Coming into the last quarter of 2024, we wanted to talk about hope. Hope is the little seedling in the shoe that prompted humankind to come back to earth in the movie Wall-E, hope is the smell of rain after a dry season, and today amid all of the challenges we as a global community face, hope is the one thing we all need. So, the question is, what is hope, and how can we cultivate it? In this series of blog posts on hope, we will look at how the Bible describes hope and create a practical strategy for keeping hope alive.
When we look at what the apostle Paul wrote about hope in Rom 5:3-5, we see that hope is forged in the crucible of enduring trials; enduring trials lead to proven character, which leads to the formation of hope – a hope that does not disappoint us because of the Holy Spirit that was given to us as a guarantee of God’s love. This led me to think about what hope is. The definition of hope is to have an expectation of something positive working for our good, but as a believer in Christ, we hope in God making all things work for the good of those who love Him. Hope is then an expectation of an encounter with the love of God, be it in the form of His provision, protection, comfort, wisdom, etc. I’ve found a beautiful example of enduring trials that lead to hope in Psalm 59, written by David when Saul sent men to his house to kill him. At that stage of David’s life, he had recognition from Israel. People saw him as a victorious military commander, Samuel had anointed him as the next king of Israel, yet all of that seemed to be torn away from him by King Saul who wanted to kill him, who took away his wife and was furiously jealous of him. Imagine what he must have felt; he couldn’t see what was going to happen in the future – he was at that moment homeless, jobless, wifeless, and on the run for his life. What about your circumstances, are you facing trials that threaten to overwhelm you? Looking at this Psalm, we can learn from David to call on God regardless of our circumstances.
Running to God.
Psalm 59:1-2 (NLT)
Rescue me from my enemies, O God. Protect me from those who have come to destroy me. Rescue me from these criminals; save me from these murderers.
From the beginning of this Psalm, we can see David turning his attention to God, declaring his dependence on God. I encourage you to read verses 1-5. In prayer, David described the situation to God. Two important actions take place when we run to God in prayer. The first is turning our attention toward God, the second is processing. When we turn our attention toward God, we place our expectations on God’s ability to help us, and more importantly away from a dependence on our own strengths. We become aware of God’s love for us when we declare our dependence on Him. The second, yet equally important action is processing. During processing, we acknowledge the emotions we are feeling, give words to the causes of these emotions and ultimately gain greater awareness. In his article on processing Dr Naom Spancer describes processing as the act of placing a certain emotion or event into a coherent life story, a story wherein you are both the narrator and the protagonist. This allows you to both experience the event and analyse it.
Running to God can take on many forms, I have found in my own life that keeping a journal of my prayers allows me to articulate my thoughts and emotions better than praying out loud, my husband likes to pray in silence. Each of us is unique and our approach to God looks different, the important thing is that we do approach God, and we can do so with boldness because we have been reconciled to our Father through the victory of the Son. If you are unsure how to incorporate daily devotion into your life, use our Devotion Strategy tool, which is available when you subscribe to our email list. In the next posts, we will explore God-imagining and gaining a sense of control.
Coach U
What does running to God look like in your life?
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Picture source: Maddy Baker on Unsplash
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