Steps on the Road to God – Hope
Steps on the Path to God
I speak to you about a virtue that is among the most important virtues in human life… it is the virtue of hope.
Hope[1]
Hope is one of the three great virtues (faith, hope, and love), as mentioned by Saint Paul the Apostle (1 Corinthians 13).
Whoever loses this hope, Satan casts him into gloom and anxiety, and also into despair, as happened with Judas Iscariot, who cut off his hope of salvation and hanged himself…
Working to cut off hope is one of the wars of the demons…
The prophet David explained this in the third psalm, saying: “LORD, why have those who trouble me increased? Many are they who rise up against me. Many are they who say of me, ‘There is no salvation for him in his God.’” And David continues in a spirit of hope: “But You, O LORD, are a shield for me, my glory and the One who lifts up my head” (Psalm 3:1–3).
Satan says to the sinful person: “There is no salvation. There is no benefit from all your struggle. The Lord has abandoned you. There is no help for you from Him. You have fallen into my hand and your matter is finished.” He says this so that the person may surrender to him in despair, and thus he leads him to destruction.
But the Lord Jesus Christ is the source of hope; rather, He is our hope…
We say to Him in our prayers: “O hope of those who have no hope, and help of those who have no helper. Consolation of the fainthearted. Haven of those in the storm.” Those who are wearied by storms in the sea of this world—their haven that grants them hope is the Lord Jesus…
Therefore, it was also said of Him that He came “to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” (Isaiah 61:1). He came to grant hope to everyone.
Indeed, among the most wonderful things said about the grace of hope in the work of the Lord is that the Son of Man came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).
He did not come only to save sinners and the lost, or to save tax collectors and Samaritans and Gentiles, but rather He came to seek and to save “that which was lost”! Is there a deeper hope than this? Even for those who are perishing!
It was also said of Him, in the work of hope, that He is: “A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench” (Isaiah 42:3).
It is beautiful to feel that there is hope even for the bruised reed and the smoking wick… It is the gentleness of Christianity that consoles the fainthearted… strengthens the feeble knees and the weak hands.
Are you a feeble knee, unable to walk in the way of the Lord?! Do not lose your hope. The Lord is able to strengthen you…
He opens the door to all and calls you to Him no matter how bad your condition may be… even if your sins are like scarlet, He washes you, not only to make you white, but to make you whiter than snow…!
There is hope, no matter how long the time has passed and hope seems lost.
Even if Abraham grew old, and dozens of years passed without being given offspring, and even if Sarah’s womb dried up… there is hope that both may rejoice. As long as God wills, and as long as He is able, then there is hope. He is the God to whom nothing is impossible. He presents to us a phrase of hope:
“The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18:27).
Even if you are cast into the lions’ den like Daniel, and even if you are cast into the fiery furnace like the three youths, do not lose hope: God is able to nullify the power of the fire, and able to send His angel to shut the mouths of the lions.
What matters is that you have the discerning spiritual eye, which is able—in every distress and trial—to see the hand of God and His help…
Gehazi was afraid when he saw the forces of the enemy surrounding the city, because he was not seeing the angels of God whom He had sent for deliverance. Therefore, the prophet Elisha prayed for him and said: O Lord, open the eyes of the young man, that he may see that those who are with us are more than those who are with them. “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed and said: “O LORD, open his eyes that he may see” (2 Kings 6:16–17).
The same situation happened to the children of Israel before the Red Sea, when they saw the sea before them and the enemy behind them, and they were afraid. But Moses the prophet, filled with hope and faith, said: “Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD… The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace” (Exodus 14:13–14).
Hope sees a path that the Lord has opened in the sea, sees the rock bringing forth water, and sees the salvation of the Lord in the midst of tribulations.
Even if the Lord delays until the fourth watch of the night, the believer does not lose his hope and does not despair. He may delay, but He will surely come and rebuke the waves and the winds…
The Lord has given us in the Scripture many examples of hope.
The healing of incurable diseases was a symbol indicating hope.
