Romans 8:24-25 “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” This episode talks about hope and why it is so hard for us to hope sometimes. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Why Is Hoping So Hard?
Romans 8:24-25 “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
Hope is a strange thing. I like how it is described in this verse, especially when it says, “For who hopes for what he sees?” I guess I never thought of it like that. I guess sometimes I think of faith and hope as the same thing. If someone has a deep desire that they are hoping will come true, then I guess I think of it as if they have faith that it will happen. But even know that I say that I can see that they are not the same. You can have hope that something will happen, but not have faith that it will. The definition of hope, according to the Oxford Languages is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. However the definition for faith is complete trust or confidence in someone or something. There are other definitions of faith, but this is the one that describes how I was using it earlier.
Looking at these two definitions I can see that they are not the same. It didn’t occur to me until I read this verse that they were not the same. If you hope something will happen, you do not necessarily have complete trust or confidence that it will happen. You hope it will, but you are not sure because you haven’t seen it yet. You have no proof. When I stopped to think about it, I can see what they are saying about hope. Hope is something you can’t see. If you had a candy bar in your hand, you wouldn’t say that you hope you get a candy bar. You don’t have to hope because you have one right in your hand. This is why hope is so difficult. How do we hope for what we cannot see?
I remember reading about the apostle Thomas. He was one of the 12. He spent all that time with Jesus, following Him around and listening to Him preach. He had seen the impossible things Jesus had done. Yet, when he heard Jesus had risen he said he would not believe it until he put his fingers where the nail marks were then he would not believe that Jesus had risen. Then in John 20:29 Jesus says, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” If Thomas had trouble believing what he could not see, how are we supposed to?
This is a difficult question. This, is probably where the distinction between hope and faith come in. Having faith means that you have complete trust or confidence in someone or something. However, having hope means that you want something to happen or that you have a desire for something to happen. You can hope for something even if you don’t know if it will happen or not. However, anytime you are hoping in or having faith in something that you can’t see, you become vulnerable. It said above it’s not hope if you can see it. However, that is not true with faith. Thomas saw Jesus and so he had faith that He was alive. It is much easier to have faith when we see. We are vulnerable when we have hope because we are not sure it will happen. We are vulnerable because if we hope in something too much and it doesn’t happen we will be disappointed and we could be devastated depending on how badly we hopped for it and what it was we were hoping for.
Some people find hope easier than others. I have been trying for a few years now to find out why this is? I wish I knew why it was easier for some people to hope and others find it almost impossible. I wondered if it is based life circumstances? I could see how if you have been let down time and time again, you would be hesitant to believe you would get what you hope for. I can see how it would be hard to want to put yourself in a place where you could get hurt again if you didn’t get what you were hoping for. I wonder if it is because the person who finds it easy to hope has had an easier life and so they have more reason to believe good things will happen? If you are constantly seeing good things happen, then maybe its like that saying, “the proof is in the pudding.” You find it easy to have hope because you have alway gotten what you wanted in the past. I honestly don’t know why it’s easier for some than for others.
What is coming to my mind right now is that maybe it’s not so much the circumstances, but how we view those circumstances. In mentoring the other night Pamela Crim said, “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react it.” Maybe this is the difference? Maybe it doesn’t matter as much what you have been through as it does how you react to what you have been through. Not even how you react to it, but what you think about it. Two people can go through the same event and view it very differently. There is another quote, “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” This means that we all take our life experiences everywhere we go. They are a part of us. So, we interpret each experience that we encounter through the lens of past experiences. If we view our past in a way that has us thinking nothing ever works out for us then it will be harder to hope than if we view our past in a more positive way.
I view my life as having worked out really well. If you were looking at my life from the outside looking in, just surface level, you would probably think I had a pretty great life. My husband was an officer in the air force. We got to live in three different countries. We have three handsome boys. We have always had a pretty nice house and haven’t had to worry about money. If you did not know me well, you would say that it was easy for me to have hope because things always work out for me. Those of you that know me know that this is not the case. Our family has had some very difficult circumstances that I wouldn’t wish upon my enemy. There was a time when we were having multiple crisis in a day. There were some truly awful parts during these last 10 years. However, I choose to focus on the positive. Even in the worst situations I look for a silver lining, something to be grateful for. I look for ways to see God working in each and every circumstance.
Sometimes I have wondered if I am just lucky. If I find it easy to have hope because I have an optimistic personality. If I happened upon this faith or this hope, almost as if I was born with it. When I wonder this, the Holy Spirit reminds me that it was not always easy for me to hope. There were times in the past when I could not see how things would turn out and I was not sure they would get better. I worked hard for the faith that I have and the ability to have hope. It took me stepping out of my comfort zone. It took me trusting when I had not visible sign that I should trust. It took me asking our Father over and over again for more faith, more trust. The Lord wanted me to tell you this today so that you can see if it is possible for me to grow in faith, trust and hope, then it is possible for you too.
I know some of you listening have big prayers that you are asking the Lord. Some of you are trying to hope for things you have desired for a very long time. So long, it is scary to hope because you are afraid to get hurt. I want you to know that the Lord hears your prayers and He knows your desires. He is not bothered by the fact that you are afraid to hope or afraid to ask for what you really want. He can help with all of that if you just ask Him too. The enemy is the one that is keeping you from the Lord by pointing out all the ways he may have let you down in the past. The enemy is the one who is spinning all the good to make it seem like nothing works out for you. I know hope is hard. Trust me, I know hope is hard. That is ok, God isn’t asking you to hope on your own. Turn to Him right where you are at and ask Him to take you to where you want to go.
That right there is what the Lord keeps reminding me of. You don’t have to do it, you just have to say yes and ask the Lord to do it for you. I think it was St. Therese of Liseux that said something about asking Jesus to be her elevator. She said she pictured herself as a little girl at the bottom of these giant stairs. She was so small she couldn’t even take one step and if Jesus wanted her to climb them He would have to carry her. If you struggle with feelings like you are not enough, she would be a great Saint to study. She is know as the “little flower.” She was extraordinary. Be like St. Therese and rely on the Lord to get to where you are going. Ask for more faith, more hope, more love. Whatever it is you need, ask the Lord and He will help you.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we are so grateful for all you have done for us. We want to be able to hope for all things Lord, please help us. We want to have an unwavering faith that will believe without seeing, help us Lord. For those of us that are struggling to hope, please give us the courage to be vulnerable and ask you for the big things we desire and then hope that they will come true. Lord, we know that you have our best interests at heart. Help us to see this in all that we do. We love you Lord, you are so amazing. Help us to focus on the good in our lives instead of the bad. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Have a blessed day!