Hope is inevitable for our human experience. We are hopeful creatures. We are all looking for someone or something to place our hope in. That is the way God has created and wired us. Or lives are fueled and directed by hope. The question is will the object of our hope let us down?
Paul Tripp offers an insightful description of what hope is:
- God hardwired human beings for hope. We don’t live by instinct; we all find our identity, meaning, purpose, and inner sense of well-being in something.
- What you place your hope in will set the direction of your life. Whether you know it or not, your life path is directed by hope. Whether it’s hope in a philosophy, a person, a dream, a location, or whatever, your life will be shaped by what you place your hope in.
- Hope always includes an expectation and an object. I am hoping for something and hoping that someone or something will deliver it.
- Hope, to be hope, has to fix what is broken. Hope that does not address your needs isn’t very hopeful. You place your hope in your mechanic only if he has the ability to fix what’s broken on your car.
- You always preach to yourself a gospel of some kind of hope. You’re always reaching for hope and preaching to yourself the validity of what you reach for.
(From New Morning Mercies by Paul David Tripp)
If you pay attention, you will see that our lives are full of hope. We have many hopes every day. We hope that we will have a good day at work or school, We hope the drive-thru line won’t take forever, We hope our team wins (RTR 😁), etc. There is certainly nothing wrong with these hopes and nothing wrong with receiving a certain level of happiness and enjoyment when things go the way we hoped they would. Because even if they don’t go our way, we may be disappointed, but it doesn’t drive us to despair.
Then there are the larger, deeper hopes that have the potential to really harm us because we are driven by hope. Misplacing our ultimate hope is what can devastate our lives or shipwreck our faith. We hope that our loved one will be healed from a debilitating or terminal diagnosis. We hope that our spouse will love us and remain with us faithfully until death. We hope that family member will be able to overcome their destructive addiction. We hope for broken relationships to be restored, and so many other deep hopes like this. Again, all of these are good hopes, good desires. And we should pray earnestly for them! But they are not guaranteed, not constant, not sturdy.
What our ultimate hope is in, that is what we are looking to for ultimate peace, joy, life, direction, purpose, meaning, satisfaction, and rest. That is a lot to ask of something! So, if what we have placed our hope in does not deliver, it can destroy our lives because now we have no joy, no peace, and no rest… no hope. Our source of life went away or let us down. We drift toward despair. We had built our hope on a broken, fractured, shifting foundation. It is not the foundation’s fault for not being able to bear the weight of our ultimate hope. It was never designed to.
We are all tempted, almost continually, to either totally give up on hope, or to place our ultimate hope in someone or something that can never deliver. All creation is broken, fallible, changing, and temporary. Where can we find hope that will never disappoint? There is only One who is constant and sturdy. Jesus is the only One who is eternal, completely faithful, and never changes. Jesus is the only One who can fix our brokenness. Jesus is the only One who will never leave when life gets difficult. Jesus is the only One who will always fulfill his promises. And Jesus is the only One who can provide us with the peace, joy, fulfillment, acceptance, and life that we are looking for.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Rom. 5:3-5)
He tells us “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Mt. 28:20)
So, where is your hope? The solution is a simple no-brainer… Hope in Christ. But, as broken, sinful people living in a broken, sinful world, the best and simplest solution is not always the easiest. Thank God that when our faith and hope are weak, or when we have misplaced our ultimate hope, we can cry out to Him for help. Not only is He the object of our hope, He will also forgive us and help us hope in Him even more.
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (Psalm 42:5-6)