful! and the loss of hope is deadly.
recently i listened to a message by Kris Valloton from Bethel. i don’t remember which one but as he talked, he shared this experiment* a couple of scientists did. in the experiment they were testing to see how long a rat would survive in a bucket of swirling water. so they took the rats and put them in a bucket of water that was swirling around. they found that 15 min was the threshold.
the next step was they removed the next set of rats just before that 15 min mark. they fed them, let them rest and put them back in the water. this time, they swam for 60+ hours. a 240% increase. that is insane to me.
that is the power of HOPE!
i find this fascinating because i can attribute the hope that carried me through specific periods of my life stemming from a moment where God chose to step in and remove me from a “bucket of swirling water.” there are moments where God intervened in such a way that produced so much hope, nothing else mattered. nothing could dismay me.
i find it frustrating that it seems to find its way out. it leaks here and gets punched out of us there. i think that is part of what hebrews 2:1 is getting after in not “drifting away”. there must be an intentionality. there must be that reminder of who God is and what He has done like in the book of remembrance (malachi 3:16).
hope is something worth fighting for. hope that He is who He said He is. hope that He is coming back. hope that He is present. hope that He is working with me and for me. hope that He is enough. hope that His blood was sufficient for me.
it is there i the knowing and experiencing and believing of who God is and what He has done that hope carries us through. not simply through a meager existence of life but hope brings abundance. if He actually is who He says He is, then everything changes. i no longer focus on the circumstances in front of me but i hope in Him who has the power to move on my behalf. if He actually is who He says He is, then i no longer focus on what the enemy is doing but what is God doing. cause God is the only one with words of life!
where have you lost your hope? where can you ask Him to restore your hope? at the end of the day i pray i always remain as job proclaiming “though He slay me, still i will hope in Him!”
*i am not condoning animal testing.
