Rediscover the Bible for Life
“Hope: Life’s Missing Ingredient”
By Dennis Lee
If I were to show you a half filled glass of water, would you say the glass is half-full or half-empty? Your answer determines your temperament. If it’s half-full you’re outlook on life is more positive, but if it’s half-empty, your outlook leans more negative.
If we were to view this world, most would be half-empty sort of people.
All in all things aren’t looking too good, and the more we ponder the state of the world the more we lose enthusiasm and energy for life with many spiraling down into despair and darkness.
So why am I bringing up these negative glass half-empty facts, because I believe God want’s to move us from the glass being half-empty or half-full to the place where it really doesn’t matter. What matters is who’s holding the glass.
Hope comes from knowing that no matter what, God is holding the glass, and that’s the missing ingredient in many people’s lives.
This was something King David knew and experienced throughout his life.
It began with David as a shepherd boy when he confronted a bear and a lion. Now most shepherds would never have faced down these threats. They probably would have asked if they wanted a side of mint jelly to go with their lamb.
But not David! His hope was in the Lord. His hope wasn’t in his weapon, that is, rock verses bear, but rather it was in God, that is, God verses bear.
It was such hope that gave God room to do a miracle in David’s life, not just with the bear and lion, but with a giant named Goliath. When David heard Goliath talking trash about God, he stepped up.
“You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand.” (1 Samuel 17:45-46a)
For David it’s God verses the giant when he said, “The battle is the Lord’s.”
David lived his life in the hope of God, not in the circumstances, thus giving God room to do another miracle.
David’s hope was in the Lord, something that missing in modern Christianity. We wonder, “Is there any hope?” This is asked when people sit in the doctor’s office waiting for test results, or when they stand beside the hospital beds of their loved one, or sit in the office of a marriage counselor.
David found his hope in the Lord, and that hope carried him through both the good and bad times. God is the only source of hope, and will overflow our lives with peace, joy, and hope.
“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” (Romans 15:13).
