Hope Restored

Faith and Hope are very closely aligned to one another, because when the oil of faith is still flowing the flame of Hope will be still burning brightly.

Without faith, the flame of Hope can be diminished. As we move towards Christmas in the period of Advent, we are reminded of how God has worked through the ages so that Jesus, the salvation and hope for the world, would be born. God has worked through ordinary men and women and the tiniest and most unlikeliness of nations, Israel, for the Saviour of the world to come from.

Some of the men and women of God’s story were known as prophets, people who spoke for God, foretold of the great coming of Jesus the Messiah and accomplished the work of God in their time. They were people with great faith who did incredible things far beyond their natural ability, far beyond the norm of human endurance and held onto faith and hope in the
most difficult of circumstances. In our bible reading this week, we are told “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance”. They continued faithfully full of hope even though they never saw what God had promised.

It’s easy to look at these people as superheroes, exceptionally talented or gifted, but the truth is they were just ordinary people just like you and me who had their flaws, their moments of doubt, episodes in life they probably wish that were never recorded, but because of their faith in God and his sustaining strength, they continued to fulfil their part of God’s great story of salvation.

One of these people was called Elijah and had moments when his faith and hope burned brightly for great change in his time, he saw God work miracles in answer to his prayers, and finally in great faith challenged the ruling powers of the day to a contest to show the people that their faith in idols was false. God answered Elijah’s prayers in great power. But in the
next part of his story, we find him feeling defeated, depressed and ready to die, his faith and hope on a definite low. But yet, God came alongside him, refreshed him, spoke to him and restored his Hope.

We have much to learn from these examples as we press on our journey of life following Jesus.