40 Days of Fasting & Prayer--Day 37

That God’s presence would INVADE my hope   

 

(1 Peter 1)

 

I don’t think I ever realized how closely associated love, faith and hope are.  It would seem, and this is an oversimplification, that all three are just different forms of belief.  This would be akin to the water having the properties of liquid, gas and solid.  The difference with love, faith and hope are that they could be considered in terms of past, present and future.

 

Love was an action.  What we call love is only good intention until it has actually happened.  Love is belief that has been acted upon.  This can only be considered in a past tense.  Love is not simply the feelings that accompany action, it is about the action itself.

Faith is action.  It is something that is with us right now.  It lives in the present.  What we are doing right now is a product of our faith.  Faith is belief as it is being acted upon.  As you turn on the light switch, you exhibit faith that the light will indeed turn on.

Hope is a different animal though.  Hope has to be viewed through the lens of what will be.  It is conditioned by what we know of the past and are experiencing presently.  Love produces faith which produces hope.  I experienced Christ’s love in the distant and recent past.  This has produced faith within me that causes me believe in His goodness right now.  Because of what He has done and is now doing, I have a hope in His faithfulness to my future.

 

My all time favorite hymn says it best:

 

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ Name.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace.

In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, His covenant, His blood, support me in the whelming flood.

When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my Hope and Stay.

 

The above lines are all about love and faith…past and present.  These are the foundations of hope for what is to come as expressed in the closing lines.

 

When He shall come with trumpet sound, oh may I then in Him be found.

Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ Name.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

 

The church is called to be harbingers of hope in a world that is without hope.  I’m afraid we misuse the word hope almost as often as we misuse the word love.  “I hope they get here on time.” “I hope I get diamonds for Christmas.” “I hope that so and so gets elected.”  We may as well say “I wish” instead of “I hope”.  Hope has the foundation of true love and real faith- otherwise it’s just wishful thinking.

 

“Holy Spirit, we live in such a hopeless generation and I refuse to continue becoming a product of this culture.  I pray today that You would open my eyes to see what You see.  Give me the eye of Christ so that I can live in hope!  Not just hope for my life, but to invade my culture with hope!”