hope-full disappointment ...

yet this i call to mind and THEREFORE I HAVE HOPE: because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. i say to myself, “the LORD is my portion; therefore i will wait for Him.” (lamentations 3:21)

hope is such a tricky topic. far too complex to even begin covering here. i’m pretty sure i’ve written about this somewhere, at some point. i actually don’t have much to say about it tonight. i’ll let scripture speak for itself. i just needed the reminder.

they count on it but are disappointed. when they arrive, their hopes are dashed. (job 6:20)

how often have we been told, ‘don’t get your hopes up’? how easy is it to fall into the trap of living our lives in such a guarded manner?

and yet, we are told to “put your hope in the Lord—now and always.” (psalm 131:3)

always continue to fear the Lord. you will be rewarded for this; your hope will not be disappointed. (proverbs 23:17b-18)

hope is defined as ‘desiring something with confident expectation of its fulfillment.’ obviously, not everything we hope for is going to happen. how, then, can we not be disappointed? proverbs doesn’t say that WE will not be disappointed. it just says that our HOPE will not be disappointed.

one of job’s friends told him, “then you would trust, because there is hope; and you would look around and rest securely. (job 11:18)

but that’s actually not the way it works. romans 5 tells us that tribulations bring perseverance, which leads to character, and character to hope. (romans 5:3-4) so you don’t trust because of hope. you hope because of trust. the goal is not rest and security, but strength and growth. so even when the thing that you had so hoped for does not happen, and you are tempted to become disappointed, remember that “hope does not disappoint.” (romans 5:5)

romans 4:17b says that “God ... gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.”

no matter what, you can trust that God is working to accomplish His ultimate purposes in and through you. He is bringing life to the dead parts of you. He is bringing about the parts of you that are not yet. the fact that He is a good God does not change, and because of that our hope can remain secure.

because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. (hebrews 6:17-19)