Hope And The Power Of God's Presence
Bible Study
Toward a Hope-Filled Life
A Bible Study
Object:
We must all come to terms with the reality that we can never understand the meaning of hope if that understanding is based on our own achievements or lack thereof. Arrogance would have us believe that we can do remarkable things and take credit for those things without any regard for the working of God in those achievements. We are reminded over and over again that we do not need God. Advertisements are full of veiled messages that we are the center of the universe, and that we should trust only in our own ability to care for ourselves and the world we live in. But leaving God behind communicates to all that we can bring God into our lives anytime we wish. Indeed, it says that God is at our bidding and will do as we wish, when we wish.
Nowhere in that kind of thinking does the idea that it is God who comes to us come into focus. In reality, we are not dealing with only our own wit and strength. We are, instead, dealing with the very author of life. Our hope should never be based on our own ability to handle life, it should be based on the reality that God never ceases to be present and we do nothing without God at our side! The prophet Isaiah identified this fact when he wrote, "The Lord of hosts has sworn: As I have designed, so shall it be; and as I have planned, so shall it come to pass" (Isaiah 14:24). Any understanding of hope will wither and simply fall away when you most need it, if you do not acknowledge that our hope is found in the Lord of hosts.
The issue is not our coming to God, it is God's coming to us. We all need to better understand that when God became one of us in Jesus Christ, God was showing all of creation the incredible depth and the love that God has for all of us, no matter who we may be. We cannot even begin to truly comprehend the power of that kind of love. It is the power of light over darkness, it is the power of knowing joy when joy seems lost, and it is the power of life over death. It is the power of hope.
When we begin to grasp what God has done for us in the incarnation, we begin to better appreciate the life over death love that God has for us all. It is through God's coming to us that God offers to us a new way of thinking and a new way of imagining our lives, present and future. If God could divinely enter life in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, why do we find it so hard to come to the point of understanding that because of God's coming in human form, we who hold that human form no longer have to fear death?
One of the best ways to discover why our hope is found in Jesus Christ is best understood when we delve into the pages of the gospel of John. Verses 1-18 of this wonderful gospel offer us linguistic images that open up new possibilities in our journey of faith. Indeed, it is within the pages of John's gospel that we begin to see the profound impact that these words hold for us. Those words, so eloquently penned by John, can shape our entire outlook on life. Our own sense of what it means to be a Christian can be greatly enhanced by these wonderful words of life. One of the most compelling reasons is that John, unlike the other gospel writers, tells us that the power of God's love preexisted all of life as we know it. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Wow, that should get your attention.
John is saying that all of that power that preexisted is available to all of us! It is saying that this wonderful power has been made attainable for us in the person of Jesus Christ. Just think about that for a moment. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). "He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home and his own people received him not" (John 1:10-11). Further, regardless of the fact that his own neighbors rejected him, the power of eternal love prevailed and always will throughout all of time. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:5).
Hope does not rely on our feeble attempts to validate what it is. The power of light over darkness stands at the heart of hope. We have a hope-filled future because God took us and shaped us and loved us enough to change us into the hopeful people we were created to be.
As a pastor, I try to remind myself daily that hope is a power that is real and available to me. When circumstances seem to suggest that someone or some plan has fallen upon difficult times and it seems as if all hope is lost, I slow down and try to tap into the light of hope. I remind myself that I can never be invulnerable to the things that plague us all, most of the time. Pain and tragedy are a part of life, but so is the reality of God. I will still be vulnerable to pain; but I will not be beaten back into a weakened state. I will not feel defeated because my hope is not confined only to my present situation, my hope is more dynamic than some frail definition I may come up with.
When you look at this hope, this divine promise, you begin to see that even Jesus was brought face-to-face with the reality of hopelessness. As a man, Jesus could be and was humiliated, tortured, and finally executed like a common criminal. But as a child of God, he was invincible, he was quite literally above it all, by the power of God. Therefore, any true understanding of the life and ministry of Jesus himself must start with the power of a loving God that was made perfect in weakness! We may call it hopelessness in our world today, but there can be hope even in the midst of pain. It is always difficult to find it when we are hurting, but it is there and that is the promise God has given us in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The gospel of John presents to us a remarkable view of our Savior. It is a view that is unique when compared with the synoptic gospels. It is a view that tells us that God took time to come into our world and that God pitched a tent and lived with us in all facets of our lives. It is through this selfless act that we begin to grasp that in this act of giving, God showed us that God is available to us in the ordinary living of our lives. God made Jesus present to us as a matter of free will. Nothing has been forced upon us. We did nothing to entice God to do what was done. God saw our inability to deal with life in a constructive way and God freely chose to come and share our life.
