Do you know how many times the word hope shows up in the Bible? In the NIV, the answer is 158—almost a quarter of them in the book of Psalms. You gotta love David. I’m not sure anyone in history was better at praising the Lord. This is why he is described as a man after God’s own heart. Second to Psalms, it shows up most in Job. Talk about two ends of the spectrum.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines hope as “to cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true.” This sounds like wishing, rather than knowing. However, according to GotQuestions.org, “biblical hope is a confident expectation or assurance based upon a sure foundation for which we wait with joy and confidence. In other words, ‘There is no doubt about it!’”
“All of the action heroes of the faith recorded in Hebrews 11 were made possible because they had this faith based in their confident assurance or hope in God.”
The first time I ever took part in a women’s Bible study, the facilitator asked us to write a letter to the Lord on our first night, letting Him know what our greatest prayers were. What did we hope for? I was a mere babe in my faith journey, and I attended the Bible study because I desperately needed something good to cling to. My husband of 23 years had just left me, and my mom, whom I adored, was dying of leukemia. You can imagine what my prayers were. Once done writing the letter, we were told to seal it up and tape it to the back of our study book.
The weekly class lasted almost four months. Sixteen weeks where I learned the gospel message in a way I’d never known it before. I’d grown up going to church, praying every night, and believing in God. How could I have missed such a vital component? It wasn’t about religion—it was about relationship. For the first time in my life, I had hope! Not the wishing-kind-of-hope, but the confident assurance that the God of the universe loved me enough to send His Son to die for me. Me! Sinful, prideful, screwed-up me.
And it changed my life.
Maybe things didn’t look all that different from the outside, because my sins were the kind that were easily hidden. But I was different. Not immediately, but little by little. My focus changed, and I began to see things from a godly perspective rather than an inward one. By the time that first Bible study was finished, I trusted that whatever God allowed to happen in my life, it would be for my good and His ultimate glory.
My marriage was not restored, and my mom passed away three months after the study ended. But it didn’t shake my faith. In fact, I believed that these things happened because God knew best. Isn’t that why we are on this faith journey in the first place?
That was sixteen years ago. I don’t have all the answers today—like why my mom had to die. But had God restored that marriage, I’d still be teaching middle school, struggling to conform myself to the standards of an insecure man, and never writing a word save for those on my students’ homework assignments.
My characters come through their trials and tribulations with the hope we can only find in a relationship with Jesus Christ, because I am my characters, and I’m a walking testament to that faith. It brings me great joy every time my protagonist and her sidekick make that leap from fear to faith. It brings me even greater joy when a reader finds some glimmer of hope in one of my stories.
Sixteen years ago, if someone had predicted my life—that I’d be married to my real-life hero, releasing my fourth book (if you count my Christmas novella), and contracted for another series, I’d have thought they were dipping into some hallucinogenic drug. When you walk with the Lord, you just never know what delights He will bring you. His mercies are new every morning. It’s where my hope comes from.
May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who loved us and by His grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. 2 Thessalonians 2:16.
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Comments 2
Thank you for this beautiful message today, Jennifer. Such a great way to begin the week.
HUGS
Jennie, this is an excellent blog post. Thank you for showing me the hope we have in Jesus and our Heavenly Father.