Live With Hope

LIVE WITH HOPE

“Hope. What is hope?” asks Jo Black (an Afrikaans singer from South Africa) in his popular Afrikaans song with the same name. This song became an overnight success and reached the number one spot almost as soon as it was released.

Why? Because it is something we need so much in this world, in our country and in our everyday lives.

SO, WHAT IS HOPE?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary hope is the feeling of wanting something to happen and thinking that it could happen; a feeling that something good will happen or be true (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hope).

• it is a feeling of expectation and desire that things will change for the better

• that circumstances will improve if you just keep going

• that some breakthrough is around the corner

This feeling of hope keeps you going where other people have long ago thrown in the towel.

The world is full of people who have overcome incredible obstacles and failures because they kept hoping despite the opposition of people who encouraged them to let things go and just accept their fate ... people who just never gave up hope

It is said:

• “We can live forty days without food,

• Eight days without water,

• Four minutes without air,

• But only a few seconds without hope!”

(Quoted from a contribution by Gordon Curley on Nov 21, 2010 - https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/hope-gordon-curley-sermon-on-god-brings-hope-151855?page=1&wc=800)

AND IT'S SO EASY TO LOSE HOPE...

What makes people lose hope? There are many reasons, but here are some of them:

1. YOU LOSE HOPE BECAUSE OF DISAPPOINTED EXPECTATIONS

One often loses hope when the realities of life kick in and you realize what you have hoped for is not going to happen - disappointed expectations that make you bury your hope.

Luke 24:17-23 (GN) tells something of these disappointed expectations of the Jesus followers on their way to Emmaus, when Jesus joined them and asked them; “What are you talking about to each other, as you walk along?” They stood still, with sad faces. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn't know the things that have been happening there these last few days?” “What things?” he asked. “The things that happened to Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered. “This man was a prophet and was considered by God and by all the people to be powerful in everything he said and did. Our chief priests and rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and he was crucified. And we had hoped that he would be the one who was going to set Israel free! Besides all that, this is now the third day since it happened. Some of the women of our group surprised us; they went at dawn to the tomb, but could not find his body. They came back saying they had seen a vision of angels who told them that he is alive..

Disappointed expectations extinguished their hopes - we had hoped that he would be the one who was going to set Israel free! But now...

2. YOU LOSE HOPE WHEN THINGS LINGER TOO LONG without an outcome

When no improvement occurs, when there is no progress to change the situation, when things linger too long without an outcome, you begin to lose hope.

The question then is: How long must one keep hoping before giving up all hope? A week, a month, a year, or almost 100 years like Abraham?

Psalm 13:1-2 (GN) tells something about this struggle that David went through when he found himself in a situation that made him feel helpless and hopeless:

“How much longer will you forget me, Lord? Forever?

How much longer will you hide yourself from me?

How long must I endure trouble?

How long will sorrow fill my heart day and night?

How long will my enemies triumph over me?”

When things do not work out as you had hoped,

• when you have been praying about a matter for a very long time and nothing happens,

• when it feels to you as if God has forgotten about you, or that He has let you down,

• when it feels like your suffering is going to last forever and you fall into self-pity,

• one begins to ask: How much longer do I have to wait, do I have to believe, do I have to trust and hope?

That's when you often start making your own plans to settle the matter, because you say to yourself: “I have been praying for so long now, and have been hoping for such a long time - if God is not going to help me, then I must help myself, because who else is going to help me?”

And when your own plans do not work out, you fall into an even deeper hole of worry, self-pity and depression - because now there is literally no hope left at all...