Time and time again we need to remind ourselves that God came to us, we did nothing to force God to come and be with us. Isn't it true that when someone volunteers to be part of something, that act of volunteering makes that person an energetic participant because no force was leveled against that person to make them become part of whatever it is we are doing? That voluntary act of giving of oneself makes everything else pale in significance. God came to us in Jesus, knowing full well that that act of coming would bring with it times of pain and struggle. That is why Jesus stuck around when the going got rough. It was his idea to be with us in the first place! I would suggest that Jesus' presence and power was increased simply by his act of voluntarily giving of himself on our behalf.
I think it is fair to say that there is a discernible difference between caring for somebody because it is our job and caring for someone because we know in our hearts that caring is exactly what God would have us do. Most people instinctively know the difference. Walk into any nursing home or hospital and you will be able to discern without much trouble who is caring from the heart and who is caring because of the money. You can be sure that the residents and patients know who is doing what and why.
Our hope can also be found in the fact that God comes into our lives without strings attached. It is sometimes said that everything in life has some precondition to it, but not with God. Some people do project that God should insist on some minimal requirements, but that is not the biblical picture with which we are presented. Indeed, it is the fact that we have to lose our preconditions for God's love that is the most hopeful ingredient in God's coming. It matters not who or where you are from; it matters not from whom or from where your money comes; it matters not how, where, or from whom your religion comes; that is why hope is so very real!
If, as John writes in his gospel, "the Word was with God, and the Word was God," there were no strings attached. God had nothing to gain by coming into our lives and putting up with the pain of our lives. God had nothing to gain by being humiliated and having to endure the indignities that are so human. And that is all the more remarkable and all the more hopeful for all of us, because it is we, after all, who bring the humility upon God! Once again, God shows the power of his love in life, and even in death, through example.
I don't believe that we could ever find a better foundation on which to build our hope. Just think how lucky we are. Think about the two most visible reasons for us to find hope in God's activity in Christ. God's love and God's power have been given visible forms in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. These extraordinary powers, love and power itself, are given clarity for anyone who will pay attention. In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we are granted eternal sight into the life of hope.
Let me raise a possible problem with all of this. The problem is that although God never stops loving us and never stops offering hope to us, we are not so inclined. We are much more likely to forsake God than God is to forsake us! We are much more likely to deny God's love and power than God is to give it. For reasons that seem to reach back into history, we have the sad tendency to be hopeless even in the face of all that God has and continues to do for us. The main reason seems to be that we, frail as we are, are still fragile, self-centered humans, looking for something we cannot even define. We want the world handed to us on a silver platter and we experience a loss of hope when we don't get what we want fast enough. The sad truth is that, when faced with a problem, the first place we turn is not to God, it is usually to the world around us. We will turn to new age gurus whose books fill the shelves of our local bookstores. We will turn to drugs and alcohol before we turn to God. It is not that we don't know any better, we do! But, our human weakness is to try to find the quickest fix, and when that fails, we turn to God, or worse yet, we begin to blame God for whatever it is that is ailing us.
Sin has been defined by some as a turning away from God and a turning instead to yourself. We begin to blame God for the things that we cannot control. The problem arises when, in our search for hope, we refuse to accept God's free gifts and instead decide that we can, in and of ourselves, solve the problems that are taking a toll upon our lives. The sad reality is that as long as we are dependent on our own power, we are running headlong into our own day of hopeless despair. No matter how many academic degrees we hang on our walls, no matter how much money we have in the bank, it is impossible for us to live without sinning. That being the case, our only hope is in a strength far beyond ourselves. Hope and sin may seem very strange companions, but they are not. The apostle Paul reminds us, "For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate" (Romans 7:15). It is because of this fact, so clearly articulated by Paul, that we can better understand that living life without making mistakes is not possible. Therefore, hope is to be found outside of our own feeble attempts to live believing we can fix anything, anytime, without God's presence.
Questions For Your Consideration
1. How does the advertising world communicate to us that we are able to do whatever we want whenever we want?
2. The reading from Isaiah tells us that God has our lives all planned. Do you believe this?
3. How do you see God coming into your life each day? Why do you not feel God in your life each day?
4. Turn to chapter 1 of John in your Bibles. Read verses 1-18 and explain how they help you know that hope is real.
5. Why do you think God saw a need to come into your life in the first place?
6. What strings do you think are attached to your life when you rely only upon yourself to live life?
7. Power and love are attributes that most people want to have in their lives. How are these powers manifest in Jesus' coming into the world?
