Easter 10 The Resurrection and the Practice of Hope

[HKHaugan]

Easter 10 Resurrection and the Practice of Hope

The Resurrection turns the world on its ear. When Jesus was resurrected it threw a monkey wrench into the machinery of the world’s standards, goals and strategies. Now there really is a demonstrable, focused image of God through whom we can decipher the unseen,--- the invisible spiritual dimension. Jesus is the visible ‘Rosetta stone’ enabling us to interpret and understand Creation and man’s place in it.

This is how Paul saw everything after He met the Lord. The way he had viewed the world was overturned. Jesus gave him an entirely different perspective. As he said in Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature…have been clearly seen, being understood, from what has been made…” Jesus brought the Father’s eternal mind, will and Spirit presenting His goals, standards and strategies to counter and replace the devil’s intrusions.

Paul was given precision in his teaching about spiritual reality. There are three lasting qualities that make up the spiritual life, faith, hope and love (1Cor.13:13). We hear a lot about faith and love but how much is centered in hope? Hope is an eternal quality since it is a quality of God. We have already looked at seven ways we can move in hope. Now we want to zero in on the way we can let hope work in us. Hope can be grounded.

Prayer is the practice that grounds hope. Hope is the spiritual foundation for prayer. It is part of the spiritual stimulus package with faith and love. Hope and faith work together to support love. Prayer is the way we lift up our hope to God. Prayer is the specifics of our hope. Prayer is offered in the atmosphere of hope, which is the Spirit of hope. “In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express (Rom.8:26).”

When we pray we are moving ourselves into a different dimension, the dimension of the Spirit where hope is. If you really think about it, when we pray we are moving not in terms of what we have but in terms of what is not yet realized. Of course, we may be thankful in prayer as we recognize what God has done. But thanking Him is a prelude to what we hope He will continue to do and what we hope He will change. When the father of a demon-possessed boy came to Jesus he asked Him, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief (Mk.9:24).” We hope He will. That which is incomplete we ask to be completed. Hope is the fertilizer for spiritual growth.

Hope gets us to look ahead. We come to Him in hope and lay out the specifics of our lives and the lives of others. We come in hope that He will forgive us, inform us, empower us, feed us, fill us, cure the ills of those we know, soften the hearts of the unbeliever, strengthen us to witness, direct the affairs of a nation and bring us understanding and comfort in a hostile and confusing world.

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf (Heb.6:19-20).”

Next, Resurrection and Prayer. Stay tuned.