157 The Advent of the King: Hope

On the first week of Advent, we light the Candle of Hope. For some of us, it symbolizes hope realized. It’s been a good year. Hope is soaring.

Yet for others, maybe you, it’s been disappointment after disappointment.  To your way of thinking, God hasn’t come through as you…well, as you hoped.

Hope - or the lack of it - is a powerful thing. Proverbs 13:12 says: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” Or as one paraphrase puts it, “When hope is crushed the heart is crushed.”

But what is hope? Perhaps one way to answer that is to consider what hope isn’t.

Hope is not wishful thinking. There’s nothing behind that sort of hope, nothing to back it up.

Hope is not naive optimism. Denying reality has nothing to do with living in hope. 

So, what is hope?

Hope is the confident expectation that God is willing and able to fulfill the promises He has made.

Hope is rooted in the character of God. Look at the story of Abraham. When God gave him the promise that he would be the father of many nations, he was childless. Not only that but he and his wife, Sarah, were nearly 100 years old! Yet, Abraham believed God could do what He promised.

That lends itself to three challenges that need to be faced in order to keep hope alive.

1.     You need to come to a point of belief that God is good and in control.

When hopes are dashed, when things happen that make no sense, it’s then that your theology is truly revealed.  What do you believe – not about the circumstance (which can be very bad), but about God? It’s in those times that I have to take time to review what I know to be true and to remember how many times I’ve seen God’s goodness

2.     You need to discern whether a promise is yours to claim.

Here’s where a lot of folks get into trouble.  They read their Bibles and put their hopes in promises they have no right to claim – a promise that was unique to that person in that day.  And while the fulfillment of that promise back then can encourage us that God is powerful enough to keep His promises, they aren’t necessarily ours to claim. 

3.     You need to understand that God is not only the Master of time – He’s the Master of timing.

God’s promise to Abraham of a son wasn’t realized for 25 years! Hoping, all too often, requires waiting. Waiting and hoping. Hoping and waiting.

In reading through the biblical account of redemptive history, one thing is clear: God will not be rushed.

Christmas is a perfect picture of that. Galatians 4:4 says: “But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son…” 

God literally choreographed history to prepare it for the arrival of His Son. His timing was perfect. He wasn’t one bit late in delivering on His promise. And friend, His timing is no less perfect in your life.

Text: Luke 2:8-14; Is. 40:25-31

Originally recorded on November 28, 2011, at Fellowship Missionary Church, Fort Wayne, IN.