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Hoping Against hope…
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”
Romans 4:18
We are told that Abraham against all hope believed.
NLT says…Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping.
It had been years since he received the promise. Day after day, he believed that God would do exactly what he promised. There came a day where all the natural conditions that gave him hope were no longer there. Abraham could no longer believe that he could have a child with Sarah. There were now too old. God seemed too late. But Abraham didn’t stop believing.
Have you ever been expectant over the fulfillment of a promise? You look with hope when that word will come to pass. You are convinced that any day now the promise will come to pass. Then days turn into months, months turn into years without a sign of that word coming to pass. But without knowing how you go on because deep down you know He is faithful to fulfill. This is hope against hope my sis.
Abraham found himself here. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the bareness of Sarah’s womb. Romans 4: 19 Abraham faced the impossibility of his situation and didn’t waver in his faith. He didn’t bury his face in the sand. He looked at his situation and kept moving.
He held on to hope. In Greek, hope means a joyful expectation of good. This definition tells us that when we wait on God with hope we don’t wait with sully faces. We don’t sink in a corner and hope for the best. We walk around with joyful faces. We skip with joy unworried and unshaken because we know who has promised us.
I came to a place of hoping against hope last week. I have been waiting for a promise to be fulfilled for about a year and a half. I wanted to refresh my hope that this promise was still there. But I received some news that stated the opportunity had long passed me. I had an option to sulk in disappointment or to remember what God had said about this promise. I didn’t have much reason to hope but I remembered this word. I felt like God was saying…you can hope against hope even here.
It’s easy to believe God to fulfill a dream far off than it is to believe for a dream that has died.
Sis. I don’t know what you have been waiting and holding to hope for. Maybe you still have a reason to hope, or you’ve come to a place where it all seems hopeless. You thought by now you will have the promise but time has passed and you are finding it hard to have hope. It’s easy to believe God when natural circumstances still say it is possible. It’s harder to believe when we no longer have a reason for hope.
Maybe it’s a relationship that is now dead, for a long time you held onto hope that God could mend it. You are now hoping against hope for a resurrection and a restoration. Maybe it’s an opportunity you waited long for but it seems the opportunity has passed you. Maybe natural circumstances have made the fulfillment of that promise improbable. It feels too late. Like Abraham, you can hope against hope. The hope God gives to us carries us through situations that aren’t hopeful.
Remember:
We hope for what we don’t see. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Romans 8:25
He gives life to what is dead. As it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”-in the presence of the God whom he (Abraham) believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Romans 4: 17 Abraham’s hope had a source he knew the one who made dead things come back to life. He also knew Him who calls things that don’t exist, into existence.
We have to be fully convinced. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Romans 4:20-21 we have to get to a place where we say, “God I don’t know how you’ll do it. I can’t see a way but I know you are able to do it.” When we are fully convinced we don’t need circumstances to agree with the promise.
Hope is our anchor. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. Hebrews 6:19 When things don’t seem to go the way we thought they would. We can be secure and firm in hope that He is still able to fulfill His promises.
Christ our hope of glory. The Philips translation puts it so well…The secret is simply this: Christ in you! Yes, Christ in you bringing with him the hope of all glorious things to come. Colossian 1:27 we can hope in Him and in His promises. If God gives you a word, He will fulfill it. You can hope and hope against hope.
A hope-filled week!
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