Hope Springs part 5
Hope springs out of the spring deep inside you. Hope springs out of the LOVE deep inside you. Because that's what hope is all about. Its not about, you know, wishing on a star. Or picking flower petals. Its not, "He loves me, He loves me not, I hope it lands on He loves me!" Its, well, let me say it like this: "Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:26-27). Did you catch that? The mystery that WAS hid, but has NOW been made manifest. The secret garden that isn't a secret anymore because the wind of the Holy Spirit came and stirred up everything inside the garden and brought it all out! The hidden man of the heart that is no longer hidden. The Amplified Bible puts the end of that passage like this, "...which is Christ within and among you, the Hope of [realizing the] glory." We don't hope for something that may or may not happen. We hope for the realization of what has already happened. We know and believe the love of Christ, and we expect that love to make everything better and brighter. We hope for the Christ in us to come out of us. And He does. Every time we be still and know that He is God. Every time we stop trying to be someone we're not and simply embrace who we are. Every time love (the idea) becomes charity (the action). Every time the Word is made flesh in us. That's when (and how) we realize the glory. The glory that we have. The glory that we ARE. Hope springs eternal in our breasts--in our hearts, in our innermost being--because what we hope for, or hope in, is love. And love never fails. We don't have to hope that our heavenly Father loves us. We can stand on the Rock and be sure that nothing can shake us. God made it crystal clear that He DOES, in fact, love us by dying for us. When we were sinners. When we had nothing to offer, God gave us everything. Because that's what love is--giving everything you have and everything you are. Laying your life down for your friends. And that, friends, is what gives us hope. Have you ever seen like a news story about someone going way out of their way to be kind? And there's usually a hashtag involved that says, #FaithInHumanityRestored. Someone does something good, and pure, and it gives us hope. Jesus gave His life for us, and to us, and that gives us eternal hope (because it gave us eternal life, right?). So when you're feeling hopeless, well, as one of Logan's favorite songs says, "When you can't hold on... hold on." When you can't hold on, realize that God is holding on to you. And He's not letting go. Ever. One more time: Love never fails. God will never give up on you. He'd rather die than be without you. Literally. He was with Jesus on the cross reconciling us to Himself. Bringing us back to where we belonged. Adam and Eve hid from the presence of God because they were afraid that He was mad at them. But God swore never to leave us nor forsake us. He drew us back to Himself. With His goodness. With His love. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. And we have faith in God. We have faith in love!