The Power of Hope

UV 1572/10000 The Power of Hope
Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things.
Joel 2 v 21
The opposite of fear is not courage but joy and gladness. Fears evaporate in the presence of a glad and joyous attitude. The threats of death, disease, affliction, loss, defeat are still there but despite these threats, we are glad and joyful. The thorns of our lives are the key to our crowns. As we look back, each of us can see that He has done great, wonderful, amazing and awesome things in our lives this far. What our eye has not seen or what our ear has heard or entered into our thoughts has already been caused to happen in our lives. He turns our curses or shortcomings or hamartia into abundance, excellence and sources of joy and gladness. If there was no crisis of shortage in the wedding feast at Canna, Jesus would not have done the miracle of turning water into wine. At the end of the feast, there was joy, gladness, abundance, appreciation for the host and for Jesus, amazement and awesome manifestation of the presence and power of God. It is not as if we can sit back and watch or wait for miracles. We need to do what the servants did- keep our pots clean and fill it with water. We need to do all that the Lord wants us or asks us to do as His servants. We need to do all that we can in the natural before the supernatural happens. Two things result- human need is met and God’s glory is manifested. The sequence of this uni-verse is one, a negative negative- fear not, then a positive, be glad and rejoice and finally, a remarkable outcome, “the Lord will do great things.” The first two are our human responses while the third is the Lord’s response.

The Lord will not let us be ashamed or dismayed or disappointed. He always does more than we expect and more than we can ask. Our response is to be always rejoice in the Lord and be hopeful, optimistic, faithful and positive in our thoughts, feelings and our expressions. The kingdom of God is within us- hence, the miracle should first happen within us. The Lord is more interested in our inner being though He does not ignore the needs of our whole being- physical, emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual and psychological. Scripture says that the kingdom of God is not one of eating or drinking but of peace, righteousness and joy in the Holy Spirit. We should not depart from these three. The Lord wants us to be always steeped in or moored in these three elements of the kingdom of God. We need to dig our heels deep into these heavenly attitudes. We have a choice to be moored or marooned.

Our hope in Jesus is the source of our joy and not our earthly circumstances. Since we believe and trust Jesus, we hold a lively hope that He is present, that He will improve things even in a seemingly hopeless situation. We have the hope that Jesus will do great things in us, for us and with us. He will lift us up from the pits of depression and place us on the rock of hope and gladness. He will help us in whatever personal or professional difficulty or challenge we are currently facing. The range of the doing of Jesus is from the extraordinary to the exceptional.

Prateep V Philip