AFRAID TO HOPE

Last night we had our twice monthly small group gathering. If you’re not in a small group with other followers of Christ, I encourage you to find a group, or, if you can’t find one, get together with a few friends and become a group. The main topic of our discussion was the favor of God. Several shared stories of God’s clear favor in providing promotions in their work. Others shared of God’s protection, provision and perfect peace in crisis. All the sharing was very encouraging. My experience is that when we share our life stories a deeper bond is forged in our relationships. Love it! 

At the same time there was a sobering awareness within our small group that most of us have experienced, or are currently experiencing, enough pain there are times when it’s difficult to have hope. Jabez, in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10, first entered the world through much pain, which is why he received the name he did. Jabez means “sorrow”, and is derived from a root word meaning, “to grieve.” That is one tough way to get started in life. Everyone you meet and everywhere you go, people refer to you as “the pain.” Yet somehow, some way, Jabez was able to rise above his name to ask God for FAVOR: "Oh, that you would bless me and extend my lands! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!" (V10 NLT)

One of the members of our small group suggested there are times when we are scared to hope. Maybe we’ve recently experienced a deep disappointment, or we’ve been hoping for a change in our circumstances for a long, long time but nothing has happened, or the last time we determined to exercise our faith things actually got worse. So, now we find ourselves in a place where we're AFRAID TO HOPE. We’re finding it nearly impossible to ask for God’s favor and to believe things are going to change for the better.

According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon (bibletools.org), the Greek word for hope, ELPIS, means: “expectation of evil, fear; expectation of good, hope.” Another member of our group made the observation that we’re often more likely to believe bad news than good news. He gave this example: If someone came and told us bad news, we often immediately accept it; yet if someone came to us and told they have a bag full of cash, we refuse to believe them.

All of us have experienced enough pain in life we can easily become a skeptic or cynic. The dark cloud of negativism hangs over our life, and, even more, we allow it. We don’t even try to break free of the darkness and despair, because we’re afraid to hope. I find the Greek word mentioned above, ELPIS, to be very intriguing. If you consider its meaning, all of us have hope. Our hope is either an “expectation of evil” or an “expectation of good.” We’re either hoping for the worst, or hoping for the best. 

Yesterday, Les Welk, the team leader for the Northwest Ministry Network (Assemblies of God), spoke at our church. He had several very profound things to say, but among them was his comment about “blessing.” He shared that we can’t direct our anger, frustration and disappointment in God and bless him at the same time. Blessing and cursing don’t happen simultaneously. We can’t criticize and tear down another person, and bless them at the same time. What’s the point? We need to choose blessing. 

I pray the Lord will give you strength today to ask the God of all hope for favor. I pray that an expectation of good, will dominate your thoughts, and shape your perspective of life, as you place your full trust in the Lord. 

Romans 15:13 NIV “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.”

P.S. One other thing Les Welk shared with us yesterday was the definition of the word, ATTITUDE, from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Attitude describes the position of a plane in regards to its surroundings and the horizon. The FAA offers this equation: ATTITUDE +POWER = PERFORMANCE. 

As I was concluding today’s blog post, actually after I thought I was done, the Holy Spirit prompted this verse to my memory and I believe it is a specific word to someone who will be reading this blog. Psalm 30:5 NLT ”His anger lasts for a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may go on all night, but joy comes with the morning.” To the person the Holy Spirit is speaking to through this verse, God’s favor is coming your way and with it a new experience of joy.