Against All Hope

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. Rom 4:18-21

Have you ever tried living without hope? It’s a strange dilemma. Either you hope and you hurt, because hope means you have not yet received, or you lose hope and your heart begins to die slowly. Do you hope against all hope or decide it’s hopeless? Elsewhere in scripture it says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” I guess when you put it that way, we all have faith in something, even if it’s not in God. Because you can’t just not hope, for without hope you die inside. So then the question becomes, where do you put your hope? What do you put your faith in?

You could put hope in your spouse, in your friends, or in your dreams for the future. It isn’t always obvious what you have put your faith/hope in until you hit an obstacle to that hope becoming a reality. When faced with an obstacle, feelings of anger and anxiety emerge. If you put your hope in your dreams for the future, what happens when you hit an obstacle? You will start to become angry and anxious because you have so much on the line.

When Past and Future Meet

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you….”…“What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”…Moses said to the LORD, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”…But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.” (Exo 3:11-12, 4:1,10,13)

Have you ever felt like God can’t use you because of your struggles and weaknesses? Or that you’ve messed it up too big to do great things for the Lord? Good news! God is not looking for people who are self-sufficient and have it all together. He is actually looking for broken individuals who can hubmly admit they are weak. Seem counter-intuitive? Welcome to the kingdom of heaven.

Moses was filled with fear and self-doubt. Moses tells God that he simply is not qualified for the task. What if the Hebrew people don’t believe him? What about the fact that he is not a good speaker? I don’t know about you, but that is not the Moses I learned about in Sunday school. The Moses I learned about while being nestled comfortably on the floor and stuffed with teddy grahams was a fearless leader. You know - the one who parted the Red Sea and performed all those miracles. The truth is, Moses was a courageous leader, but it was a growing process.