Advent 2022: Hope
Recently I got the opportunity to write four Advent devotionals for our church. This is the devotional on hope.
What comes to your mind when you think of the word hope? How would you define it?
I think for most of us, hope gets boiled down to wishful thinking or optimism that something good will happen. That’s why when we read verses like Proverbs 13:12, which tells us that “hope deferred makes the heart sick.” we can relate. We’ve all been in situations and seasons where we were optimistically expecting something that was just out of reach and when our hopes were dashed we felt that familiar pang of disappointment and discouragement.
At this time last year, Adrian and I were hoping for a baby. Not only had we been trying for several months, but we really wanted to be able to share the news with family and friends at Christmas. My prayer journal during Advent last year was full of prayers begging for a miracle and asking God to help me “hold onto hope” even in the painful times. And while these prayers weren’t wrong, my use of the word hope wasn’t necessarily accurate. I was hoping that God would give us a baby for Christmas not holding onto Biblical hope.
The Bible defines hope more as, “a confident expectation and desire for something good in the future.” And the Bible tells us to put our hope in Christ. But what does that mean?
Having hope in Jesus doesn’t mean believing He’s going to give us our every whim. In fact, there’s a chance all of the things we’re wishing for will not happen.
While we are pregnant this year, we are also still waiting for God to move in some really painful situations. And if I’m honest, most days, it feels like this side of Heaven, there will not be restoration for those challenging relationships..
But does that mean I don’t have hope? Of course not.
My hope is in the Gospel.
Because Jesus, who came as a baby, born in a manger, is the author of our hope. He came and lived and died and was raised to life not just so that we could have eternal life in Heaven, but to usher His Kingdom into the here and now of today. The Kingdom of God isn’t something we have to wait for, it’s something we get to experience a taste of right now.
I don’t know what you’re facing. I don’t know what pain or fear you’re experiencing. I don’t know the situations that you’re desperately clinging onto hope for. But I do know that if you put your hope in Jesus, He will not disappoint. He brings comfort and joy, love and peace and His promises never fail.
So how do we practice hope when the world hurts, when we feel hopeless? I’d like to invite us to practice praising God.
Recently I read a collection of sermons on the Lord’s Prayer that a German pastor, Helmut Thielicke preached in the midst of occupied Germany during World War II. In the last sermon he talked about looking to the coming of Christ, which is what Advent is all about, remembering the birth of Jesus as we wait for His return.
This is what he said:
“From this view of the end of all the ways of God, the church gains its secret strength and its consolation in the midst of the trials it must endure in the brief interim of ongoing history. The church of Jesus is a company of people who lift up their heads because the old has passed away, because they have caught a glimpse of something coming from the other side.” - Helmut Thielicke
Thielicke then goes on to talk about how Paul could praise God from his prison cell and exhorts his congregants and us to praise God, “...at the very moments in life when there seems to be no way out.”
Giving God praise when things feel hopeless and out of reach and the pains of life threaten to overwhelm us is hard. But it does bring hope. To look at our world and our situations, remembering that our Savior is coming and His Kingdom is here reframes our perspective.
One of my favorite songs to battle hopelessness and remember hope is Raise a Hallelujah by Bethel Music and if you haven’t heard it, pause the Christmas music and listen but if you don’t have time, the chorus goes like this:
I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm
Louder and louder, you're gonna hear my praises roar
Up from the ashes hope will arise
Death is defeated, the King is alive
Because friends, this is our hope in the middle of the storm. Death is defeated, the King is alive.
So join me this week in practicing praise. Get a playlist of your favorite praise songs, sing loudly in your car, spend each day praising God in prayer for what He’s done, however you want to praise God this week, do it and watch hope rise in your life.