CONSIDER IT
Have you heard of the Slow Food movement? Slow Fooders believe good food is worth waiting for. Founded in 1986 as an alternative to fast food, the movement encourages people to cook more traditional fare that takes time and isn't made in a factory.
Slow Food goes against the grain of our microwave culture. We like instant food and instant messages. We hate to wait. This is what often makes hope hard for us, because hope is about waiting. If we hope for something, we are longing for what we don't yet have. Nobody hopes for what they already have.
Biblical hope is a bit different from the way we use hope in everyday conversation. In ordinary talk you might say, "I hope you feel better," or "I hope I'll have a better job someday," or "I haven't given up hope for my football team, even though they have lost three games." In these instances, hope means a wish; something we want to happen but don't necessarily have confidence about. Or it means positive thinking, with the idea that thinking alone can make something happen.
When the biblical writers use the word, however, they mean something different. They are talking about something they long for and are solidly confident of getting. It's not just positive thinking. It's confidence. Yet even though biblical hope is confident waiting, it is still waiting. And we don't like that.
Name 3 things you long for but don't yet have. How confident are you at getting those things?
EXPERIENCE IT
"Softly I announce My Presence. Shimmering hues of radiance tap gently at your consciousness, seeking entrance. Though I have all Power in heaven and on earth, I am infinitely tender with you. The weaker you are, the more gently I approach you. Let your weakness be a door to My Presence. Whenever you feel inadequate, remember that I am your ever-present Help. Hope in Me, and you will be protected from depression and self-pity. Hope is like a golden cord connecting you to heaven. The more you cling to this cord, the more I bear the weight of your burdens; thus, you are lightened. Heaviness is not of My kingdom. Cling to hope, and My rays of Light will reach you through the darkness"
What are the benefits of placing your hope in God? What has been your experience of these benefits, or how would you like to experience them?
(Consider It ... Experience It / Sarah Young)
Scripture Insight: Romans 8:18-25 - In these verses, the apostle Paul encourages his readers to persevere in living their faith in spite of the sufferings of this life:
"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to son-ship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we are saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently"
ReplyDelete(Romans 8:18-25 / New International Version)