Hope is an almost forgotten factor in our walk with the Lord these days. The hope of The Bible isn't the same listless despair way of thinking found in the world. 1Cor.13:13(Amp) tells us, "So then, faith, hope and love abide, Faith-conviction and belief respecting man's relation to God and Divine things. Hope-joyful and confident expectation of Eternal salvation; Love-true affection for God and man, grows out of God's Love found in us, these three, but the greatest of these is LOVE."
So, according to God's Word, "hope" is a "joyful and confident expectation of Eternal salvation." Do you know that Eternal salvation is abiding within you right now? Why would it be something we can't have in our lives while here on earth? Heaven is part of our Eternal salvation and we can have joyful and confident expectation in it while we're here on earth.
In Heb.11:1(Amp) Paul writes about hope like this, saying, "Now faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed of the things we HOPE for; being the proof of things we do not see, and the conviction of their reality (faith perceiving as a real fact what is not revealed to the senses)." Faith is the assurance of what we hope for. When hope is gone, faith has no substance on which to build. If the doctor tells you that "it's hopeless," then you must have hope like the Word says and that gives faith in God's report, over the hope doctor's. Without hope, faith is left without a purpose in our walk with God. Rom.4:18-20,21-22(Amp) tells us about Abraham and his faith, saying, "For Abraham, human reason for hope being gone, hoped in faith that he should become the Father of many nations, as he had been promised, so numberless shall your descendants be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered the utter impotence of his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sara's womb. No unbelief or distrust made him waver, doubtingly question concerning the Promise of God; but he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God."
Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Abraham kept his joyful and confident expectation, until faith brought forth the substance of the Promise. We sometimes lose hope by the words, circumstances or reports about our bodies, children or marriages, until faith has nothing to work with. One might ask, "What if I hold out faith for my healing, even when the doctor said it's hopeless and my healing doesn't come?" The Promise of our Eternal salvation is still there and we'll got home to be with the Lord, if we don't get our healing. So, what do we have to lose if the doctor said it's hopeless? We can sit down and accept it or we can stand on God's Word and hope against hope, just like Abraham did.
Everything was against Abraham in the natural and his condition was hopeless, but he still hoped against hope. Paul continues saying in Verses21-22 saying, "Fully satisfied and assured that God was able and mighty to keep His Word and do what He had Promised. That is why [Abraham's] faith was credited to him as righteousness, right standing with God."
I'm not saying that the doctor was wrong when he said things are hopeless, I'm just reminding you that God says He will and is able to and mighty to do what He Promised. Joel Osteen's mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and sent home to die in 1981. She hoped against hope and put faith behind that hope until God raised her up. That was over twenty years and she's still glorifying God for her healing. She laid in her blood soaked bed and in pain for a long time, but she wouldn't turn loose of God's Promises. She still witnesses about God's mighty work in her life.
Don't give up hope, because it gives the vision of your faith, until it becomes what we see in this realm.
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