For an ordinary person, hope may be lost before a serious disease like leprosy, or an incurable disability like blindness, or before a withered hand that does not move, or a long-standing illness like that of the woman with the issue of blood who spent all her money on physicians for eighteen years without any benefit.
But the believer has hope, no matter how much the situation calls for despair. The God who cleansed the leper, opened the eyes of the blind, moved the withered hand, and stopped the bleeding of the woman, is able to save any person from his sin, no matter how difficult his salvation may appear…
In the raising of the dead, you see a deeper shade of hope…
The Lord presented to us examples of raising the dead that differ in degree. He raised the daughter of Jairus while she was still in her house; He raised the son of the widow of Nain after they had placed him in the coffin and taken him out on the road amid the mourners; and He raised Lazarus after they had placed him in the tomb, and four days had passed, until his sister said: “By this time there is a stench” (John 11:39), and she lost her hope in his resurrection!
Are you in the death of sin, with your companions weeping over you, or people escorting you in sorrow? Or have you already become putrid in the death of sin, and a period has passed that calls for despair? Trust—there is hope that you may rise…
The God who raised Lazarus is able to raise you. Never lose hope, for God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). And He possesses the power to save you…
Therefore, let your heart be strong and wait for the Lord…
The Lord who said in the psalm: “For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now I will arise, says the LORD; I will set him in the safety for which he yearns” (Psalm 12:5). Yes, arise, O Lord. Arise, and let all Your enemies be scattered, and let all who hate Your holy name flee from before Your face (Numbers 10:35). But let Your people who wait for You in hope be blessed, thousands upon thousands and myriads upon myriads, doing Your will.
Another phrase of hope is presented to us by the book of Isaiah: “But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).
And even if weariness overtakes them, they are met by the word of the Lord: “He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength” (Isaiah 40:29).
Another example of hope is the song of the barren woman who did not give birth…
The Lord says to her in the book of Isaiah: “Sing, O barren, you who have not borne! Break forth into singing… Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings… For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited” (Isaiah 54:1–3).
Another example is the desolate earth at the beginning of the book of Genesis.
The earth was without form and void, submerged in waters, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. But it did not remain so, because the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God dispelled its darkness and said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good. Then God adorned this earth with flowers, trees, and birds (Genesis 1).
The beautiful image to which the earth was transformed after desolation gives us hope, no matter how much waters and darkness may overwhelm us…
God works, even if we do not work. It was said of Him that He was going about doing good (Acts 10:38). What does this mean?
He was going about, giving this one grace, giving that one strength, another forgiveness, and another repentance. “To seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).
Therefore, let us rejoice in the Lord, for it is said: “Rejoicing in hope” (Romans 12:12).
Hope is an energy of light that opens upon the soul surrounded by darkness, enlightening it and gladdening it. Hope is an energy of joy that visits the soul encompassed by gloom and removes its gloom… Hope is a work of the Holy Spirit, giving birth to joy and peace… Live in this joy, no matter how much you think that grace has been delayed for you.
Among the most beautiful examples is the story of Elijah the prophet and the falling of rain…
The time came for the rain to fall, and Elijah prayed and the rain did not fall. He prayed a second time, and a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth time, and the rain did not fall, despite the promises of God and despite the fact that the one praying was a great prophet. But Elijah did not lose his hope, and he prayed for the seventh time. Then he saw a cloud as small as a man’s hand, and he rejoiced and knew that the rain would fall.
A small cloud, in the seventh prayer, sends forth joy and hope.
Do not despair, therefore, if help is delayed in reaching you, but trust in the Lord “and wait for Him, from the watch of the morning to the night” (Psalm 130), all the time and all your life. And in your hope in the Lord, be filled with joy.
What also gives rise to hope is that God seeks us…
He is concerned with our salvation more than we are concerned with the salvation of ourselves. He is the One who stands at the door and knocks, waiting for us to open to Him…
He is also pleased with little, as a step toward Him. One grape in the cluster makes it a blessing, and the Lord accepts those of thirty as good soil, like those of sixty and a hundred. His good heart fills us with hope.
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