My Hope

O my God, in you I trust...

Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame...

Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all the day long...

May integrity and uprightness preserve me,
for I wait for you.
Psalm 25:2, 3, 5, 21

Delight yourself in the Lord,
and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4

And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."
Job 1:21

What are you waiting for in your life right now? What are you hoping for? What is your dream, that promise you are holding on to? That desire you feel will make life better? That thing you feel God is holding back for now, but will eventually bless you with?

In reading Job, I see God had given Job wealth, possessions, family, status. He is what we would all call blessed, favored. Then God allows it all to be taken away. Was Job no longer blessed? Was he no longer favored?

Job responds blessing the Lord. In chapter 2, he asks his wife, "Shall we receive good from God and not evil?" Throughout the book, Job petitions God to know why this is happening, but he does not sin. He does not curse God. He does not understand, but he is assured God is right and just.

Paul says in Philippians 4, "I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

These men knew God as something we don't really. Our hope.

Job was not waiting until God restored him - gave him his cattle back, more children, his blameless reputation - to bless God.

Paul was not waiting to live in abundance or plenty to be content.

Having God was enough. More than enough. 
Enough blessing. Enough strength.

We are so quick to set a plan, grab hold to a desire we have and claim it as the thing we are waiting for. The thing we are so sure God means for us to have to enjoy an "abundant life". What we miss in all this waiting and this hoping for temporary things is the abundant life found in God. Right now.

When we accept Christ in our lives, we are graciously reconciled with God. We are adopted into the family of God. We receive a deposit of the Holy Spirit guaranteeing our eternal inheritance, namely God. Because the reality of living in a city of gold where Christ is our light and there is no sin is Not Yet, we wait with all creation for the day we will be redeemed. For eternity with Christ, we wait.
More than watchmen for the morning. 
More than watchmen for the morning. 

No dream, no hope, no promise is greater than God. We lean into Him. We hope only in eternity with Him. Everything else passes away.

God gave Abraham a promise that He would make him the father of many nations. And those nations would come through his son, Isaac. Plot twists of all plot twists - God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son. But the promise? Abraham had been waiting for this for so many years! He had sinned trying to make this promise speed up a bit. Yet God was faithful and gave him Isaac. But now give it back? Give it up? Kill the promise?

Why would God do this?
To show that the promise means nothing apart from God. We don't hope in things. Things that die. Things that can get stolen, rust, and be destroyed.
We hope in the one eternal Treasure. The true Promise.

Our relationship with God... God's presence buoys us up, not a hope in an earthly event or created thing.

God may give you a promise. God may bless you with something you never want to live without. But it can easily be taken away in this fallen world, and, at times, for our good. So what will you hope in?