On a recent trip through West Virginia, I passed an exit for Hopeless Road. Wow! What an unfortunate name, I thought. Must be hard to sell a property on Hopeless Road. Then I got to thinking about why you would name something ‘hopeless.’
Hopeless says that you’re out of options. That things will never be different. And when we’re weary travelers on life’s highway, the turn-off for Hopeless Road comes up pretty quick. It’s a long and dangerous detour that will lead you far from where you want to be; it’s a short trip down Hopeless Road to Despair.
God can do things that don’t seem possible. He’s brought water from a rock, made time stand still, raised dead men to life. The Resurrection is God’s final and definitive answer to the question, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14) The grave was the ultimate definition of hopeless, a situation man has never been able to do anything about. And then Jesus entered into death and completely changed it forever.
If death wasn’t a problem for God, what could we possibly face that would be too hard for Him? Certainly not our circumstances, not our problems, not our brokenness or pain or even our stubbornness. It’s not possible for someone who believes in Christ, who is relying on Him, to be without hope.
Too often what we have is a hopeless hope. It’s a lot more like wishful thinking than a strong and reliable anchor (Hebrews 6:19). But that’s not really hope. God says our hope can be characterized by confidence when it’s anchored firmly in who He is. Those who pin their hopes on the character of God won’t be disappointed. They won’t find their confidence has been misplaced, because “nothing is too hard for Him” (Jeremiah 32:17). We can lean in hard on Him – He won’t give way.
The thing about hope is that it’s always tied up with waiting. Paul said, “Who hopes for what they already have?” and that’s the truth (Romans 8:24). We don’t need hope if we already possess what we want. But when the bag is empty, the diagnosis is cancer, the relationship seems beyond repair – that’s when we need hope.
If we would substitute ‘waits on’ when we encounter the word ‘hope’ in the Bible, we might get a better understanding of what it means to hope. To hope is to wait with expectation. God will keep all His promises at just the right time.
Wait and hope for and expect the Lord; be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait for and hope for and expect the Lord. Psalm 27:14 AMP
On my trip, the very next exit after passing Hopeless Road was for Victory Lane. I think we will often find that victory is just around the corner when we resist the urge to give into hopelessness and instead are content to wait for God. He is worth waiting for. He will not fail.
I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. Psalm 130:5 NIV