“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 15:13

I’m struggling with hope for things I’ve been praying for for years.  The reality of God is that He doesn’t work on our timelines (and praise God for that).  This should bring us comfort, but it’s also hard to wrap our minds around God’s timing and our own.  Our timing vs. God’s timing doesn’t usually coincide with one another.  I’ve been praying for certain things, certain people, day after day, month after month, year after year, yet the answer to my prayer feels out of sight.  How are we to not lose hope when we feel like we’ve seen little to no progress in that prayer?  Is God still listening to us when we don’t see any fruit? Is God saying “no” when we haven’t seen a flicker of light in the prayer request?  How are we to remain hopeful, when hope feels far?  In these moments of hopelessness, we are to persevere by faith and trust God’s Word to fill us with hope and rest in God’s promises.  

One morning, my alarm went off at its usual time of 5:18, I shut it off and laid there for a few more minutes.  These few extra minutes felt like hours and in a panic I abruptly grabbed my phone to look at the time, thinking hours had passed… only to realize it had been a short 3 minutes since my alarm went off.  5:21.. How was that possible?  Those 3 minutes truly felt like hours had passed, but it was only 3 minutes since my alarm went off.  In those 3 minutes, I somehow fell back asleep, managed to have a dream (which felt like an entire movie) and then woke back up, only to realize it had been 3 minutes.  Time felt eternal.  Have you ever experienced that before?  As I got out of bed, I couldn’t stop thinking about the verse “Do not forget this one thing dear friends: with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.  The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, as some understand slowness.  Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:8-9  I needed to get downstairs and read this verse… and as I did, it felt like God had gifted me with that awareness and reality of God’s timing.  I kept thinking “wow, is this what God means by a day with the Lord is like a thousand years?… Is this what it feels like to be with God and how he works?  While it may be years upon years that I’ve been praying for that specific thing, it may only feel like mere moments with God… the reality is the years have passed and time has gone by, yet God can do the impossible in HIS timing.”  I loved that God let me taste and see how time is different with Him.  Someone once reminded me that God is not bound by time.  While time may make me feel hopeless, God’s hope and promises are not restricted to a timeline.  

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is when Paul reminds us in Romans of the promises God made to Abraham.  “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” So in moments of feeling hopeless, some might say, against all hope… we are to remain hopeful and believe in God’s promise.  Even if we can’t see the end in sight or the way He’ll make it happen, we are to remain rooted in Christ and remind ourselves that He is a way-maker.  How do we do that?  Through God’s Word. “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us; so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we might have hope.” Romans 15:4 We go to God’s word for hope.  It is there to teach us through the endurance that was modeled and lived out in both the Old and New Testament.  We can and will be encouraged by the Word and will receive hope.  This is where we need to be on guard though.  So many of us pick up our phones when we need to escape reality and lighten the mood… but it likely does the opposite.  Picking up our phones, scrolling social media and the news can actually aid in our feelings of hopelessness… and will likely discourage you to open God’s Word.  According to the world, going to a “book” for moral guidance and encouragement can be seen as foolish and naive, but we know that is a lie. When we are feeling discouraged and in need of hope, don’t pick up your phone, instead pick up your Bible.  

We know that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that all God’s people may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16 Just as God breathed life into Adam, into man, and he became a living being, God breathes life into His Word, not just so we can talk about it, but so we can open it and be breathed into.  We will receive that very breath of life through His Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit and be breathed back into…. to come alive again… to be filled again with hope.  That is critical to our perseverance in this life.  The Word is vital to our walk with God.  What are vital signs for man?  “Measurements of the body’s essential functions, such as breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure.” So when we are feeling hopeless, discouraged, disheartened by life’s circumstances, timing, unanswered prayers… it is vital to our health that we open God’s Word.  God’s Word will breathe life back into us and fill us with all joy and peace, so that we will overflow with hope.  And we know that “out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks”… the hope we receive can then be passed along to others in need of it too.  Praise God for that.