“Spell hope,” said his mom reading from the spelling list. Isaiah pursed his lips, looking at the celling deep in thought. After several minutes, he began; “H-h-h? O—o-o? E-e-e?” He stopped and thought, quietly sounding out the word. “P! H-o-e-p!”
Shaking her head in exasperation, his mother returned his spelling book. “No, Isaiah. It is spelled h-o-p-e. You had no confidence in your spelling because you have NOT studied these words. Now, GO STUDY! You’ve always done well on your spelling tests and I know you can again.”
Later that evening, Isaiah proudly presented his spelling book to his mother. “I’m ready! Test me!” “Oookay,” she replied. Before she could ask the first word, Isaiah confidently started rattling off the words from his list. “Did I forget any?” “Only one,” laughed his mom, “hope.” Isaiah straightened his back, lifted his head and confidently spoke, “Hope, H-O-P-E, Hope!”
Isaiah stretched his arms out wide, “I have this much hope that I will get an A on my spelling test!” His mom smiled proudly as she enveloped Isaiah in a hug. “I have that much hope you will get an A, too!”
We often think of hope as a 50/50 chance it will occur.
Hope is defined as “to want something to happen.”1 But in the scriptures, it is more than that.
HOPE IS FAITH.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, Hebrews 11:1
In the Greek, hoped2 means “trust” & substance3 means “confidence.” So, we could rephrase this verse to say, Now, faith is the confidence of things trusted for, the evidence of things not seen.
Isaiah had faith.
Why? Because he had proof!
Proof that in the past when he studied, he had done well. Which gave Isaiah the faith that he could do it again.
Based on past performance, we too have proof that we can confidently have faith in God.
OUR PROOF?
How about last week’s blog?4
How about the examples below?
JAMIE
BROKEN BARRIERS!
When moving to Israel, I believed God wanted me to practice law. The problem was passing the Israeli bar exam in Hebrew. Three months after arriving, Israel passed a new law allowing foreign lawyers to practice here for the first time. I only needed to pass an ethics exam in English. I passed and we formed a law firm of all believers in Messiah Yeshua, (Jesus).
Our loving Lord removed the barriers when Jamie needed it.
Just like He removed them when the Israelites needed to remove the walls of Jericho to take the city.
So, the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets.
And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat.
Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. Joshua 6:20
LOIS
PROVISION!
At 16 years old, traveling home to the USA from Israel, I got stuck in Germany. I was alone and too short on money to call home. Americans, who were strangers to me, gave me money to call my father in the USA. My uncle contacted Americans living in Germany who came to the airport and provided food, shelter and hugs until my father could get me a ticket home.
I bet Lois felt a little like the Israelites stuck in the wilderness with no provision. But like God provided for Lois, God provided for the Israelites with manna and quail.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning, you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ Exodus 16: 11-12
KEN
HEALING!
After initially being diagnosed with an aggressive form of bladder cancer, I had a tumor removed and began immunotherapy treatments. Because I’m a strong believer in supernatural healing, I immediately prayed to the Lord, the Great Physician. I have been healed with no recurrences now for 11 years defying the medical statistics which reveal very low recovery rates.
Ken, myself, and many others have experienced supernatural healing from the Lord just like we read in the scriptures.
And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.”
Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Matthew 8:1-3
What the Lord did for Jamie, Lois and Ken, He can and will do for any of us.
The Lord loves us all the same.
For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God,
mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe.
Deuteronomy 10:17
As we face difficult situations, we can have the faith, the hope, that God in His love and faithfulness will do even the impossible. Let’s hope with confidence as we wait to see our loving Lord do the impossible in His time and in His way.
But Jesus looked at them and said to them,
“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible,”
Matthew 19:26
REFLECTION
Are you facing a difficult situation? Can you have faith for the Lord to take care of one small piece of it?
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, as I write Matthew 19:26, grow my faith to trust that no matter what my situation is, You can do the impossible. Help me to remember that what You have done before, You can do again. In Jesus name, Amen.
FAITH IS HOPE
https://www.amazon.com/Growing-faith-one-day-time/dp
May your day be filled with love and laughter!
For music encouragement check out God, Turn It Around by Jon Reddick
For information on making Jesus Christ your Savior, email me or visit, http://www.peacewithgod.net/
________________________________________________________________________________________________
1 Cambridge dictionary
2 hoped, Strong’s Concordance #1679
3 substance, Strong’s Concordance #5287
4 blog, Faith for provision – Gas! Food! Bills!
Photo child, Winterlady52
Photo fist, Annabell P, rubble Zhang Kenny
Photo man, hamedmehrnik, jumping man, Barbara Verge
