No Shame In Hope!

"And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us" (Romans 5:5 NIV).

Children are always hoping for something--that special gift for Christmas or birthdays, a special vacation place, good grades even though they did not work for them, or for a loving family--when left in limbo after abandonment by parents.

Sometimes, we call the hope--wistful thinking--we hope to get "it" whatever it is, but don't really believe it is possible. Well, we are God's children and in this instance, hope--steadfast faith in God and the unseen--is possible when we do not doubt. Our hope in God and whatever He has promised is not just wistful thinking, but on occasion, we hope for things we have not worked towards getting--and that is still wistful thinking--on our part.

Hope in God is never a waste of time. We know that He has poured His love into us and when we are obedient to His Word--we have the right to expect His working on our behalf. His Word tells us that, "eye has not seen nor ear heard of all the great things He has in store for us." If He has great things in store--laid up--waiting for us--then we hope to see it manifested in our lives and we wait and do all He has required us to do.

There are times when we get so caught up in doing what He has said to do, we often don't recognize His work on our behalf, but before we know it--our hopes have been fulfilled and we see what we desired. What a wonderful God!

How do we know when we are doing what God requires? Holy Spirit--the gift given to us to direct us--speaks to our hearts and reminds us what we are to do and how we are to treat others. When people do not understand what we do--that is because of their unbelief--and non-existent relationship with God. We must have hope in God and not people, because people often disappoint us, but God never disappoints. We are sometimes disappointed with God because of misdirected hope and unrealistic expectations, but that is our doing--not God's. When we rebel against God, we only hurt ourselves, not God!

But hope in God--leaves no room for us to be ashamed of anything we do or say--no matter how the enemy attempts to undermine our faith. There is no reason to be ashamed of our faith in the One who holds the fate of the entire world in His hands. Since we know He loves us--we have no need to fear what the enemy might do or what unbelievers may say--we are His children and He gives only good gifts to those He loves.