Hope Ain't Easy

Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.

Matthew 5:4

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets before you.

Matthew 5:11-12

Those two pretty difficult sayings from the sermon on the mount would be impossible without faith. Faith and hope. Those are pretty words, often found on necklaces and smoothed stones in gardens.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1

Look at mourning. What is mourning, when you have the deep hope of the resurrection burning inside of you? It is a time of sadness, a time of remembrance. It is sadness for what has been taken out of this world, but has been brought into glory and peace, with no more pain and no more sorrow. It becomes pretty clear that mourning with hope and without hope are two different animals.

Look at suffering. 

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character, and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Romans 5:1-5

Hope doesn't disappoint. As it is growing and manifesting inside of us, it is growing something stronger than we are. But it does sound like a painful process. I've heard something pretty deep, recently. Some people have made the joke, “Don't pray for patience, because God will send you a reason to grow some.” And then they take it to heart, and avoid praying for it, asking for God to give them much needed growth. Stunting themselves by refusal to ask for a much needed thing.

If we want hope, we can't hide from that process either. It certainly seems to me that what we call hope can be wishful thinking when it doesn't go through the process of being real, seasoned mature and cultivated. When we resist tribulations, then we resist perseverance, then our character isn't made stronger, and hope can't exist.

Let's look at how the bible defines hope- ...even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly awaiting the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.  

Romans 8:23b-25 

Hope is something living, eager, growing, pushing. Hope is as much of a verb as love is. Hope isn't easy or pretty or sugar coated. Hope is passion, a glimmer of the glory of the Holy Spirit shining through us, enableing us to call on Jesus in our troubles, to call Him Lord even when everything is hurting so bad, and to believe that we will be comforted, we will be blessed, and he will be with us.

And now abide faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:13

Amen?