Sustaining Hope
Here’s one good thing about this season of coronavirus. It will not last forever! One day it will be over. Therefore, we hope. We hope for that day when we will no longer be counting spikes in COVID like some awful game. Old and new friends will once again freely hug each other. Businesses will re-start. Restaurants will throw open their doors. To wear the mask or not wear the mask will be a forgotten question. People will return to their jobs. Students will once more fill classrooms and go to proms. All churches will open for worship and finally the people of God will hear an in person Pastor Sermon so pent up it will last for two hours and no one will complain. I hope!
No, but actually don’t abandon your hope, my friend. Never abandon hope. This pandemic will pass. But how does one sustain hope in the meantime, especially in rioting, quarantining, and seemingly endless upside down days? Let’s learn some wisdom for sustaining hope from one of Paul’s profound blessings spoken to those he loved in Rome. Romans 15:13: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
1. Check your trust. What or who are you actually trusting in? Misplaced trust leads to hopelessness. If you are trusting in yourself, mankind, the new normal, anything other than God and his perfect timing for ultimate relief you are setting yourself up for despair. Who is it that Paul wants the Christians in Rome to fill with joy and peace as they trust in him by his Spirit? God - “the God of hope!” Any other foundation will fail.
About 50 years ago, a football player named Joe Namath wrote a book, and the title was I Can’t Wait Until Tomorrow…’Cause I get Better Looking Every Day. Broadway Joe is 77 years old now. I guarantee you that if he has hope for tomorrow it ain’t for that reason. Again, misplaced trust leads to hopelessness. Psalm 33:17 - “A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save.”
Biblical hope believes God is not done. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Biblical hope is supported by what God has done. “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him” (1 John 3:1).
Trust Jesus to fill you up with joy and peace until you brim over with hope. Maybe memorize Romans 15:13 and live out of the good of its beginning, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him …”
2. Hear God’s Word of Promise. Think of the power a promise kept has to put hope in a heart. After an evening out, some parents returned home to their children whom they had left with the baby sitter. They were pleasantly pleased to find the kids fast asleep. When the sitter had been paid - just as she was walking out the door - she communicated this detail: “Oops - almost forgot to tell you. I promised Sammy that if he would stay in bed, you would get him a pony in the morning.”
Do you think Sammy slept in hope? No child’s face has ever been so hope filled in sleep, right? But probably the pony promise went undelivered. Now, name a promise of God that won’t be fulfilled. William Carey said, “The future is as bright as the promises of God.” This is true in part because all of them - yes, all of them - will be brought true. So sustain hope in the heart, as Paul says, “as you trust in him …” But where are the promises we are to trust in? I don’t see them in Romans 15:13.
Well, they precede this verse. Remember context counts. Paul reminds the Romans in verse 8 that Jesus kept his purpose to serve Jewish insiders that the old ancestral promises would come true for them. “For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed” (Romans 15:8).
Then Paul lists four prophecies that God would fulfill. These are all promises with only the last one being explicit. The middle two quotes in verses 10 and 11 are commands or exhortations to the Gentiles. Here they are: “and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written: ‘Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing the praises of your name.’ 10 - Again, it says, ‘Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.’ 11 - And again, ‘Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles; let all the peoples extol him.’ 12 - And again, Isaiah says, ‘The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope’” (Romans 15:9-12).
Don’t lose sight of why Paul quoted these divine words. He desperately wants to instill hope in the hearts of people living in not so hopeful times. Deep racial animosity existed in Paul’s day too. There were outsiders and insiders. Apparently, once Paul knows the grand scheme of what God is doing in history - folding Gentiles into the covenant people and bringing the wonder of oneness in the body of Christ - he sees hope for Gentiles wherever God woos them or witnesses to them.
So the Apostle is saying, “Those of you without the pure blood of Abraham you have hope in the promises of God.” What government can never do, what sinful mankind cannot accomplish, what we all want in the end, God will do. The root of our ancestor Jesse, will break through the earth and grow to be a tree tall, tall enough for everyone everywhere to see and take hope in by faith in Jesus as their Savior from sin. One Lord. One faith. One family in unity and harmony forever in him. Now that’s hope. Think of the relevance of this to our day!
But please, notice Paul is quoting scripture to instill this hope. When he is on his way to desiring the abounding hope of God for his people in Romans 15:13 he precedes that prayer with God’s word of promise. Hope in the promises of God produces the fruit of joy and peace in the heart by the Spirit who works through the Word. So along with checking out trust we do well to up the frequency on hearing the promises of God. Are you doing that? Among all the clammer and noise of the media, in the busyness of your life, between all the social media choices, are you daily putting hope into your heart by hearing the promises of God in his Word?
Helen Keller, the brilliant, deaf/blind author and activist, who, in 1924 “heard” Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony wrote this stunning description of the famous work - which was written, after the composer himself lost his hearing. Keller felt the music, which was performed by the New York Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, by putting her hands up to a radio speaker.
She wrote: What was my amazement to discover that I could feel not only the vibrations but also the impassioned rhythm, the throb and the urge of the music. I could actually distinguish the cornets, the roll of the drums, deep-toned violas and violins singing in exquisite unison. The great chorus throbbed against my fingers with poignant pause and flow.
Then all the instruments and voices together burst forth -an ocean of heavenly vibration -and died away like winds when the atom is spent, ending in a delicate shower of sweet notes.
I couldn’t help remembering that the great composer who poured forth such a flood of sweetness into the world was deaf like myself. I marveled at the power of his quenchless spirit by which out of his pain he wrought such joy for others.
Let me thank you warmly for all the delight which your beautiful music has brought to my household and to me.
With kindest regards and best wishes, I am, sincerely yours,
Helen Keller
Such hope filled Helen Keller’s heart from “hearing” such excellence in music. For the rest of her days she sustained hope in her heart by daily hearing Beethoven and in her words, “smoothing the wrinkles from her soul.” How much more for you when you actually hear the excellence of divine promise - God’s Word - given to you to hear! “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).