(English) In God I Place My Hope

Some days ago I went to see the movie “The Nativity Story” (directed by Catherine Hardwicke, 2006), and something that impressed me a great deal was that the whole story moves around the hope that is based on the Word of God. When the angel speaks to Mary, Mary believed in the word of God and based her hope on it. When the angel spoke to Joseph, he believed and had hope, based on the Word of God. The Magi hoped for the prophecy of the Messiah’s arrival to be fulfilled, and acted according to that hope.

Hope based on the Word of God was in action all through the story, and it is fitting to point out that hope is actually hope because it believes in goodness.
In Greek the word hope (elpizo), strengthens the character of those who have hope more than the action itself. A main characteristic of those who wait is their having hope, which shows what kind of people they are.

Hope has to do with what cannot be seen now, what is to come in the future. By “hope” we understand:
(a) the joyful waiting for the good
b) the basis hope stands on
c) the object on which hope focuses

The kingdom of Hezekiah
(2 Kings 18: 1-7 NIV)
In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother's name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan. ) Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the LORD and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses. And the LORD was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.

And how many times we are just like Hezekiah, full of passion and love for God, wanting to desperately do His will. Here we have an example of this:

I want

I want your Holy Spirit in me to flow.
I want to give it up to you Lord, I want to let it go.
What ever it is that stands in the way,
What ever it is that could lead me astray.
I want to surrender at your feet,
As Satan looks on in defeat.
I want you to strip me of my attachments.
For they are the stumbling blocks,
That hinder our talks.
I want to remain in your presence.
I want it to permeate all of my essence.
I want to be lead only by your hand.
I want by your promise only to stand.
I want to honor your word Lord.
I want it to be my guiding light.
I want this to be so with all of my might.
--Ana Cecilia Petersen
Dec-6-2006.

Hezekiah rebelled against the Assyrian King and would not serve him. He fought and damaged the Philistine forces as far as Gaza and its territory, from the watchtowers to the fortress city.
King Hezekiah, wanting to be free from the Assyrian yoke, inherited from his father, decided to make an alliance with the Babylonians, who also rebelled against the Assyrians, although the prophet Isaiah commanded him not to do that.

Very quickly, the Assyrian king quenched the rebellion and King Hezekiah was left alone, under siege in Judah, caged as a bird.

How many times we also look for our own human solutions to the problems, and we attempt to help the Holy Spirit, just a little! And we get ourselves caught up in a “thinking party”, as this poem says:

Adoration

Good morning Lord, bless me today and every day of my life.
To be with you, does not mean, to be without strife.
Yet, I can remain faithful to you and pray.
I can remain calm, and in your presence stay.
Allow me Lord, under the wing of your protection,
To wallow in your affection.
Keep me Lord, under the watchful eye of your angels, I pray.
Don’t let me in any way stray.
Over- thinking leads to despair.
Remind me Lord that it’s an error.

I refuse to have a thinking party today.
Allow me, from this conviction not to sway.
Thinking, thinking, thinking…
Thinking myself all the way to fear and apprehension.
Today Lord, instead of thinking, I will give you adoration.

Ana Cecilia Petersen
Dec-5-2006

Hezekiah had to go in front of the presence of God and acknowledge his sin in front of Him, and asked Him for His protection. And God protected him. We will also be protected by Him and we may then say:

A New Tomorrow

Prepare for Eternity
Armed with Serenity
Cleanse from Iniquity
Fill with Humility

I bow my head and place it in your lap.
Wipe the tears, from my eyes.

Replace with joy, all my sorrow,
And give me hope, for a New tomorrow.

Ana Cecilia Petersen
Dec-5-2006

So, don’t be discouraged if you cannot understand what God is doing. For example:

There’s a story about a man who everyday spoke with God, and one day The Lord told him:
“I want you to push on that stone over there”
“But Lord, it is too big!”
“I just want you to push on it every day” –said The Lord.

The man, not very convinced, got up every day and pushed on the stone, trying to shift its position. This went on for several days, until the man, fed up with the task and discouraged, went to God and told Him:
“Lord, I am sick of this. This is nonsense. I have been pushing on that horrible stone every day, for several weeks, and the stone has not moved an inch. I am tired, I don’t see any sense to this, the stone won’t move!”

The Lord answered:
“What did I ask you to do?”
“To push on the stone!” , the man said.
“That’s right”, said The Lord, “ I didn’t ask you to move it. Now see your arms and your legs, how strong they have become; and see what determination you have obtained, you haven’t wasted your time. You have become stronger!”

If you are afraid of the future, put your trust in God. He always does incredible things to protect us.

There is another story:
It is said that a man was escaping from some evildoers, and looked for shelter in a mountain. God told him to hide in a cave. The man, mistrustful and fearful, hid there thinking the evildoers would trap him easily.
And the day was not over yet when he saw a great deal of spiders weaving their webs at the entrance of the cave. He thought he would kill the spiders, but the fear of being seen stopped him and he let them weave their spider webs. After some days, he heard the evildoers outside the cave, and, shaking from fear, he heard the men talk:
“Look, there is a cave there!”
Another voice, approaching the cave, answered:
“Don’t waste your time, look how many spider webs there are. It’s obvious nobody has come in here”

Don’t be afraid of the future, of the difficult decisions you have to take, of the problems that you are living through. God will do something. He will act if you request His help.

CONCLUSION

What do you need? Do you need God to provide for your need? We have Jehovah-Jire. Do you need somebody to defend you? We have Jehovah-Nissi, Do you need peace? We have Jehovah –Shalom. Do you need justice? We have Jehová-Tsidkenu. Do you need to feel the presence of God? We have Jehovah-Shammah; and as if that wasn’t enough, we have Jesus, in whom all the virtues of God are gathered. In Him you have the source of hope. Let us come to Him today.