8. How does hope find life within the constraints of family, work, and your own personal "baggage," whatever it may be?
9. What do you think Paul was talking about in Romans 7:15?
10. What does it mean to you to know that Jesus was present when the world was created? How does that help or hinder your feelings of hope?
Nowhere in that kind of thinking does the idea that it is God who comes to us come into focus. In reality, we are not dealing with only our own wit and strength. We are, instead, dealing with the very author of life. Our hope should never be based on our own ability to handle life, it should be based on the reality that God never ceases to be present and we do nothing without God at our side! The prophet Isaiah identified this fact when he wrote, "The Lord of hosts has sworn: As I have designed, so shall it be; and as I have planned, so shall it come to pass" (Isaiah 14:24). Any understanding of hope will wither and simply fall away when you most need it, if you do not acknowledge that our hope is found in the Lord of hosts.
The issue is not our coming to God, it is God's coming to us. We all need to better understand that when God became one of us in Jesus Christ, God was showing all of creation the incredible depth and the love that God has for all of us, no matter who we may be. We cannot even begin to truly comprehend the power of that kind of love. It is the power of light over darkness, it is the power of knowing joy when joy seems lost, and it is the power of life over death. It is the power of hope.
When we begin to grasp what God has done for us in the incarnation, we begin to better appreciate the life over death love that God has for us all. It is through God's coming to us that God offers to us a new way of thinking and a new way of imagining our lives, present and future. If God could divinely enter life in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, why do we find it so hard to come to the point of understanding that because of God's coming in human form, we who hold that human form no longer have to fear death?
One of the best ways to discover why our hope is found in Jesus Christ is best understood when we delve into the pages of the gospel of John. Verses 1-18 of this wonderful gospel offer us linguistic images that open up new possibilities in our journey of faith. Indeed, it is within the pages of John's gospel that we begin to see the profound impact that these words hold for us. Those words, so eloquently penned by John, can shape our entire outlook on life. Our own sense of what it means to be a Christian can be greatly enhanced by these wonderful words of life. One of the most compelling reasons is that John, unlike the other gospel writers, tells us that the power of God's love preexisted all of life as we know it. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Wow, that should get your attention.
John is saying that all of that power that preexisted is available to all of us! It is saying that this wonderful power has been made attainable for us in the person of Jesus Christ. Just think about that for a moment. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). "He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home and his own people received him not" (John 1:10-11). Further, regardless of the fact that his own neighbors rejected him, the power of eternal love prevailed and always will throughout all of time. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:5).
Hope does not rely on our feeble attempts to validate what it is. The power of light over darkness stands at the heart of hope. We have a hope-filled future because God took us and shaped us and loved us enough to change us into the hopeful people we were created to be.
As a pastor, I try to remind myself daily that hope is a power that is real and available to me. When circumstances seem to suggest that someone or some plan has fallen upon difficult times and it seems as if all hope is lost, I slow down and try to tap into the light of hope. I remind myself that I can never be invulnerable to the things that plague us all, most of the time. Pain and tragedy are a part of life, but so is the reality of God. I will still be vulnerable to pain; but I will not be beaten back into a weakened state. I will not feel defeated because my hope is not confined only to my present situation, my hope is more dynamic than some frail definition I may come up with.
When you look at this hope, this divine promise, you begin to see that even Jesus was brought face-to-face with the reality of hopelessness. As a man, Jesus could be and was humiliated, tortured, and finally executed like a common criminal. But as a child of God, he was invincible, he was quite literally above it all, by the power of God. Therefore, any true understanding of the life and ministry of Jesus himself must start with the power of a loving God that was made perfect in weakness! We may call it hopelessness in our world today, but there can be hope even in the midst of pain. It is always difficult to find it when we are hurting, but it is there and that is the promise God has given us in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The gospel of John presents to us a remarkable view of our Savior. It is a view that is unique when compared with the synoptic gospels. It is a view that tells us that God took time to come into our world and that God pitched a tent and lived with us in all facets of our lives. It is through this selfless act that we begin to grasp that in this act of giving, God showed us that God is available to us in the ordinary living of our lives. God made Jesus present to us as a matter of free will. Nothing has been forced upon us. We did nothing to entice God to do what was done. God saw our inability to deal with life in a constructive way and God freely chose to come and share our life.
