Tag Archives: Put on hope

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Conflicted

The Gritty Gap Between Promise and Fulfilment

PREVIEW: Don’t we often find ourselves in the gritty gap somewhere between the promises of God and the fulfillment of those promises? Guess what? That’s called the life of faith! And, moreover, that’s exactly where faith is expressed, tested, and rewarded—the gap between promise and fulfillment. Now what are you to do with that? Well, if you are in that gritty reality, you’ve got to just “grit it out.” You’ve got to “faith” it! You’ve got to put on hope—and keep it on! There is no easy alternative. Sometimes, that is just the way of faith.

“If you are in that gritty gap between God’s promise and its fulfillment in your life, you’ve got to just “grit it out.” You’ve got to “faith” it! You’ve got to put on hope—and keep it on!” —Ray Noah

A Journey of Worship // Psalm 43:2

You are God, my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?

You can relate to this psalm, can’t you? I can. Sometimes—many times—our circumstances seem to indicate anything but a Heavenly Father who is closely and lovingly hovering over every detail of our lives with his generous and providential care. Sometimes our reality is a sickness that attacks our bodies, a devil that attacks our families, a failure that shakes our confidence, a temptation that tests our resolve, a sin that cracks our character, people that disappoint our expectations, and events that wallop the stuffing out of us. And sometimes, that’s on a good day.

So, in the midst of that raw, gritty reality of life, where is the God who has promised to meet our every need, deliver us from our every danger, fulfill our every desire, answer our every prayer, and bless our every moment? Sometimes he seems distant, silent, and uncaring. And we are conflicted. Yes, we believe in his goodness, trust his promises, and depend on his kindness, yet we cry out, “Where are you…why have you abandoned me…do you not care…is all that I believe about you not the reality of how you deal with your people today?”

The writers of this psalm, the sons of Korah, likely had experienced this same raw, gritty reality for themselves and, more likely, had witnessed it as a common occurrence in the lives of all God’s children. And they, too, were conflicted. So, they wrote a song about it. On the one hand, they poured out their hearts to God, expecting him to rescue them (Psalm 43:1), protect them (Psalm 43:2), guide them (Psalm 43:3), fill them with joy (Psalm 43:4) and lift them out of their anxiety to a place of security in him (Psalm 43:5). They trusted that God could do that, would do that; they had enough faith to boldly pray and make those requests of him.

Yet their reality was a sense of abandonment, disappointment, and vulnerability. (Psalm 43:2)

Now really, isn’t that where much of our Christian lives are lived, too? Don’t we often find ourselves in that same gritty gap, somewhere between the promises of God and the fulfillment of those promises? Guess what? That’s called the life of faith! And moreover, that’s exactly where faith is expressed, tested, and rewarded—the gap between promise and fulfillment.

Now what are you to do with that? Well, if you are in that gritty reality, you’ve got to just “grit it out.” You’ve got to “faith” it! You’ve got to put on hope—and keep it on! There is no easy alternative. Sometimes, that is just the way of faith.

So, if that’s just the tough reality of your world right now, please consider this:

“We know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint.” (Rom 5:3-5)

Hang in there! You won’t be disappointed.

My Offering of Worship: If you are struggling with a sense of abandonment, disappointment, and vulnerability, like the authors of this psalm, then look up all the references to hope in the Bible. By the way, there are 180 Bible references to “hope” in the New International Version. You probably won’t need to read them all before you start putting on hope.

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The Practice of Hope

Read: Proverbs 13

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12)

Hope is an incredible motivator in life, a powerful sustainer of love, and unquestionably, the most effective instigator of spiritual growth. On the other hand, the loss of hope is arguably the greatest devastator of life a human being can experience.  That’s how profound powerful hope is.

The Contemporary English Version translates our proverb this way: “Not getting what you want can make you feel sick, but a wish that comes true is a life-giving tree.” That’s so true, isn’t it?  We’ve all been there—the loss of a job, the breakup of a relationship, the crushing of a dream—it takes your legs right out from under you. It tempts you to give up, shrink back, curl up in a ball and just quit on life.  There is no pain quite like the loss of hope.

On the other hand, when you have hope you can survive and actually thrive through just about anything. When hope is stoked, even when what you’re hoping for is still a far off expectation, suddenly there is energy, drive, focus, and patient endurance.

That’s how powerful hope is, and that’s why we’ve got to practice it.  Huh?  Practice hope? Yeah, that’s what the Bible says.  I Thessalonians 5:8 says we’ve got to exercise hopefulness…we’ve got to practice being hopeful…we’ve got to put on hope:

“But since we belong to the day let us be sober and put on the breastplate
of faith and love, and, for a helmet, the hope of salvation.”

You see, hope is not just some vague and lofty concept; it is actually a very practical thing. Just like a football player puts on his helmet for the game, or a soldier puts on his helmet for battle, we’ve got to put on the helmet of hope, particularly the hope of our salvation, because it is what enables us to endure life’s battles and come out victorious at the end of the day.

