Abounding in Hope

Father by His Spirit began to speak to me about the foundational importance of hope in His Kingdom.  Most people assume they have plenty of hope, until they are personally faced with a situation or relationship that challenges that hope with what seem to be impossible barriers.  Do we have a deep and tangible hope for someone trapped in a gay or lesbian lifestyle?  Do we have a hope that is so powerful that we can see a person with terminal cancer and believe that there is healing for them?  In Hebrews 11 scripture is "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen...", so faith is tangible through hope.  As I listened to a story on the radio about the groundwater getting dissipated faster than expected in the Colorado River Valley, I was struck by how dependent we are on the provision God has created in the earth.  In the story they said most of the water that sustains 40 million people is underground in aquifers in the earth.  From God's Word we know Jesus said that if anyone is thirsty they are to come to Him and out of their inner most being will flow rivers of living water.  Throughout New Testament water is used as an analogy to the Holy Spirit, so God is looking to bring us into a place where out of our inner being flows rivers of the Holy Spirit out to a thirsty and dying world.  In Romans 15:13 the Holy Spirit says, "May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope."  I began to have this picture of groundwater in believers who have a deep hope based in who God is and what He has done for us, bubbling out as hope to all people.  This deep hope in who God is and who He is in us has the power to transform lives, change culture, bring solutions to impossible situations, and give life to the dead.  Can you imagine how different levels of society, cities, families, schools, businesses, and organizations would be impacted by people who are abounding in hope (bubbling over).  Such that when impossible, difficult, or broken lives are brought before them they actually are able to bring real, deep, and lasting hope built on the Kingdom of God.  So much of people's hope today is in what they can do for themselves or what they believe someone else can do but these hopes will come to ruin when not based on who God is and His truth.  How do we know what our hope is based on?  If I lose hope for someone walking in freedom, then I will be irritated with any choices that don't look like my version of what I think they should be doing to walk in freedom.  In other words this kind of hope begins to be frustrated by other people's mistakes or unwillingness to follow my way.  I believe hope is foundational in love, we see this from the list of attributes about love in 1 Corinthians 13.  Jesus had hope for every person He encountered, not through their own ability to free or heal themselves but in God's power and grace to them.  The Pharisees made hope dependent on the person's ability to apply and follow the Law or to be clean in their own ability.  Jesus brought a hope from God completely dependent on God extending grace to an undeserving people.  I believe as we give up on our own ability to produce hope for ourselves and others, by God's grace we can be a conduit of His hope to bring life to others.

Abounding in Hope,

Bret