(Part 2 of 2)
“Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave,
and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the
sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench,
for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that
if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”-John 11:38-40.
When facing
impossible situations, I believe that the problem that we must contend with is
not an issue of faith, but instead a problem with hope! Hope is the expectation
for something to happen. It believes when there is no evidence of a desired
outcome!
Hebrews 11:1 tells us
that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. Hope is what gives substance (stability, foundation) to our faith. Our
faith will never rise above our level of hope; and never go beyond what we
expect to happen. Hope is believing
that God can; faith is believing that God will. In order to see our faith increase, first our
hope must increase!
Hebrews 6:19 tells us
that hope is an anchor for the soul. Anchors alone don’t hold a ship steadfast.
That anchor must bite into the ocean bed (dig into the ground below) in order
to keep the ship from drifting. In order for hope to be an anchor for our soul,
it too must dig into something that is immovable and steadfast. Hope finds its
rest in the promises of God. God’s promises are the bedrock of our hope. No one
understood this better than Abraham:
“Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that
the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the
law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us
all (as it is written, “ I have made you a father of many nations”) in the
presence of Him whom he believed-God, who gives life to the dead and calls
those things which do not exist as though they did, who contrary to hope, in
hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what
was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”-Romans 4:16-18.
When everything
appeared hopeless, Abraham had hope in God’s immovable promises. He believed
three things about God that made things that seemed impossible to suddenly
become a reality in his life. He believed that God’s promises were for him; He
believed that God gives life to the dead; and He believed that God could call
those things that do not exist as though they did.
We have all reached
that place in various circumstances where we have felt like there is no hope;
it is over and dead. Nevertheless, just because there appears to be no life in
it, doesn’t mean it’s dead. A lot of things can kill including animals,
diseases, and people. To kill simply means to take life from something.
However, taking the life from something doesn’t make it dead. The reality
according to Romans 4:16-18 is that there is only One who can call something
dead and that is the One with the power to give life. The enemy can whisper in
your ear that your marriage is dead, your chances of having kids is dead, your
body is dead from cancer but God’s word declares that no sickness, no disease,
no person, and no devil in hell can call something dead; only God has the power
to do that because only He has the power to give life and God’s Word declares
that He came to give us life and life to the full.
He can breathe life
into lifeless situations and He can cause things to come to pass that moments
ago did not even exist. So be encouraged! Your situation may seem lifeless, but
we serve a God with resurrection power. My prayer for those of you that are in
the midst of an impossible situation is found in Romans 15:13
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,
that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
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