Hope
Ashley Watts
In May I had a friend ask me “What are you hoping for?” It was a good question, but he followed with… “don’t answer…sit with it”. I sat with it and little did he know that God was putting plans in my heart that seemed a bit far-fetched for me.
The context of the conversation was moving forward in hope, taking the next steps of life in faith. We all know WHO our hope is in, it’s in God, yet with this understanding, the question was targeted toward actionable faith steps. What was next, what was God calling me to, what was I hoping in God for…
This was challenging on many levels, one, I was actually afraid to hope, and two, I was beginning life again from a new vantage point. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been let down before. I’ve had dreams and plans fall through my fingertips and to be quite honest it was painful. A few years back I began to live and make a “home” in hopelessness. We like to keep it “real” so here was my tainted thinking: If I don’t hope for anything, I won’t get disappointed. Ever been there before? Me, too.
I lived far too long with no expectation, no hope, no goals, no dreams. This felt like a “safe” place for me to hide my fear of disappointment of having expectations slip through my fingers once again. I deeply didn’t want to hope and deeply desire something just to have it not happen or worse fail.
Little did my friend know that that question he asked, God had already been asking me the few months prior. God started awakening my desire to dream again, my desire to move forward, God started stirring in me hope. A hope for a good future, plans for a career, and dreams for the future. I was on a tipping point, standing on the fence, when this question just fell into my lap.
So, what is hope? What do we hope in or hope for? For most of my life, I lived with disappointment and false expectations of myself, God, and others. I have had a good life, but I have viewed hope as wishful thinking: I hoped for a pony when I was younger (didn’t get one), I hoped to win the state tournament in basketball (didn’t get there), I hoped to keep everyone happy (recipe for disaster).
The English version of hope is light, fluffy, a mere desire or wish, but that is actually opposite of Biblical Hope. Psalm 42:11 AMP says:
“Why are you in despair, O my soul? Why have you become restless and disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.”
The Hebrew word for hope in this verse is the word tiqvah.
Tiqvah is translated to wait/hope in the actuality of God’s word coming to pass. Just as a guard would watch for the sunrise and the sunset, tiqvah hope is a sure thing.
Looking at hope this way is completely different. I’m not wishing that by chance I will see a shooting star, or my dreams will come to pass. Tiqvah is having the assurance that God’s will…WILL come to pass.
The aspect that was important for me to see is that I’m having faith and hope in GOD’S plans…God’s will. God gives us all free will. He gives us choice, and we all have hopes and dreams. We are not puppets, yet the beautiful thing of living a life of faith is that we get lay our hopes and dreams at the feet of Jesus and say your will, your way. We get to yield to HIS way knowing that HIS plans for us are far greater than we can hope or imagine (Jeremiah 29:11). When we submit our plans to God, he does give us the desire of our hearts, or more accurately our heart’s desires begin to shift toward his will.
Seek first HIS righteousness and His kingdom and all these things will be added unto you (Matt 6:33). In seeking God, we find our true selves, our true calling, and our true purpose. When we get to a space of asking God for his will, we know we can trust what he says.
Then our hope, our desires, and our dreams are what God has planned for us.
If it’s God’s will, then it’s a sure thing. Tiqvah (hope) is waiting for the actuality of God’s will to come to pass.
The interesting thing about tiqvah though is that we just don’t sit and wait, we ACT and live as if we already have it. I had someone explain it to me this way:
Tiqvah is living with the kind of hope in God and HIS plans for our lives that we begin to live like it’s a sure thing. Let’s say you are hoping for a vacation to Hawaii, (I know this seems trivial, but follow me) You buy the Hawaiian shirt, you purchase flip flops and sunscreen, and you buy the plane ticket. You live and walk in faith that you will get that trip.
This is tiqvah.
This is hoping in God.
We aren’t just “rubbing a magic lamp, asking for a million dollars or a brand-new car”. We are positioning ourselves in humility and saying, God here are my hopes and dreams, you can have them. What is your will over this? What is your will for me?
–And then we hope in that, we move based on what God speaks to us, God’s plans over us. What God speaks will come to pass. We get to partner with God and walk it out by faith, putting our hope in HIM.
God’s love and his will are a sure thing.
As sure as the sunrise and the sunset are God’s plans over your life.
So—Yes, I did answer the question my friend asked me. God has re-established hope in my heart. My hope is in HIM, does that include the plans and dreams he has for me, yes. And all I can say is it’s more than I could ask or imagine. Have they happened yet? Not all of them…but I’m living, looking, walking, and watching for them just as the sunrise and sunset. Do I have days that I question, that doubt creeps in? Yes, I’m human…but I keep coming back to God, he continues to grow me, shape me, and speak to me. And I keep trading my faith and hope for HIS.
I’m writing this looking over my favorite spot on the lake as the sun sets. Hopefully, each morning and each evening as the sun rises and sets you are reminded that God’s promises are sure, he is faithful to his word. This is where our hope lies, with HIM.