“But keep hope close and fear at a distance…”

 I recently came across this quote which I had written down a while ago and kind of forgotten about. As we are in the time of advent, I thought it was even more significanr and meaningful to reflect on this. The four themes of advent are hope, peace, joy and love. Incidentally, this week, the focus is on hope.

This quote challenged me as I reflected on it again, as in the past couple of weeks, I felt like I was really struggling to ‘keep hope close’. When you’ve prayed and prayed and waited and waited and waited for a long time, it can be hard to stay hopeful and not let fears and disillusionment creep in.

However, the start of advent seemed like a good time to challenge my disillusionment and strengthen my hope.

In Romans 15:13 (NLT), Apostle Paul encourages us with this prayer: “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

As I reflect on this verse, I am reminded of five key truths:

*God is the source of hope. When we need water, we go to our source of water, be it a tap or a stream. When we need light to see something better, we go closer to the source of light. When we need hope, we go to God. For He alone is the source of true, unfailing hope.
As we think about this, it is worth asking ourselves ‘where does our hope lie?’, ‘who or what are we trusting?’, or ‘what else are we trusting?’. Jeremiah 9:23-24 (CPDV) states, “Thus says the Lord: “The wise man should not glory in his wisdom, and the strong man should not glory in his strength, and the rich man should not glory in his riches. But he who glories should glory in this: to know me and to know me well. For I am the Lord, who accomplishes mercy and judgment and justice upon the earth. For these things are pleasing to me, says the Lord.”
How do we keep hope close? By staying close to the source of hope, getting to know Him, and knowing Him well. Continuously building our knowledge of God’s character, His ways, His consistency, reliability and faithfulness, will inevitably build up our hope as well.

*Paul did not necessarily pray that what we are hoping for will manifest immediately. Instead he prayed that God will fill us completely with joy and peace. These are two things that are essential when we are waiting, because they are two things the devil tries to attack over and over during a period of waiting. Thank God that we have a God in whose presence we can experience true peace and joy (Psalm 16:11, Philippians 4:6-7).

*Why would God fill us with joy and peace? Because we trust in Him. This trust is fundamental in waiting. Trust in His character, His timing, His will, His way, His promises. I am reminded of a hymn… “Trust and obey, for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.” Did you catch that? There is no other way to be happy in Jesus, to maintain our joy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Trusting, with all our heart, our thoughts, and demonstrating this trust in all our ways, is the kind of trust that pleases God. (Proverbs 3:5-6).

*What happens next? We overflow with confident hope! Imagine going from one or two drops of hope to overflowing hope! That is the kind of hope our generous God lavishes on us. And as we know, when there is an overflow, that means that there is an abundance. Which means we can share that hope with others, encouraging and stirring up hope in others who may also be running low on hope.

*It is through the power of the Spirit. Not self-motivation, positive thinking, or anything we can do. Those things may give us a temporary boost, but it is the power of God’s Spirit that gives us that confident hope. A confidence that comes from hoping not in ourselves but in God, our great, loving, merciful, just, all-powerful God. A God who always, always keeps His promises (Numbers 23:19, Deuteronomy 7:9, Joshua 21:45, Hebrews 10:23, 2 Corinthians 1:20).

When we go on a long car journey, we may need to stop to refuel along the way. The longer the car journey is, the higher the likelihood that we may run low on fuel and have to stop at a filling station to fill up our tank. Would we abandon the journey because we have run out of fuel? No. We go to the source of fuel, fill up, and continue our journey.

The Israelites waited hundreds of years, but eventually the Messiah came. Along the way though, God filled their hope tank with His promises, prophecies, and demonstrations of His power. And in His perfect time, God fulfilled His promise. The long-awaited Messiah came.

This is what Advent reminds me of today, that no matter how long it takes, God will always keep His promises. Until then, we can go to Him to refill our hope tanks, as many times as we need. Waiting can be so hard sometimes, but remembering to go to God when our hope tank is close to empty will keep us going.

And so, as the Psalmist declares in Psalm 33:20-22 (NIV), “we wait in hope for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, LORD, even as we put our hope in you.” Amen and Amen.

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P.S. I didn’t focus much on the fear part of that quote because I’ve written about fear here, so please do read if you want to know how and why it is important to keep fear at a distance.

Image Source Here.