For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But, if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Romans 8:24-25
Remember a couple weeks back we read about a paralyzed man who kept trying to get into the waters of a spring in Jerusalem just at the time the water was stirred up for his healing. Jesus’ conversation with him revealed that for some thirty plus years he had been coming there with hope that he could get in the water at the right time and be healed. He could not see healing but he hoped for it.
He could see the possibility of being healed, and that vision of the possibility was his hope. He never lost sight of that hope.
I have visited with parents whose children were addicted to drugs. The parents had tried many different things to help their child get free of drugs and everything had failed. Some of their children had been through treatment and rehab more than once only to get caught up in their drug use again.
These parents expressed that their only hope was divine intervention, and as we talked about what that might look like and how to not lose hope as they prayed for their child, I saw a sense of defeat in them, a sense of losing hope. Some of them had already given up, but those who had not were still praying, still searching for the right way to work with their son or daughter, the right treatment program and rehabilitation. They had not given up hope for God’s direction in intervention that would lead to healing.
You and I have not seen Jesus in the flesh, but we believe that he once lived here on earth as a human being like you and me. We not only trust the words we read in the Bible about his life, death, resurrection and ascension, but we also believe that he will come again. We also believe that he is with us every day of our lives in the Spirit.
His Spirit goes with us to teach us, comfort us, bring his peace to us and support us in our spiritual growth. We have placed our hope in Jesus, that he is with us daily and will come again to establish his kingdom of righteousness here on earth, and that is our hope.
All of our relationships with God, Jesus Christ, God’s Son, and the Holy Spirit are founded in hope. Hope is a God given reality that God gives us as His children. Through hope we can see God can change our sinful behavior, God can heal our lives in ways that science cannot.
God can give us His healing power in ways that none other can. It seems that spirit of hope keeps building up our patience so that our hope for those things we cannot see just grows stronger.
Questions
- Will you take time today to sit down and make a list of those things you hope for, and how they are connected?
- Will you join with other Christians in praying for the things for which you hope?
Sue is NLS Spiritual Director, since 2019 and is a retired Lutheran Pastor (ELCA). Active in VdC since 1995, she has served two terms on the Board of the Texas VdC Secretariat, and also on the Texas Gulf Coast VdC Board as Spiritual Director since its start-up in 2017.
