Our reality is not dictated by the faithlessness of the world, our reality has been set in the faithfulness of God.
Transcript
Today, we are going to take a “Posture of Peace” by fully embracing hope.
Posture is a short, audible fist bump to remind you God is with you in everything. Together, we’re going to be emboldened to take a daily Posture of perfect peace.
So I’m reading today from Romans 8, one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. I’m reading from verses 24 and 25 today. It says, “For in this hope we were saved. Now, I hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” So I wanna tackle what, I don’t even know if this is a real term, but what I’m calling ‘hope fatigue’. ‘Cause I’m seeing it a lot right now. Especially after a year like 2020, people are carrying this suspicion in them about what’s to come instead of an eager expectation for what’s to come.
And I was encouraging a friend the other day and I found myself saying to her, “The best is yet to come.” Now that’s a popular saying. So, with popular saying sometimes it becomes a generic platitude that we just say and don’t really mean. So when I walked away from that conversation I really found myself reflecting and questioning myself and saying, “Do I really believe that to be true? The best is yet to come? Or did I just say that to make her feel better?” And I sense the Holy Spirit interrupt the conversation I was having with myself. And He said, “Lindsay, it’s only a platitude if you don’t believe it’s a prophetic promise.” Now all through scripture we have prophetic promise about a hope filled future. One of those scriptures is a popular one, Jeremiah 29:11. The Lord confidently declares, “I know the plans I have for you plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”
Now, you live differently when you have hope. You live differently when you carry an eager expectation of goodness in your future. And as a child of God you have been empowered to live with that hope because it’s a promise from Him that we can rest in. And I think we need to no longer confuse kingdom hope with worldly optimism. That’s happening a lot right now. Do not let the world or what’s happening in the world redefine this truth in your heart. There’s two main definitions, two different kinds of understandings of hope that are floating around. The first is the worldly understanding which says that hope is wishful thinking. It’s you wishing for something that you’re not sure will happen. But kingdom hope is different, kingdom hope is an anchoring in trust, in expectation of what has been promised. And as the people of God, we have been promised a lot. This word is filled with promises that we can rest in. I wanna read from Hebrews 6. It’s a chunk of scripture, it’s absolute treasure.
And I want as I read this for you to soak in this definition of hope. So Hebrews 6:13, I’m gonna read through 20. It says, “For when God made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater by whom to swear, He swore by himself saying, ‘Surely, I will bless you and multiply you.’ And thus Abraham, having patiently waited obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves. And in all of their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.” Listen to this, “So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of His purpose, He guaranteed it with an oath. So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have a strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
Back to Romans 8, when you and I, when we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. We don’t wait for God to show up, show off, bring revival, perform the rapture. Now, we wait with God. We have His presence now living inside of us, we have His nature, we have His promises, we have His peace. So perhaps it feels as though God is bringing severe judgment to the world right now because we, His people, His image bearers, have severely judged the world. Perhaps it feels like the mercy of God has finally run dry. Because actually it’s we, His people, who have decided to stop the flow of His mercy in us and through us. Perhaps feels as though there will never be peace again because we, the people of God, have withheld our peace from the world.
Now, there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So don’t be condemned by this. There’s only Holy conviction that is inviting us right now to live so radically empowered by the presence and the promises of God that will actually change the world. Our reality as kingdom people is not dictated by the faithlessness of the world. Our reality has been set in the faithfulness of God. So don’t buy the lie that you are susceptible to anything less than what God has promised. I believe the best is yet to come because the sons and daughters of God are waking up to the truth that they have hope.