Hope Springs part 2
Hope springs eternal. It has to. Otherwise its not hope. And that's what this Rant series is all about--understanding hope. And sometimes the best way to do that is to go the beginning. Law of first mention. Where the first time the Bible uses a word kind of defines what that word is all about. Well, in the King James Version of the Bible, Ruth 1:12-13 has the first mention of the word "hope." "Turn again, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also to night, and should also bear sons; Would ye tarry for them till they were grown?..." And the word "hope" is number 861 in Strong's Hebrew Concordance. It means, "literally a cord (as an attachment); figuratively expectancy: - expectation, hope, live, thing that I long for." In this case, interestingly enough, the thing that was being hoped for, was for someone else. Naomi was thinking about Ruth. The hope wasn't about what Naomi could GET, but what she could GIVE. The attachment was between two PEOPLE. And the thing that Naomi longed for was to be able to make Ruth's life better. Again, to give something. That, to me, is one of the biggest misconceptions that exist. We think life is all about getting. We hope for things we want to have. Like "hoping" we win the lottery. And I feel pretty confident that if I did win the lottery I'd give a lot of it away. Because even though I never have very much, I still give a lot of it away. But I digress. Blessed to be a blessing, right? Freely we have been given, freely we are to give. God loves a cheerful giver. But that's not the point I'm trying to make. The point I'm trying to make is that hope is about believing--faith, hope, and charity--that things WILL get better. Even though, as in our example, there was no way that Naomi could possibly get what she hoped for. And that was her point. But Ruth stuck with her. And guess what Ruth got: A husband. Not exactly the way either of them thought it would happen. But it happened nevertheless. That's what life is. It doesn't always go the way you think it will. But all things work together for good. Its a master plan that we can't always see. But sometimes its enough to just do the next thing. Do what's in front of you. Take the next step. Walk by faith, not by sight, and you WILL get what you're hoping for. Because, as we saw yesterday, hope springs eternal in the breast. In the heart. And where do you think your heart's desire comes from? Your heart's desire is love. And that can only come from the God who IS love. Its Philippians 2:13, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." The want to, and the ability to, comes from God working in us. It comes from what's working IN us, working its way OUT of us. Charity. Love in action. Receving the very thing we hoped for... and releasing it. LIVING by faith. Because faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith is believing it when you see it... because you see it. That thing that you longed for... that cord, or attachment, or connection... coming to manifestation. Maybe not--probably not--in the way that you expected. But that's what makes the never-ending life-long journey into the heart of the matter so great. Just when we think we have God's love figured out, He shows us that there is more and more and more. The deeper we go, the deeper we CAN go. The more we love... the more we CAN love!