Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon. (Isaiah 55:7, ESV)
I’m one of the happy ones. My hole-in-one count is up to three after finding the cup with a 9-iron on a windy day in Scotland a few weeks ago. But I know others—better at the game or more frequent in their play than I am—who are still waiting, however many years later.
For golfers, a magical moment like a hole-in-one is one of our greatest hopes. If you are a surfer, you hope for the perfect swells and the unfolding waves they bring. Or if a car lover, you hope for a test-track lap or two in your favorite dream machine. Maybe your hopes are more substantial: a young couple wanting to hold their first child, a small business owner needing an influx of customers to redeem those sacrificial investments, a creator looking for an outlet for the expressions into which you’ve poured your very heart.
In a word, what we hope for is change. We hope and pray for change in spite of all that is visible.Hope, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, remains—with love and with faith. It is an enduring feature of kingdom life, of walking with Jesus. When we are with him, when we are in him, hope is alive in us.
But should that hope be spent on golf feats and other apparently temporal desires? Or should our hope in Christ be held up in grander contexts? Maybe we should hope for a day without sin coming from our lips. Or the salvation of a neighbor. Or the closure of the adult store at the end of our block.
Wait a minute—are these hopes or are these prayers? Hope is substantive, something promised by the Lord, isn’t it? Like eternity with Christ. Like a new heaven and a new earth. Like no more sorrow or pain. Here is our great hope, we say, our stock in the future.
But we know as well that when you delight yourself in the Lord, “he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). We know that Jesus said, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24). Prayers are more than wishes. They come with true hope that the God who hears them is powerful to answer them.
So we have no reason to hold back our hopes, to temper our prayers against disappointment. God may not answer in the way we anticipate, but he certainly can!
Which all leads back to the title of today’s devotion: “Our Biggest Hope.” What might that be? Well, for the jilted father, it is that the prodigal would come home. For the those who might otherwise worry, it is that God will provide what they will eat or drink or wear. For those whose marriage is an ongoing conflict, it is that peace would reign in their home. In a word, what we hope for is change. We hope and pray for change in spite of all that is visible—all the challenges and hurdles and impossibilities. If God is waiting with mercy for a wicked man who forsakes his ways or an evil woman who abandons her unrighteous thoughts, we have hope for all that is necessary. We have hope for the present and the future, in ourselves and in others.
—
Jeff Hopper
September 10, 2019
Copyright 2019 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.