Hope is a basic necessity for every member of creation. God designed us to exist in a constant state hope. The Kingdom of God is The Kingdom of Hope. There is never a moment of hopelessness with God. However this is rarely our experience of life. Most people live in state of subconscious fear that some tragedy will befall them – unwittingly expecting hopelessness to be their reality. Because of this, hopelessness is always lurking in the corner, casting its grim shadow on the confidence needed to live a life marked by peace and freedom.
So what are we to do about this?
The solution starts by we believing that living a life that is marked by perfect and uninterrupted hope is possible. Here is a word of wisdom that is applicable to any aspect of life: we are always limited by what we think is possible. Uninterrupted hope, by the way is something that we must choose to believe, against all odds; because the conditions of this fallen world are definitely not going to lead us there!
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.”– Proverbs 13:12 NKJV
No man is designed to live without hope. Living without hope is essentially – breathing without air. The absence of hope empties the very core of man; yet when hope is restored, Solomon describes it as being “a tree of life”. This is because the absence of hope is really the absence of life. The absence of hope is a product of the absence of life. Hopelessness is a symptom of being separated from the life of God.
Hopelessness is a symptom of being separated from the life of God.
You know, hope was Adam and Eve’s default and only state until they sinned. Their sin created hopelessness. Sin is unlike God, and it creates things that are not in God. So here’s the thing: if you are born again and abide in God, hopelessness has no place in you. And here’s the reason why – 2000 years ago, God executed a plan to rid humanity of its rampant hopelessness by one means – eradicating the very substance that created hopelessness in the first place: sin.
Jesus started His ministry by quoting the words Isaiah prophesied of Him:
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
² To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
³ To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…” – Isaiah 61:1-3 NKJV
Jesus is essentially saying here that God anointed or enabled Him to carry out the following tasks: bring good news to the spiritually bankrupt (or dead), heal those in despair, bring freedom to those held hostage by fear, comfort those in mourning…
All of these can be summed into one category: HOPE. Jesus in the own opening statement of His ministry tells us that He has come to do one thing: to restore hope to a people who are hopeless – people whose hearts are sick.
What I find so interesting is what Jesus goes on to say…
“…that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of The Lord, that He may be glorified.” – Isaiah 61:3 [continued] NKJV
Jesus came to restore hope to us by way of causing us to be planted as trees of righteousness or trees of life (for there is no life without righteousness).
So where Solomon writes that the fulfillment of hope is “a tree of life”, we find that the mission Jesus accomplished by dying as our sins on the cross and by resurrecting us with Him in victory – results in we becoming those trees of life! Whereas the absence of life in our hearts was manifested as hopelessness – the restoration of life to our spirits now makes us the fulfillment of hope. We are those trees Solomon speaks of in Proverbs 13:12!
We are those trees Solomon speaks of in Proverbs 13:12!
We not only have hope, but we, ourselves are the very symbol of hope! As a matter of fact, Paul tells us in Romans 8:19-21, that because of what we have received through Jesus Christ, we now are God’s own symbol of hope for all creation – that creation is eagerly awaiting to be brought into “the glories liberty of the children of God”!
So my friend, the next time you are tempted to feel hopeless – remember who you are – you are so significant. God has planted you as a tall, powerful, mighty tree teeming with His kind of life. My friend, you are never far from hope, you are the very proof of it…you are the embodiment of hope! Hallelujah!
If God raised you back from spiritual death (what would have been an eternal one at that) – can you not have hope for the little things of this temporal life? Oh you can – the life in you is the very emblem of hope!
