Do you find yourself in a place where you need some assurance that everything is going to be okay? That the struggle is not all there is? That there’s victory at the end of the road? Maybe you’re tired. Maybe it’s been a really long week. Maybe you have come to the awareness of your own insecurity, your own fallibility, your own mortality this week and you’re wondering, ‘Is this all there is? Is there more than this?’
The Scriptures address this kind of longing for assurance and longing for hope. In 1 Corinthians 15:58, we read: So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.
And Hebrews 6:10-11 says: For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do. Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true.
God Gives Us Vision
There is an importance to vision. It’s important that we understand and have some clarity around what it is that we desire to see in the future. Better stated, where God is leading us in the future. It’s important to have a clear portrait in our mind’s eye of a preferred future to maintain Hope. This allows us to see the future so clearly that we go, ‘Okay, this is why I’m doing this. This is the picture that God has given me of the future. I trust Him and I’ll keep moving forward toward that destination.’
Hope Springs Eternal
Have you heard of the phrase “Hope springs eternal”? It came from an essay on man, written by Alexander Pope. In the middle of it, a phrase says: ‘Hope springs eternal in the human breast.’ Hope springs eternal in the human heart. Isn’t that interesting? Why does hope spring eternal? It’s not because mankind is so great. It’s because we carry DNA of the Curator of the universe, who is our redeemer and our restorer and so there is a natural inclination because we belong to God whether we know it or not.
Snyder’s Hope Theory
According to Snyder’s Hope Theory in the psychological side of things, hope consists of both cognitive elements and effective elements. This theory states that there are at least 3 components that people can relate to hope: 1) Have focused thoughts on a preferred future; 2) Develop strategies in advance in order to achieve goals you’ve set to get there; and 3) Be motivated to make the effort required to actually reach those goals. There is an importance to hope in the psychological framework of the human mind and heart, and when that hope is taken away when there is no preferred future, strategy, goals, or motivation to go there, then you have lost hope.
But in Romans 15:13, Paul writes: I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
If you have lost your vision, God will fill you with joy and peace because He is the source of hope, because you trust in Him.
