Warriors:
I came across a talk by a well-known researcher. Her specialty is studying shame, and authenticity, among other subjects. What struck me during the talk was that she linked hope to failure. Her research indicated that the most hopeful people had experienced a lot of failure. She contends that recovering from failure enables you to differentiate from failing and being a failure. The cultural message of fun, fast and easy, she believes has invaded every level of our society and results in hopelessness.
As I listened, I was reminded of this passage:
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Romans 5:3-5
Note the process. Tribulation—difficulties, afflictions, pressures, persecutions, necessities—forms patience (hupomone)—which is endurance under adversity. That results in hope that defeats shame, which means that this hope is not a mere illusion but part and parcel of what the Lord has given to us. Yet, this can only come to us through tribulation. But, as we have discussed before, the world’s hope is not based on the love of God shed in our hearts. What follows is a short review of hope, taken from a larger essay entitled “The Cast Down Soul.”
A cast down soul is a threat to the strongest of men. The soul that is cast down writhes in mental anguish and turmoil—churning. Mental focus is beyond reach. Discouragement and despair leads to desperation and can lead to destruction and death. It is like standing up in a canoe in a rapidly moving stream; you cannot get your equilibrium; you are always about to plunge over the side. Your mind races from point to point and your body weakens, and eventually succumbs, to the unrelenting pressure. Nothing makes sense and you fear, and may be convinced, that there is no escape. At such times, you must know how to speak to your soul.
The Soul Speaks to Itself
While it is common to speak out loud to yourself at certain times, with or without someone within earshot, most people do it inaudibly. (It is generally thought that if you talk to yourself there is something wrong with you.) In addition to the verse cited above, the Psalmist illustrates the inward struggle of the soul speaking to itself and the admonitions and observations that he reminds himself of:
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God
Psalms 42:11
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God
Psalms 43:5
- H. Spurgeon, commenting on Psalms 42:5, wrote, “You see, the psalmist here talks to himself. Every man is two men; we are duplicates, if not triplicates, and it is well sometimes to hold a dialogue with one’s own self. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” I always notice that, as long as I can argue with myself about my depressions, I can get out of them; but when both the men within me go down at once, it is a downfall indeed. When there is one foot on the solid rock, the other comes up to it pretty soon.”
Job is another example. He was poured out with anguish of soul:
And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
Job 30:16
Job’s suffering resulted from the Lord calling him to the attention of Satan:
And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth1 evil?
Job 1:8
Job’s suffering was not the result of his sin, but part and parcel of God’s design to bring him into a greater understanding of the wonder and majesty of Himself. Throughout, Job continued to regard the Lord with reverence (Job 2:9-10), but the Lord wanted him to understand far more. In chapter 3, after Job is afflicted with boils over his entire body, Job makes a pitiful pronouncement regarding his life:
After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. And Job spake, and said, Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
Job 3:1-4
Making the Spiritual Connection
Believers in the Lord Jesus are called to attain unto the resurrection of the dead, that is, to be lifted up into spiritual realms of thought and action away from works of the law (Philippians 3:9), whether dead human works, legalism or notions of “self-improvement”—none of which are valuable in the sight of God (see 1 Corinthians 3:11-15).
An essential part of the process the Lord uses to bring us to that point is to cause us to despair of self and look to Him. The Apostle Paul testifies to this process of growth in the Christian life:
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.
Philippians 3:10
In this fellowship of his sufferings, we must put off the old man and call upon the power of the spiritual man:
But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge2 after the image of him that created him:
Colossians 3:8-10
When we understand the divine purpose behind profoundly sorrowful and distressful conditions in our soul, we are enabled to follow the admonition of the Apostle Peter: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy (1 Peter 4:13, cf. 1 Corinthians 12:1-12). By this, we anchor our soul.
Anchoring the Soul
In times of storm, ships find a protected area along the shore in which to ride out the storm. This is referred to as an anchorage. In the ancient world, the anchor was the symbol of hope. Pythagoras, the ancient mathematician and philosopher, said, “Wealth is a weak anchor; fame is still weaker. What then are the anchors which are strong?” The Pythagorean answer: “Wisdom, great-heartedness, courage—these are the anchors which no storm can shake.” Yet, at the center of this view, man is the “measure of all things” and therefore limited and fallible. That kind of hope is ultimately wishful and unstable. Socrates said, “To ground hope on a false supposition, is like trusting to a weak anchor.” There is a greater hope, however, one that is not dependent on man, one that is both confident and expectant, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast (Hebrews 6:19). This anchorage depends on God, not on man, and holds us fast, safe, and secure in the Rock of Our Salvation.
Defining Biblical Hope
Hope is not speculative or optimistic—both words that imply probability and uncertainty. Hope is a future expectation based on a present recollection of information with the observations, experiences and lessons of the past. Hope simultaneously unites the past, the present and the future into one confident and expectant perspective.
Biblical hope is found in the most dire of circumstances. Indeed, hope becomes more focused in the fires of affliction, providing the only way of overcoming present perceptions. Such were the conditions that the godly remnant of Jews found themselves in as they were led into captivity. The book of Lamentations describes the desolation of Israel beginning in chapter 1:
How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.
Lamentations 1:1-3
Despair ruled the day. “Like the book of Job, Lamentations pictures a man of God puzzling over the results of evil and suffering in the world. However, while Job dealt with unexplained evil, Jeremiah lamented a tragedy entirely of Jerusalem’s making. The people of this once great city experienced the judgment of the holy God, and the results were devastating. But at the heart of this book, at the center of this lament over the effects of sin in the world, sit a few verses devoted to hope in the Lord (Lamentations 3:22–25). This statement of faith standing strong in the midst of the surrounding darkness shines as a beacon to all those suffering under the consequences of their own sin and disobedience.”3 The Jews are in exile and their cities lie in ruin. “Doleful consideration and description of the dishonour that has befallen Jerusalem. In these verses the prophet, in the name of the godly, pours out his heart before the Lord” (Keil and Delitzsch). The conditions of their lives appear hopeless—present circumstances bring only despair.
Recall
There is a circular process here. Paul tells us to review the past, and consider God’s faithfulness to us. This enables us to find patience (hupomone-steadfastness)which is founded on hope: Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father (1 Thessalonians 1:3). Patience comes from affliction which leads to hope, and hope enables you to endure hardships and difficulties, which leads to more hope.
Avoiding our problems and difficulties, seeking the easy road, and failing to deal with our sinful selves diminishes and eventually defeats our ability to grow. Sufferings, including facing consequences, are the fertile soil of a fruitful and hopeful life.
Can you rejoice in suffering?
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
2 Corinthians 12:10
Harper sends
1 Abstains from and shuns evil (Amplified Bible).
2 Knowledge is ἐπίγνωσις epignosis: full knowledge, knowledge that can be brought to bear in your thinking, moment by moment; knowledge that is actionable.
3 Chuck Swindoll, Overview of Lamentations, https://www.insight.org/resources/bible/the-major-prophets/lamentations