The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing. (Proverbs 10:28)
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12)
Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. (Proverbs 26:12)
It is fascinating to me that both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama built their political campaigns on the theme of “hope.” Clinton’s 1992 nomination acceptance speech was titled “A Place Called Hope.” Obama’s Hope poster became a cultural phenomenon and, at one point, was selling for $2,000 to $3,000 on eBay. I saw the artwork reproduced on the side of a Washington DC, inner-city building.
Campaign strategists did both candidates a huge favor by setting this theme. Hope is a prime mover in human motivation and the fuel for about every vision of human beings. The athlete’s hope of the big leagues or the Olympics drives his endless training. The teenage girl’s hope of marriage has her subscribing to Brides magazine at sixteen. The entrepreneur’s hope for a fortune drives him to mortgage the farm to start his new business. The young actress’s hope of seeing herself on the red carpet at a Hollywood film premiere propels her to Hollywood and near starvation.
Contrariwise, hopelessness signals the end of life and motivation. The POW fights to keep hope alive, knowing that to lose it is to die. The married couple is divorced before the papers are filed when one spouse loses hope that the other spouse will change or things will improve.
Proverbs links hope fulfillment to righteousness. “The hopes of the wicked come to nothing” is the axiom. “Why?” you ask. For one simple reason. When people engage in evil to fulfill their hopes, they run cross current to the power of God. God is in the business of “frustrating the hopes of the wicked.”
Principle: The flow of hope fulfillment goes in the same direction as God’s moral Law. To challenge God’s Law is to launch your hopes upstream against an all-powerful current.
I learned of a professional woman who studied diligently for months to pass an incredibly hard licensing exam, one which only 30 percent typically pass. The passing score was 170. She scored 169. Imagine how heartsick she was. Now she faces studying more and taking a more difficult version. Her friend passed the test and faces it no more. One had hope dashed; the other had it fulfilled.
Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as “being sure of what we hope for.”
Principle: Trusting in the spiritual guidance and strength of a loving God radically enhances the probability of seeing your hopes fulfilled. In fact, in the end, He guarantees their fulfillment for the faith-filled person.
Then there are the arrogant who say, “There is no God!” who act as if they are gods themselves, and who live as if wisdom was born and will die with them. King Solomon said he’d place his money on the pure fool more than one like this who is “wise in his own eyes.”
Principle: A teachable attitude is the key to hope fulfillment because the unteachable won’t heed advice and adjust their life direction onto the righteous path that fulfills all hopes.
Looking for “a place called hope”? You’ll find it in the whole counsel of God…and nowhere else.
[from “Wisdom for the Trenches” by Dr. Larry W. Poland]