Time and time again we need to remind ourselves that God came to us, we did nothing to force God to come and be with us. Isn't it true that when someone volunteers to be part of something, that act of volunteering makes that person an energetic participant because no force was leveled against that person to make them become part of whatever it is we are doing? That voluntary act of giving of oneself makes everything else pale in significance. God came to us in Jesus, knowing full well that that act of coming would bring with it times of pain and struggle. That is why Jesus stuck around when the going got rough. It was his idea to be with us in the first place! I would suggest that Jesus' presence and power was increased simply by his act of voluntarily giving of himself on our behalf.
I think it is fair to say that there is a discernible difference between caring for somebody because it is our job and caring for someone because we know in our hearts that caring is exactly what God would have us do. Most people instinctively know the difference. Walk into any nursing home or hospital and you will be able to discern without much trouble who is caring from the heart and who is caring because of the money. You can be sure that the residents and patients know who is doing what and why.
Our hope can also be found in the fact that God comes into our lives without strings attached. It is sometimes said that everything in life has some precondition to it, but not with God. Some people do project that God should insist on some minimal requirements, but that is not the biblical picture with which we are presented. Indeed, it is the fact that we have to lose our preconditions for God's love that is the most hopeful ingredient in God's coming. It matters not who or where you are from; it matters not from whom or from where your money comes; it matters not how, where, or from whom your religion comes; that is why hope is so very real!
If, as John writes in his gospel, "the Word was with God, and the Word was God," there were no strings attached. God had nothing to gain by coming into our lives and putting up with the pain of our lives. God had nothing to gain by being humiliated and having to endure the indignities that are so human. And that is all the more remarkable and all the more hopeful for all of us, because it is we, after all, who bring the humility upon God! Once again, God shows the power of his love in life, and even in death, through example.
I don't believe that we could ever find a better foundation on which to build our hope. Just think how lucky we are. Think about the two most visible reasons for us to find hope in God's activity in Christ. God's love and God's power have been given visible forms in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. These extraordinary powers, love and power itself, are given clarity for anyone who will pay attention. In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we are granted eternal sight into the life of hope.
Let me raise a possible problem with all of this. The problem is that although God never stops loving us and never stops offering hope to us, we are not so inclined. We are much more likely to forsake God than God is to forsake us! We are much more likely to deny God's love and power than God is to give it. For reasons that seem to reach back into history, we have the sad tendency to be hopeless even in the face of all that God has and continues to do for us. The main reason seems to be that we, frail as we are, are still fragile, self-centered humans, looking for something we cannot even define. We want the world handed to us on a silver platter and we experience a loss of hope when we don't get what we want fast enough. The sad truth is that, when faced with a problem, the first place we turn is not to God, it is usually to the world around us. We will turn to new age gurus whose books fill the shelves of our local bookstores. We will turn to drugs and alcohol before we turn to God. It is not that we don't know any better, we do! But, our human weakness is to try to find the quickest fix, and when that fails, we turn to God, or worse yet, we begin to blame God for whatever it is that is ailing us.
Sin has been defined by some as a turning away from God and a turning instead to yourself. We begin to blame God for the things that we cannot control. The problem arises when, in our search for hope, we refuse to accept God's free gifts and instead decide that we can, in and of ourselves, solve the problems that are taking a toll upon our lives. The sad reality is that as long as we are dependent on our own power, we are running headlong into our own day of hopeless despair. No matter how many academic degrees we hang on our walls, no matter how much money we have in the bank, it is impossible for us to live without sinning. That being the case, our only hope is in a strength far beyond ourselves. Hope and sin may seem very strange companions, but they are not. The apostle Paul reminds us, "For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate" (Romans 7:15). It is because of this fact, so clearly articulated by Paul, that we can better understand that living life without making mistakes is not possible. Therefore, hope is to be found outside of our own feeble attempts to live believing we can fix anything, anytime, without God's presence.
Questions For Your Consideration
1. How does the advertising world communicate to us that we are able to do whatever we want whenever we want?
2. The reading from Isaiah tells us that God has our lives all planned. Do you believe this?
3. How do you see God coming into your life each day? Why do you not feel God in your life each day?
4. Turn to chapter 1 of John in your Bibles. Read verses 1-18 and explain how they help you know that hope is real.
5. Why do you think God saw a need to come into your life in the first place?
6. What strings do you think are attached to your life when you rely only upon yourself to live life?
7. Power and love are attributes that most people want to have in their lives. How are these powers manifest in Jesus' coming into the world?
8. How does hope find life within the constraints of family, work, and your own personal "baggage," whatever it may be?
9. What do you think Paul was talking about in Romans 7:15?
10. What does it mean to you to know that Jesus was present when the world was created? How does that help or hinder your feelings of hope?