So how can you literally put hope on as a helmet?  First, quit being passive about hope.  It’s not just going to happen for you, you’ve got to practice it.  How? By, secondly, developing and nurturing patterns of thinking that are founded in hope. The fact is, not only are there ways of thinking that will kill hope, there are ways of thinking that produce hope.

Let me illustrate:  Suppose you were to receive a phone call today from an old friend who enthusiastically says, “I have good news. You can take a 7-day trip to Hawaii with my company that won’t cost you a dime. We have room for two more…but here’s the catch: we leave tomorrow evening at 9:00 PM. The boss is taking us on his private jet, and we’ll be staying at his beachfront villa in Maui.”

You tell him you’ll call him right back, and the minute you get off the phone, you and your spouse, who was listening in, start thinking and planning. Out comes the pen and paper, and you begin to prioritize what you need to do to make this happen.  Then you call the friend back, and tell him you’re in.

Now here’s the deal: I’ll guarantee that you will begin to ruthlessly align your life over the next 24 hours to pull this off. Am I right?  You see, the hope of Hawaii tomorrow will change the way you live today.

There’s something even better and more permanent that Hawaii.  It’s called heaven.  The most important hope of all—the hope of your salvation—is promising you a better tomorrow.  So start aligning your life today for eternity with Jesus—and be ruthless about it—and watch what hope will do for you!

It is what Christians were meant to do, by the way!

“We have this hope as an anchor of the soul, firm and secure.” ~Hebrews 6:19

Winning At Life:

For the next seven days, right before you go to sleep and then again when you first wake up, think about what heaven will be like.  That’s practicing hope.

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Keep Hope Alive

Read: Proverbs 13:12

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

Hope is an incredible motivator in life, a powerful sustainer of love, and arguably, it is the most effective instigator of spiritual growth. On the other hand, the loss of hope is arguably the greatest devastator of life a human being can experience.  That’s how profound powerful hope is.

The Contemporary English Version translates our proverb this way: “Not getting what you want can make you feel sick, but a wish that comes true is a life-giving tree.” That’s so true, isn’t it?  We’ve all been there—the loss of a job, the breakup of a relationship, the crushing of a dream—it takes your legs right out from under you. It tempts you to give up, shrink back, curl up in a ball and just quit on life.  There is no pain quite like the loss of hope.

But when you have hope you can survive and actually thrive through just about anything. When hope is stoked, even when what you’re hoping for is still a far off expectation, suddenly there is energy, drive, focus, and patient endurance.

That’s how powerful hope is, and that’s why we’ve got to practice it.  Huh?  Practice hope? Yeah, that’s what the Bible says.  I Thessalonians 5:8 says we’ve got to exercise hopefulness…we’ve got to practice being hopeful…we’ve got to put on hope:

“But since we belong to the day let us be sober
and put on the breastplate of faith and love,
and, for a helmet, the hope of salvation.”

You see, hope is not just some vague and lofty concept, it’s actually a very practical thing. Just like a football player puts on his helmet for the game, or a soldier puts on his helmet for battle, we’ve got to put on the helmet of hope, particularly the hope of our salvation, because it is what enables us to endure life’s battles and come out victorious at the end of the day.

So how can you literally put hope on as a helmet?  First, quit being passive about hope.  It’s not just going to happen for you, you’ve got to practice it.  Then second, develop and nurture patterns of thinking that are founded in hope. The fact is, not only are there ways of thinking that will kill hope, there are ways of thinking that produce hope.

Let me illustrate:  Suppose you were to receive a phone call today from an old friend who enthusiastically says, “Friend, I have good news.  You can take a 7-day trip to Hawaii with my company that won’t cost you a dime.  We have room for two more…but here’s the catch: we leave tomorrow evening at 9:00 PM.  The boss is taking us on his private jet, and we’ll be staying at his beachfront villa in Maui.”

You tell him you’ll call him right back, and the minute you get off the phone, you and your spouse, who was listening in, start thinking and planning. Out comes the pen and paper, and you begin to prioritize what you need to do to make this happen.  Then you call the friend back, and tell him you’re in.

Now here’s the deal: I’ll guarantee that you will begin to ruthlessly align your life over the next 24 hours to pull this off. Am I right?  You see, the hope of Hawaii tomorrow will change the way you live today.

There’s something even better and more permanent that Hawaii.  It’s called heaven.  The most important hope of all—the hope of your salvation—is promising you a better tomorrow.  So start aligning your life today for eternity with Jesus—and be ruthless about it—and watch what hope will do for you!

“We have this hope as an anchor of the soul, firm and secure.”
Hebrews 6:19

Your Assignment, Should You Choose To Accept It:

For the next seven days, right before you go to sleep and then again when you first wake up, think about what heaven will be like.  That’s practicing hope.