For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, through perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
Romans 8:24-25 NASB
I knew this evening would be different when Jimmy, my Bible study leader, waved me and the other group members over to the dining room table. He gestured at me: “I want you to hear this.”
Jimmy opened his Bible and began reading from the book of Joshua.
Okay, he’s going to remind me that God is going to fight my battles for me; I just need to sit back and experience the victory.
Honestly, I could’ve used a cathartic complaint and comfort session where my hosts oozed sympathy for my situation.
The last few months had worn me down. My husband and I had separated for the third and, I suspected, final time. I had put on weight and felt out of control in my eating. The activities of daily life seemed overwhelming: simply going to the grocery store made me tired. I went to bed at night feeling like a failure as a mother, as a person, as a follower of Jesus. Many times I wondered, “God, is this all up to me?”
Jimmy finished the passage in Joshua, then paused for effect. “God wants you to persevere.”
What?
Perseverance had always meant, in my eyes, a long, miserable exercise in endurance.
Despite how little margin I had in my heart to add anything else to my to-do list, I left Bible study determined to persevere. I was going to be tough, set goals, achieve them.
But it didn’t take long for those walls to fall. “I” was at the center of my efforts, and “I” could fail. “I” often did.
I was living my faith like my hope was in myself.
Can you relate? While diligence and self-discipline are godly characteristics, we might agree that we don’t need another burdensome rock of self-reliance to carry because we aren’t sure if God’s going to show up to help us bear those burdens.
I needed hope that I would never find in myself. That’s when God met me in His Word and Jimmy’s statement began to make sense: But if we hope for what we do not see, through perseverance we wait eagerly for it. (Romans 8:25)
Persevere in hope.
The persevering kind of hope isn’t cradling a fragile wish in our hands but locking our eyes firmly to the promises of the One who never fails.
Paul wrote in Romans 5:4 that perseverance leads to character, and character leads to hope. Some translations of the word character render it as “experience.” This is the experience, the “proof”, of God showing up during our trials, helping us and developing godly character in us.
This hope knows from experience that we have access not only to the hope of eternal life, but to the whole canon of God’s promises in our daily lives. This confidence gives us permission to stop being anxious in self-reliance and rest in God-reliance.
Hope is the reward of perseverance.
And we only find rest from self-reliance by placing hope in the only one who can’t fail.
God hasn’t tied up my struggles in a neat little bow, but He has shown up faithfully, and that gives me hope.
Dear heavenly Father, please help me see You everywhere that You work in my life. Help me see how You have faithfully kept Your promises to me. Lord, You are faithful. You are a God who cannot lie. Please strengthen my hope in You so that I can rest in the confidence of Your promises. In Jesus’ name, amen.
For Deeper Study:
Hebrews 6:18-19 (NASB)…so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to hold firmly to the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and reliable and one which enters within the veil…
Jesus knew we would have troubles in this world, and He gave us hope to anchor us so our faith wouldn’t waiver.
How have you seen God offer you hope during difficult times?