The Life Transforming Hope for Change

“Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air or oxygen…but only one second without hope.”  Author unknown to me

I want to share a few thoughts with you about hope because I sense that some of you today are bordering on hopelessness – especially regarding the ongoing battle you are having with certain aspects of your life that seem impossible to ever really change. It could be that you have been an alcoholic for decades and no matter what you try, you just cannot overcome the draw of the bottle. It may be that you very early on in life began to be obsessed with nudity of the opposite sex or perhaps your own sex/gender, and now the ease of porn in private has you in a seemingly hopeless cycle of one more click, one more curious look. It may be that you have always had a bad temper and given the right circumstances it explodes yet again – even though you have asked God to forgive you and deliver you countless times. It could be that your family for generations has known nothing but strife and dysfunction and all your prayers for restoration and relational health seem to go no farther than the ceiling.

I do not know your particular struggle. But I do know this: biblical hope, which is a strong inner assurance that God will come through, no matter what our track record is or what the odds are against us,... biblical hope is an absolute must for anyone who truly wants God to change them from the inside out and make them the person He has destined them to be.

The writer of the book of Hebrews says hope is the “…anchor of the soul…”Hebrews 6:19. Without it our souls languish and sooner or later give up the fight for change. With hope, we can face any and every storm, and sooner or later experience the joy of seeing God transform our lives.

Although I grew up in a Christian church from babyhood on and never really doubted the truths of the gospel, I for a variety of reasons (my sin nature being the chief reason) embraced this evil world system and its values from a very early age. My tongue was crooked and deceptive, I had an explosive temper, I was lazy academically, I was violent and the list goes on. By the time I turned 20, certain fleshly habits and/or traits were deeply entrenched. And certain righteous habits or traits that I longed for were seemingly beyond me.

Now fifty years later I can say with absolute confidence that hope that God would some day answer my prayers and bring about the change I so desperately needed was a game changer for me. I love what Job said regarding his own battle for change,  “If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my struggle I will wait   Until my change comes. You will call, and I will answer You; You will long for the work of Your hands.”  Job 14:14,15

Some of you need to learn to “wait” for your change. You have been impatient and have wrongly deducted that since you have not been able to overcome whatever your particular battle has been, God has not heard your prayer, and you are just going to have to learn to live with this limp or defect. Sadly we believers are often quite naïve about how complex the web of emotions and lies and negative experiences the evil one has spinned over many years to get us in this condition. God now has to heal the wounded emotions, expose the lies and replace them with truth and heal us from the negative experiences, and He is very methodical and thorough in how He goes about this.

Job’s example has been very helpful for me in this regard. So has the prophet Micah’s,  “I wear the indignation of the Lord  Because I have sinned against Him, Until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me out to the light And I will see His righteousness.”  … “Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity   And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins  Into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob And unchanging love to Abraham, Which You swore to our forefathers  From the days of old.” Micah 7:9, 18-20 

Dear readers – you must allow the Holy Spirit to build in your spirit this kind of dogged hope. “Until He pleads my case….” “….He will bring me out to the light…”  Micah knew God would come through. And daily meditation on the Word of God and standing on promises like these are one of the major ways the Holy Spirit does His wonderful transforming work in our lives.

I don’t know how long it took the apostle Paul to overcome his anger, temper and violent nature. I can promise you it was not immediate. But he also like Job and like Micah learned to wait until God came through. Listen to his testimony to the church in Galatia, “For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.” Galatians 5:5

Are you waiting for this hope of righteousness – through the Spirit – by faith??

Please know dear reader that God is answering your prayers. He never tires of hearing them. And by the way He delights in our allowing others to pray for us and over us when change and transformation just seems… well… hopeless. I sometimes wonder if one of the reasons we have to wait is so we will become more interdependent upon the spiritual family He has joined us to for overcoming these kinds of battles. I know I could have never overcome some of the things I have had to overcome without brothers and sisters (and especially my wife) who faithfully interceded for me.

Father, I want to ask you tonight to restore hope to any of my readers who have almost given up. I want to ask you in the name of Jesus to set them free from these habit or traits that have brought them great discouragement and caused them to want to quit. Please help them understand Your process and Your ways of bringing about our transformation and making us more like Your Son. Protect them from the evil one. In Jesus’s name please make them whole in mind, body, soul and spirit for your Glory. Amen.