Back in the days when our youngest was in junior high, a friend of his taught us a card game similar to Rummy. I can’t tell you how many times since, the game has been played at my dining room table. I played one Sunday evening with a friend from church, and going into the final hand of play, I was behind by 65 points. In an uncanny turn of events, I actually was dealt a hand that with a few random additional cards, shut down my opponent – and I won the game. In the many years of playing since that uncanny win, I have always felt that as long as I wasn’t more than 65 points behind, I still had a chance of winning. My friend Dawn and I coined the phrase, “There’s hope to 65.”
Hope. We need it and we want it for life events far more serious and impacting than a game of cards. And we need a hope that has no limits on it regardless of what those life events are. Hope anchors my chaotic emotions and irrational thinking and brings a calm and a quietness that allows me to walk forward, again, regardless of the circumstances – the upheaval of a job loss or a major move, the complications of the choices of others, coping with health issues or pressing family needs. the loss of relationship, the death of someone I deeply love.... We want hope when our world seems dark and oppressive and void of options. Hope creates an anticipation of something better, a filling of the emptiness, a certainty that tomorrow can be different from today, and whether or not we want that difference, hope assures us that the different can still be good. And I also believe, hope longs to not walk the journey alone. Biblical hope gives God’s constant, unchanging presence, and it is a certain hope that accomplishes all we have stated, and still more. It has no limits and it is always within reach of the heart that turns Godward.
Biblical hope, God’s hope, is based on His promises, and those promises secure our hope. It is not a mystic, fluffy, scanty, unreliable, kind of hope, but it is a certain hope because the clearly stated promises of His Word are definite and certain. And when God speaks, His own trustworthiness assures His promises. Psalm 23 alone is a collection of God’s promises. The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. And there’s still more.
The worship band, Elevation Worship, sings too of God’s hope. I know the night won’t last; Your Word will come to pass. My heart will sing Your praise again. Jesus, You’re still enough. Keep me within Your love. My heart will sing Your praise again. Your promise still stands; great is Your faithfulness, faithfulness. I’m still in Your hands. This is my confidence, You’ve never failed me yet.
Hope. Secure. Certain. It has no limits, and it is always within reach of the heart that turns Godward.
– Bev
(Related Bible reading: Hebrews 6:13-20)
