How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting
Post 24: Clinging to God’s Rope of Hope
The New Testament writers develop the waiting motif when they urge us toward patience, perseverance, longsuffering, and remaining under. That’s the message of Romans 5; James 1; 1 Peter 1-2; and Hebrews 11.
In waiting, we cling to God’s rope of hope, even when we can’t see it. In biblical waiting, we neither numb our longings nor illegitimately fulfill our longings.
Waiting’s Evil Twin
The opposite of waiting is meeting my “needs” now, taking matters into my own hands now, and acting as if I’m my only hope. Esau embodies regrouping through immediate gratification (Hebrews 11:16). For a single meal, a bowl of soup, he sold his birthright. He refused to look ahead, to wait, to delay gratification.
Moses exemplifies delayed gratification and waiting.
“By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward” (Hebrews 11:24-26).
No quick fix for Moses. No “Turkish Delight” from the White Witch of Narnia. No pleasures of sin for a season.
Remembering the Future
Why? How could he? He chose eternal pleasure over temporal happiness. He remembered the future.
Faith looks back to the past recalling God’s mighty works saying, “He did it that time, he can do it now.”
Hope looks ahead remembering God’s coming reward saying, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed” (Romans 8:18-19). Hopeful waiting gives love time to take root.
Clinging to God’s Rope of Hope
And how do we help others to cling to God’s rope of hope? How do we wait on God while waiting on hope? Those are topics for our next two day trips.
