Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed… Romans 4:18
It’s been said that if you lose hope you lose everything. I’m sure there’s truth in that. To be without hope is to give up, to despair. And what could be grimmer than that?
Two images of hopelessness come to my mind. First, there are the people pathetically surveying the ruins of their homes after a flood or a fire – everything they have built up over many years destroyed in a matter of minutes.
And then, even worse, there are the emaciated mothers in refugee camps with their cruelly under-nourished babies, babies they cannot feed themselves.
That overdone word “heart-rending” fits these two scenarios. As it does also the many suffering most acutely, whether physically or mentally, through the pandemic.
Who could dream of criticising or judging such people if they reached the point of despair? – their circumstances are appalling. The role of those of us whose circumstances are relatively comfortable is simple: to keep the tiny flame of hope alight in any way we can – by prayer and by whatever practical means are possible. It’s amazing what hope even tiny gestures can engender.
It was the English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) who wrote that “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” That isn’t a hard and fast rule, of course: sadly, there are situations where hope doesn’t in fact “spring eternal”, but flickers and dies. But there’s enough truth in it to have turned it into a proverb, quoted by people who have never heard of Pope or read a word of his poetry.
What better example of hope could there be than Abraham? Says Paul, “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed” (Romans 4:18) – or, as The Message translation puts it: “When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway…”
The background is this: God had promised Abraham that he would be the father – the ancestor – of many nations numbering untold millions. Yet he and his wife Sarah were childless, and well past the age of having children. God’s promise seemed a mockery: how could it possibly be fulfilled? Yet we are told in Genesis 15 that Abraham did in fact continue to believe – which can only mean he looked to God for a miracle.
Well, it took a long time coming! – but come it did. Abraham’s persistent faith was rewarded.
The God of the Bible is the God who does the impossible, a miracle-working God. We probably don’t think of answers to prayer, hard-won after perhaps many years, as “miracles”; but they are the work of God nonetheless. From our point of view it’s a matter of clinging to him by the skin of our teeth. After all, if we don’t cling to him, who will we cling to?
I don’t know what kind of faith, if any, Alexander Pope may have had. But I suspect that, when he spoke of “hope springing eternal”, many readers will have seen that as a vague “hoping for the best” or just “wishful thinking”. There are many phrases that have captured that spirit of optimism through repeated use: “Keep your chin up”, “Things can only get better”, “Always look on the bright side of life”, “Keep smiling through” (as Vera Lynn used to sing).
Well, such sentiments are better than slumping into despair, and I wouldn’t mean to dismiss them. But what makes the kind of hope Abraham had different is that it rested in a person with whom he had a relationship – with no other than God himself. And that applies also to everyone who has learned to trust in God through faith in his Son Jesus.
Perhaps, as you are reading this, you are living with a disappointed hope, a shattered dream. Something you were looking forward to with all your heart has disappeared, and all you have left is dust and ashes.
That’s hard – so hard. But I would encourage you to take your cue from Abraham and muster up every scrap of faith in God that you can – not vaguely “crossing your fingers and hoping for the best”, but calling out to him as your loving heavenly Father. (Never forget, his shoulders are plenty big enough to carry all your frustration, anger, fear and even despair.)
I mentioned people close to despair as they survey the wreckage of their home, or long desperately for food for a starving child. Yes, those scenes are indeed heart-breaking.
But sometimes – just sometimes – the television cameras are back a year or two later, and what do we see? Answer: the same people in clean, renovated homes or holding chubby, healthy children. Which holds a message we need to repeat constantly to ourselves: The present dark moment isn’t the end of the story.
No, if our trust is in God, the words of an old hymn really are true: “Through the love of God our Saviour, all will be well”.
Father, please help me to bring hope to the hopeless by my compassion and practical support. And when I myself am tempted to lose hope, grant me the grace to hold on to you by faith, however hard it may be, and however impossible my circumstances may seem. Amen.
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