Summer is a great time to reflect on how we’ve been living this past year and how we can grow deeper in our walk with the Lord. This seventh devotion helps us reflect on how we define hope:

IN WORD – Gospel hope is a mouthful. It includes so many wonderful provisions that it’s hard to get it all in one bite. Yes, biblical hope gives you a lot of spiritual nutrients to chew on. Yet many believers seem to live hope-deprived lives. Perhaps one of the dirty secrets of the church is how much we do out of fear and not faith. We permit ourselves to feel small, unable, alone, unprepared, and bereft of resources. We tell ourselves that what we’re facing is too big and requires too much of us. We stand at the bottom of mountains of trouble and give up before we’ve taken the first step of the climb. We wait for hope to come in some noticeable, seeable way, but it never seems to arrive. We pray, but it doesn’t seem to do any good. We want to believe that God is there and that He really does care, but it seems that we’ve been left to ourselves. With each passing day, it seems harder to have hope for our marriages, for our children, for our churches, for our friendships, or just for the ability to survive all the trouble with our faith and sanity intact. We wonder, “Where is hope to be found?”
What we fail to understand is that we don’t have a hope problem; we have a sight problem. Hope has come. “What?” you say. “Where?” Hope isn’t a thing. Hope isn’t a set of circumstances. Hope isn’t first a set of ideas. Hope is a person, and His name is Jesus. He came to earth to face what you face and to defeat what defeats you so that you would have hope. Your salvation means that you are now in a personal relationship with the One who is hope. You have hope because He exists and is your Savior. You don’t have a hope problem; you have been given hope that is both real and constant. The issue is whether you see it. Paul captures the problem this way in Ephesians 1:18–19: “. . . having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might.”
IN DEED – Paul prays that we will have a well-working spiritual vision system so that we will “see” the hope that we have been given in Christ. What is this hope? It is a rich inheritance. Jesus died and left us a rich inheritance of grace to be invested in facing the troubles of the here and now. It is great power that is ours in the moments when we are so weak. Hope came, and He brought with Him riches and power that He gave to you. You see, you don’t really have a hope problem; you have a vision problem, and for that there’s enlightening grace. “As God’s child, you don’t sit and wait for hope. No, grace makes it possible for you to get up and live in hope.” – Paul David Tripp (in “New Morning, New Mercies” by Paul David Tripp)

So what are you “hoping” for? Are our eyes fixed on the hope of comfortable circumstances or in the person of Christ? This is the essence of “waiting on the Lord.” It is found not in the transformation of circumstances, but in God’s Presence in our lives to accomplish His good and perfect will.
Take time to read Ephesians 1 – 3 and reflect on what enlightening grace you have already received. If you need a good book to read this summer, consider John Piper’s “Future Grace.” Once you know what you already have in Jesus, hope becomes a visible reality. Have a blessed week! – from Singapore, Pastor Sam