From the Crucible (by Pastor Linda Pugsley

“Wish in one hand and spit in the other”…a crude way of saying wishing doesn’t deliver a physical result…only doing something will. How very true that is. Action that is more concrete than just wishing or hoping for a result is required.

But when God talks about “hope”, He’s not talking about “wishing”. The hope God is talking about is more concrete than the cement beneath your feet. When God says “hope”, the original meaning in the Greek is more correctly translated as, “happy expectation of good”. Not fluffy, delusional, dream world type happy; rather a solid knowing that because God cannot lie, we have His hope of life eternal with Him as an anchor of our soul. The knowing, not just the wishing or hoping, that you can enter into His inner sanctuary with Him, both here in this world and in His world is your solid foundation (Hebrews 6:18-19).

This hope of which the Lord speaks is like the safety rope used by those who work the bridges and high rises. The person has confidence to be in a dangerous and precarious position, high above the solid ground because his confidence is in knowing the rope will save him from devastation.

Such it is with hope in God. The road you are on with Him is a road He has designed to lead you to Him and His heavenly kingdom. Hope, like the rope, allows you to more assuredly continue on the journey, through both the rough and the smooth times. Having the “hope rope” helps you to concentrate more on the work at hand and less on the surrounding dangers and possible calamity.

In having this kind of solid, viable hope, you walk not wishing but knowing the glory and achievability of the end point of being with God. “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” (Romans 12:12). “Hope” you take it to heart! Endure the fire...it's producing pure gold!

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