What does it mean to "put your hope in him?"
05 Sep 2016When we live in situations, places, and ways that push us beyond our normal means of living, we learn to look to Him.
This act of looking to the Father, believing he’s real, and locking our lives and our hopes on him is really something like excercising the muscle of faith.
We look to him to protect us when we can’t rely on our surroundings or the law and order of some country to keep us safe.
We look to him to shield us from rumours, lies, and intrigues that might swirl around among a hostile or suspicious people.
We look to him for our daily bread when we don’t have any way of earning money, and we’re busying ourselves with making his name known.
We look to him to back up our words as we talk about him in a place where the things we say about Jesus are considered foolish, ridiculous, or even blasphemous.
We look to him to open doors and make a way for us to live and relate to people in places where we really don’t belong, and shouldn’t be able to go.
We look to him to take care of our hearts when we’re seperated from family and friends that understand us so well.
When we ‘put our hope in him,’ our expectations for provision, protection, life, and goodness are directed towards God himself. Often we’re kindly forced to “put our hope in him,” when we see our human strenghts or securities vanish before our eyes.
The Psalms are full of words describing this kind of looking… a kind of looking that your life depends on. He has to be real, because if he’s not our lives would be impossible and pointless. And that’s when we realize that he is our life.
And we get to see, firsthand, how incredibly beautiful, caring, and life-giving he really is!