Wait and Hope

Over 30 years ago, Steven Curtis Chapman released the song "Heaven in the Real World." The introduction provided the state of affairs at that time and asked, "Where is the hope?" Consider the state of affairs and how it compares to today:

Where is the hope?
I meet millions who tell me that they feel demoralized by the decay around us.
Where is the hope?
The hope that each of us have
is not in who governs us or what laws are passed
or what great things that we do as a nation.
Our hope is in the power of God working through the hearts of people.
And that's where our hope is in this country.
That's where our hope is in life.

The same is true today. There are reasons to feel hopeless if one looks at circumstances or the world around us. However, consider Lamentations 3:24-26 (NIV):

I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.

Take particular notice to the words wait and hope. Realize that He is your portion. Seek Him. Waiting is good. Look to the salvation of the Lord. That's a response to the bleakness around us. And there's a relationship between waiting and hope. The Spanish language gets this. Hope is esperanza while to wait is esperar. It's as if hope in the Lord is the state of waiting on the Lord.

Look back to the Lamentations verses. If I consider the Hebrew, the verses can be translated like this:

"My portion Yahweh [is]" says my soul,
"upon thus I hope in Him."
Good Yahweh [is] to those who wait for Him,
to the soul [who] seeks Him;
[it is] good that one should hope and quietly wait
for the salvation of Yahweh.

The translations interchange hope and wait, and one of the versions has both words "hope and quietly wait" instead of just "wait quietly". The first instance where the NIV has "wait" and the Hebrew has "hope" are both translated from the Hebrew word yachal, which means, "To wait, hope, expect." And consider the context where the person is looking to God. We are to wait, hope, look and expect. We are to hope with anticipation. We are to wait with anticipation. And we do it as we look to God.

However, how do we hope when there is suffering? Or how do we hope while we are in the midst of suffering? David Guzik quotes Ryken and Poole in his Enduring Word commentary for Lamentations 3. Ryken said, "There are times when the only thing a sufferer can do is wait for God. But waiting is good because God is worth waiting for." And Poole said the following:

"Hoping and waiting differ but as the mother and daughter, hope being the mother of patience and waiting; or as the habit and act, hoping and waiting being much the same, flowing from a gracious power and habit given the soul to wait. Quietness is necessary to waiting, for all turbulency and impatience of spirit under sad providences is opposed to waiting."

As we look to God, hope and wait, we come to the conclusion that we must trust Him. We walk rightly with God by truly trusting Him. Proverbs 3:5-6 says the following:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.

In that verse, the Hebrew for the word Trust is batach, which "expresses placing one's full weight upon someone or something with calm assurance." In David Guzik's Enduring Word commentary on the verse, he quotes Wiersbe who says, "The word translated 'trust' in Proverbs 3:5 means 'to lie helpless, facedown.' It pictures a servant waiting for the master's command in readiness to obey, or a defeated soldier yielding himself to the conquering general." All of us are trusting something. However, only God is worthy to be trusted. Are you trusting in God? Guzik quotes Trapp who says, "To trust in God is to be unbottomed of thyself, and of every creature, and so to lean upon God, that if he fail thee thou sinkest."

Our trust must be in God. And our hope must be in God. Our hope is not circumstantial. Our hope is in Christ who doesn't change (See Hebrews 13:8). In some cases, tests are failed, people aren't healed, and the prodigal doesn't come home, but what's God going to do with it? Despite the brokenness in this world, God will use it for His purposes, even if we cannot see or understand them, even if we never do. Our hope is in Him, not the outcome. Our hope is not based on results, but on trust, specifically trust in God, His ways, and the finished work of Christ.

In the season of Advent, we are in the days of least daylight, dark days. However, we prepare our hearts for Christmas. We look to Jesus and His arrival. We celebrate the first Incarnation. And we anticipate His coming again. We look to Him. And we wait, hope and expect.

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