„Hope“ – oil painting by artist George Frederic Watts 1886

THE POWER OF HOPE!

By Helen Jesze, 17th June 2016

“For you are my hope; O Lord God. You are my trust from my youth and the source of my confidence,”

Psalm 71, 5 The Amplified Bible

R​ecently I found a painting which had belonged to my mother. It depicts a lonely woman sitting on top of a globe, clinging onto a broken lyre or harp, which now has only one string left. Her head is bandaged and her eyes blindfolded, and she is attached to the harp by her hair; her head is bent forward as if trying to catch the faint music that she has made with her broken instrument. Watts painted this picture several times, and it is said that in some editions it can be seen that the woman’s dress is ragged or torn, and her arms and legs scratched and bleeding.

It is reported that Nelson Mandela kept a reproduction of “Hope” on the wall of his prison cell on Robben Island, and it has influenced other well­ known people. I remember the painting hanging on the wall in our front room, when I was growing up. At the time, I asked my mother what it meant, for I thought it was a very gloomy, negative picture to hang up in your house. Now, being much older, I realise the painting does have positive things to tell us. Finding this print started me studying some more about what the Bible has to say about the subject of ‘Hope’.

Well, you may be thinking, a ​Devotional ​is supposed to be encouraging, uplifting, spiritual!​Please stay with me, read on and we’ll get there!

Each of us has his or her own world, and there are times when this can become a lonely place. Even though we may be surrounded by people, yet there can be an inner loneliness which no-­one knows about, and we might not dare to share it with them. Life brings happy, wonderful experiences but also things which wound us, try to destroy us, and we have all been through them, to a greater or lesser degree, like the woman who is bruised and bleeding, and sitting alone.

It is clear that she had at one time made music with a full set of strings, for the ends are still wound round the top of her harp. But now they are all broken and only one is left. What will she do now? Give up? Throw it away? Sit in self­-pity and cry? Or will she keep trying to use what she has left to make music, even if it is less beautiful and satisfying than she was able to make before? She chose to do this ​last one. This shows tremendous courage, even ​audacity​, to try to play on a broken instrument!

At a time when he was downcast, the Psalmist asked himself the question: “Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me?” Then he realises that there is a way to get over this: “Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, who is the help of my (sad) countenance, and my God,” Psalm 43, 5 The Amplified Bible

This man, perhaps David, realised that hoping in God would cause him to wait expectantly for God’s answer, and that his concern, worry and moaning would be replaced with assurance, and he would soon be praising God for his help.

At another time, David declares: “And now, Lord, what do I wait for and expect? My hope and expectation are in You,” Psalm 39, 7. There may be many people or things in Life we would look to for help, but David has found out that the most sure way to receive real and lasting help, is to set your hope and expectation on the ​Lord​, as people will often disappoint us.

Job in the oldest Book in the Bible of that name, was a man who was in tremendous trouble and grief ; he felt there was no hope. He said that if a tree is cut down, and even though its roots might be old and dying, yet there is hope that it will sprout again when it is watered, and it will bud and bring forth branches again, like a young plant. But Job said that when ​he died, that was the end and he could not be revived again, as he was a man.

Perhaps you are feeling like Job today? Has something been ‘cut’ out of your life and that area now seems dead, there is no way it can be brought back to its original state? Let me encourage you today. As born­-again Believers in Jesus, spiritually, mentally and emotionally we can be brought back to life again after satan and circumstances have cut us down. The Water of Life in Jesus and His Word can revive us anew and cause us to bud and bring forth after a time of hopelessness, if we will set our heart to ​hope in our God and let our ​expectation ​be from Him. These two words are often seen together in many Bible references. Hope and expectation – Hope and expectation, ​but from the Lord!

Hope in trials

In Romans 5:5, the Apostle Paul writes how trials and our attitude to them can shape our spiritual lives and character, bringing a ‘hope’ which will never disappoint or delude or shame us, because God’s love is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Laura’s secret

We had a friend called Laura, who was born without any muscles in her eyelids. This meant that she could not see unless she actually lifted up her eyelid. Her parents thought she did not need to go to school, but Laura was determined to go, and said she could hear ​the teacher, even if she could not ​see the books and what was written on the blackboard. Some of the children were very unkind to her, and one day she was even thrown into the canal by some boys who thought it was a big joke. “Now see how you can come out on your own!” they cried and ran off. If the lock­keeper had not heard her screams and rescued her, Laura would have drowned.

Laura never gave up hope that she would be able to see one day. Every week she went to the doctor and asked him if he could help her. So many times he shook his head and told her there was nothing that could be done. But one day when she went, the doctor told her about an exciting new technique, an operation where the surgeon could take some of the muscle from another part of her body, and put it into her eyelids.

Laura was thrilled, she had the operation and it was a ​complete success! ​Now she read everything she could lay her hands on! She worked hard at school and caught up with the rest of the class, also going to night­-classes in the evening after she had started work. A friend invited her to church and she became a Christian. Later she married and had two children. Laura knew what it was to be imprisoned by trouble and sickness, and this gave her a heart of compassion. She always said she had the “ministry of helps”, and she and her husband were constantly helping elderly, sick and vulnerable people. ​She never gave up hope and her faith was rewarded!

From Hope to Faith

“(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…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…No unbelief or distrust made him waver…”

Romans 5, 18 – 20a The Amplified Bible

There are Christians who believe and shout loudly that we only need ​faith​, for doesn’t it say that we can only please God by our ​faith ​(Hebrews 6, 19). That is true, but that is only ​one Bible verse, and God also has plenty to say about HOPE, and He considers it very important. Here we see that Abraham, who is often pointed out to be a man of great faith, did not start out with ​faith. Verse 18 says that he first had ​hope; ​he even hoped against hope ​when it looked utterly impossible for him and his wife to have a child at their age.

But somewhere, this hope progressed to ​faith​, which increased until it was unshakeable in the face of impossibility, and after 25 years, his wife Sarah, was cradling their new-born son, Isaac (which means “laughter”!) in her arms.

Are you facing something difficult, even impossible today? Are you tormented that you do not have enough faith for you to receive the answer, and the fulfilment of God’s promise? Rebuke that torment in the name of Jesus and start out with “Hope”, like Abraham. Keep feeding your faith with God’s Word, get close to Him in prayer and learn to know the mercy and compassion of His heart for you, His child. Without you even realising it, your faith will begin to be strengthened and become active, attracting and bringing into being God’s answers for you.

But I’m like the woman with only one string; I’ve even given up trying to play, to praise, to reach out to God – it doesn’t seem worth it – ​ you may be saying. If that’s you, I want to encourage you today that we serve a God who does not expect us to reach a certain level before He will have anything to do with us. He comes to us just where we are, into our cage, into our imprisoning circumstances and opens the door for us to go free! Our one string will become many strings where we will once again bring forth glory and joy to our Lord and to others. The blindfold will be taken from our eyes and we will ​see again!

God is still in the business of healing broken hearts and He will heal yours and cause you to sing agai​n!

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, you see every person who is reading this now. You see the areas in their life where they have given up hope, for the answer has seemed so long in coming. Touch them now with your Holy Spirit, quicken and revive, restore and deliver them, as they look to you!

I speak wholeness, fresh hope and vision, healing to every part of their life through our Lord Jesus Christ, and joy flooding their heart, spilling over into their world! Thank you, Jesus! Amen!