Hope
Why your story makes It Hard to Hope.”
The next thoughts are from Adam
Young- The Place we find ourselves.
Psalm 27
“Hear my voice
when I call, O LORD; be merciful to me and answer me.
I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.”
There is a link between hoping and waiting. Hope involves groaning and longing.
Hope is groaning inwardly while waiting expectantly, at the same time expecting it to happen. Hope is something that I want. When I have wanted something for years and still have been let down over and over my reaction is to stop wanting it. We start saying, “isn’t it foolish to think that someday I will have this when i have not had that longing met? The easiest thing to do is put my head in the sand so i will stop wanting it. Hope is letting myself want something when that desire has not yet been met. Hope is waiting expectantly. So to go back to the verse in Psalms 27- I will see the goodness of the Lord in this life. Hope is agonizing, yearning for that desire. Living in hope requires 3 things to happen. 1) Bringing my longings to God. 2)expecting God to meet those desires and 3) wrestling with the desire with God. (ie. the desire to have a intimate relationship with a spouse when God has not met that desire yet.) That is Biblical hope. So the Alternative to hope is deadening to desire and cynicism. Your body naturally groans as children. They are always longing for something, food toys safety. Its the natural disposition of the heart, but what happens when disappointments pile up and make longing for something too painful? “If I didn’t want that so much I wouldn’t hurt so much. You say to yourself that if i didn’t really want it that much, or its a broken world. My expectations are too high. What am I doing? I am deadening my desire, it is also a deadening of Hope in God to do the miraculous and turn my pursue my heart and Gods.
In Dan Allender’s book, the wounded heart he identifies 3 places of powerlessness.
Powerlessness is the core of our war with hope
When we experience powerlessness to stop the pain in your adult life. this is the most agonizing.
If you have felt this powerlessness than you have had your battle with hope. hopelessness is a constant pull. The bible takes powerlessness and hopelessness very serious. the word for this in the bible is barrenness. Barrenness was the start of Isreal ! This is what leads me to love Isaiah because he speaks of the barren woman. Sara couldn’t get pregnant . also Rebecca Rachel Hannah. the mothers of the first three generations of Isrealities were barren! do you think God is saying something here. Where is the Barrenness of your life right now? where do you feel powerless to create life goodness and newness. the whole point of the barrenness is that God loves to work in the barren places in our lives.
In Isaiah 49 God talks about how the Isrealities will return from exile. I have an awesome message that was life changing for me The Isrealities had been in exile for 70 years. the hope of returning from exile will be in the land of the living. it will be on this earth. the hard part is that we don’t know what desires will be met. hope forces us to wrestle with god. if it be your will. you express your desire to god then say, " not my will but yours be done.".. as long as it comes after a 12 round wrestling match with God. we are called to surrender our will to Gods will. you cant surrender until you have wrestled with god. Surrender comes after exhaustion, from bringing the longing of your heart to God. you can talk about hope without wrestling. Adam adds, unfulfilled longings are what ultimately drive us to God so until you take the risk of hoping that God will fulfill the desires of your heart. Until you bring your disappointment and anger to God over and over again, God will always remain strangely impersonal to you. He will be God the savior of the world but you wont know him as the God of my rescue.
I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.”
There is a link between hoping and waiting. Hope involves groaning and longing.
Hope is groaning inwardly while waiting expectantly, at the same time expecting it to happen. Hope is something that I want. When I have wanted something for years and still have been let down over and over my reaction is to stop wanting it. We start saying, “isn’t it foolish to think that someday I will have this when i have not had that longing met? The easiest thing to do is put my head in the sand so i will stop wanting it. Hope is letting myself want something when that desire has not yet been met. Hope is waiting expectantly. So to go back to the verse in Psalms 27- I will see the goodness of the Lord in this life. Hope is agonizing, yearning for that desire. Living in hope requires 3 things to happen. 1) Bringing my longings to God. 2)expecting God to meet those desires and 3) wrestling with the desire with God. (ie. the desire to have a intimate relationship with a spouse when God has not met that desire yet.) That is Biblical hope. So the Alternative to hope is deadening to desire and cynicism. Your body naturally groans as children. They are always longing for something, food toys safety. Its the natural disposition of the heart, but what happens when disappointments pile up and make longing for something too painful? “If I didn’t want that so much I wouldn’t hurt so much. You say to yourself that if i didn’t really want it that much, or its a broken world. My expectations are too high. What am I doing? I am deadening my desire, it is also a deadening of Hope in God to do the miraculous and turn my pursue my heart and Gods.
