Reliable Hope

In our current times, hope is at a premium.  It is rare and it is valuable.  Thankfully for the believer, we are a people of hope.

However, there are many who disparage the hope of the Christian.  These naysayers would look at the believer as if we have been taken in by some flight of fancy. Some would even go so far as to name our faith useless and declare that it is simply a “crutch” for they weak-minded.

What they fail to understand is that we are not a people of blind faith. We are not a people who hope without cause. On the contrary, we are people who have confidence in what we have yet to see because we have examined the evidence regarding the object of our faith, the Resurrected Christ.

We remember that the writer of Hebrews called faith “The Substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  However, the writer never said our faith was based in the unknown or the unseen. We believe for the unknown, not simply by hope, but because we know the Character of the one in which we hope.

There is a reason I can leave my home and go on a trip with confidence that when I return my wife will have been faithful. I trust her when I am not there, because of what I have seen when I was. There is a reason we put our trust in automobiles. It is not because we designed or built them, but we know the track record of the agencies responsible for testing their safety. When you get on a rollercoaster, you are placing confidence in the builder, and you are basing that confidence on the fact that even as you enter the line, people are exiting having safely enjoyed the thrill.

When the believer begins to examine the faithfulness of God, we quickly come to understand that He doesn’t fail them that believe on Him. Whether it be Noah and an Ark, David and a Giant, or a widow woman and a barrel of grain… time and time again, He has been shown reliable.

That’s why Paul could write of Abraham.

“Against all hope, he believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.  And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body to be dead (when he was about a hundred years old), nor yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb.  He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was able to perform.” -Romans 4:18–21 (emphasis mine)

Abraham believed… even when it didn’t make sense. Why? Because Abraham had seen what God could do.  Abraham thought on what he had seen of God and determined God was reliable.

Yesterday’s testimonies are the foundation of tomorrow’s hope

When you are faced with things that could make your faith waver, take some time to think on the faithfulness of God.  Who do you know who has faced a similar situation?  How did God work it out?  What times have you needed God to move before and how did they work out?  Have you found Him faithful?

After you spend some time meditating on the faithfulness of God, you will notice your own faith is growing.  Feed that faith.  Yesterday’s testimonies are the foundation of tomorrow’s hope!