@ ETUDE- COPING WITH HOPE

UV 3280/10000 @ Etude – Coping with Hope

Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “ This man, Eliezer will not be your heir but he who shall come from your own body shall be your heir.”

Genesis 15 v 4

Abraham was advanced in age and was a little frustrated that he had no natural heir to inherit his name and his wealth. He thought to himself that his servant Eliezer would ultimately inherit it. But the Lord had other plans. He sent him His word to give him hope that he would have a natural heir. Likewise, He sent His Son Jesus to us to give us hope that we will be co-heirs with Jesus of the kingdom of God. When we receive a specific and personalized word from the Lord, it ignites hope in us even in seemingly hopeless situations. The hope helps us cope with the difficult days of our lives.

We need to hold onto the same level of hope as when we first believed the Lord and received His word. If anything, the hope should intensify with time as it is nearing fulfilment. If our hope flags, the enemy or our own natural thoughts could make us resort to desperate measures in our flesh as Abraham and Sarah did when they took a surrogate mother in Hagar. The Lord had not instantly or immediately fulfilled His promise of hope to Abraham and Sarah. The latter ran out of patience and disbelieved that the Lord could do anything more to fulfill the promise for ten years had passed. Often, the Lord’s time table and ours do not agree for He operates against the scale of the eternal and the infinite while we mortals have our eyes on the racing hands of the diurnal clock. We should not look for short term remedies, that prove to be costly options in the long term, by relying on our flesh nature and trying to help the Lord fulfil His will ahead of time.

Hope, then needs to be nurtured with faith and patience. If the Lord has spoken to us a specific word of promise, He is able to fulfill it in His time. We should not attempt to upstage Him or act in haste. It is never too late for the Lord. As we wait with an attitude of hope, we should sustain it with thanksgiving and praise for His faithfulness through the generations of mankind who have gone before us as well as for His faithfulness to His promises that we have already seen fruition and fulfilment.