In Dan Allender’s book, the wounded heart he identifies 3 places of powerlessness.
Powerlessness is the core of our war with hope
When we experience powerlessness to stop the pain in your adult life. this is the most agonizing.
If you have felt this powerlessness than you have had your battle with hope. hopelessness is a constant pull. The bible takes powerlessness and hopelessness very serious. the word for this in the bible is barrenness. Barrenness was the start of Isreal ! This is what leads me to love Isaiah because he speaks of the barren woman. Sara couldn’t get pregnant . also Rebecca Rachel Hannah. the mothers of the first three generations of Isrealities were barren! do you think God is saying something here. Where is the Barrenness of your life right now? where do you feel powerless to create life goodness and newness. the whole point of the barrenness is that God loves to work in the barren places in our lives.
In Isaiah 49 God talks about how the Isrealities will return from exile. I have an awesome message that was life changing for me The Isrealities had been in exile for 70 years. the hope of returning from exile will be in the land of the living. it will be on this earth. the hard part is that we don’t know what desires will be met. hope forces us to wrestle with god. if it be your will. you express your desire to god then say, " not my will but yours be done.".. as long as it comes after a 12 round wrestling match with God. we are called to surrender our will to Gods will. you cant surrender until you have wrestled with god. Surrender comes after exhaustion, from bringing the longing of your heart to God. you can talk about hope without wrestling. Adam adds, unfulfilled longings are what ultimately drive us to God so until you take the risk of hoping that God will fulfill the desires of your heart. Until you bring your disappointment and anger to God over and over again, God will always remain strangely impersonal to you. He will be God the savior of the world but you wont know him as the God of my rescue.
One of the reasons we hate hope so much is it requires us to live a 'both/and" life. Both death and resurrection. we are to rejoices with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. I lived in this place of optimism which often lead to the denial of the darkness that we live with in this world. So most of us go to the two extremes: some focus on the dark places of this world and we see it everywhere but we have a hard time seeing the beautiful places of Gods redemptive work. Some of us only focus on the beauty in this world but we turn a blind eye to all the darkness of the world. There is a spirit of optimism that the church has places that doesn’t allow us to stay connected to the longings of our hearts. it allows us to turn away from darkness or pain. Sentences that shame you for admitting that you have unmet desire. What do you do when someone expresses disappointment or sorrow. the tendency is to one: encourage them to believe in the sovereignty of God, or two: wonder if they are making an idol to that longing?
The persistent widow Luke 18: a widow goes to a judge to give her justice. She wears the judge down by her persistence. Is prayer a matter of pestering God until he breaks down and gives you what you want? No, this is a parable of contrast, not comparison. God is not like the judge in the story. He is not reluctant in answering the prayers of his people. As a child of the King, you can turn to him at any moment. He never places you on hold or tells you to call again later. God loves the sound of your voice. Always. He doesn’t hide when you call. He hears your prayers and quickly runs to us like a Father. Hope is still talking to God and pursuing God, even when those desires aren’t met I come back to God pursue and keep coming back. The bible calls that Hope. The essence of rescue is not primarily receiving what I asked for but rather experiencing the responsiveness of God to the hurt in your heart. It is the rest of knowing I have a father in heaven who is deeply involved in the desires of my heart. I have a father who cares and I have a father who responds. It is by his grace, we are right where we are, whether we are sitting in the joy of his promises or searching for him in the midst of heartache.
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