Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Monday August 8, 2011

Thursday past my letter was titled, "The Power of Hope" and I am happy for the Niagara like response. It touched many and encouraged others who are really going through a malaise in the area of hope. It's true that even in scripture many despaired of hope, but the point is that while we despair, the proper object of our hope, Jesus Christ, is still there all the time and He changes not.

One friend wrote admitting a frightful time of human hopelessness:

"Larry, you hold onto that tiny pebble of hope for dear life and too often it's crushed into dust and sifts right through your fingers. I suppose one must find a Rock so huge that it can't be so easily crushed. He isn't at all who we think He is, though, is He, Larry? We don't really have a clue, even in our best Christian moments. We don't really know 'nuffin'. Put every right thought we've all ever had about Him all together and it probably wouldn't fill a matchbox compared to the real Truth of who He is. It's a mighty big battle, that holding onto hope business."

I appreciated the play on words such as "nuffin" to magnify the pain this erudite person is suffering. The truth "Put every right thought we've all ever had about Him all together and they wouldn't fill a matchbox compared to the truth of who He is." is a wondrous thought.

Even though our "matchbox" seems small and empty ultimately our hope is not in the size of our hope but in His Royal Majesty Jesus Christ.

Paul addressed the principle of hope when he wrote to the church at Rome and instructed the saints concerning hope. Notice Romans 15:13 "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." We do not fill ourselves, but the God of hope pours His hope into our minds and hearts and this results in joy and peace, and the power of the Holy Ghost causes us to experience abounding hope.

The hope Paul speaks of was demonstrated in His own life. Acts 27 records the account of a great storm at sea lasting for days and the navigation instruments(the stars) were obscured by the storm. Luke writes in Acts 27:20 "And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away."

There was no earthly reason to hope. But rather than taking one last deep breath and surrendering to the sea, Paul urged the people in the ship to take heart, because the known purpose of God in his life trumped the power of the raging sea, the devastation of shipwreck and thus when the ship sank to the bottom of Davey Jones Locker, Paul and the rest commenced swimming toward the land, the known will of God. The rest is history. When hope seems little more than a summer's eve vesper, do the known will of God in your life, move toward Jesus as He is the master of the sea of life. Thus we have hope.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2011 Use with credit

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