"Is there any hope?" That’s the question that anxious relatives ask the doctor when a loved one is admitted to the emergency ward of a hospital following an accident. It’s the same question that a friend asks when he learns that a marriage is hanging in the balance. "Is there any hope?"
"Where there is life, there is hope," some say, even though it is not necessarily true. But where there is God, there is always hope. Three factors create a tremendous amount of anxiety in your life: your health, your wealth or resources, and the circumstances surrounding your life, including relationships that are meaningful to you.
When hope dies, something dies within you that affects every part of your being. Researchers have recently documented what every widow or widower already knows: When someone you love is taken from your life and you know the situation is irreversible, your hope dies. When that happens, something within you–the one who had hoped against hope–also dies.
For a moment, stop thinking of the situation that concerns you, and focus on God. The word "hopeless" isn’t in His vocabulary. Jeremiah records a question, which is also found in two other passages in the Bible. "I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for Me?" (Jeremiah 32:27)
"Is anything too hard for me?" God asks. How would you answer that question? Yes, there are many situations that are too difficult for you to handle. There are those times when the doctor says, "There’s nothing more that we can do." There are times when the economic tide goes out and the situation is desperate.
But these are the very opportunities God is looking for to demonstrate why He is "the God of all hope". When things are beyond your control, they move into the realm where God alone is comfortable in dealing with them. I believe God allows desperation so we will realize that He alone can help us. The solution isn’t because we pulled strings, or made things happen, or bought, or bribed...
Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity, and in this we hope. When Paul talks about the God of hope, he talks about a relationship that you can have with the Father. You bow in humility before Him and reach out in faith and confidence that once again, He will honor His word and you can see the answer you needed.
Faith is not believing that which is not true, or hoping for that which is hopeless. It is simply responding in simple obedience to the great and precious promises of the Bible.
If the word "hopeless" isn’t part of God’s vocabulary, and we are His children, then strike it from your vocabulary. Where there is life, there is God, and where there is God there is no such thing as hopelessness.
Resource Reading: 2 Kings 4