Hopeful Living

Hopeful Living

Job 14:7 - 'For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.'

Hope is a wonderful thing to have inside of you. The hope that things will be okay even though they look terrible. The hope that your money will add up sooner or later. The hope that your body will be healed. The hope that your life will take a turn for the better after the trial and tribulations that you are facing are turned around. The hope that your marriage will be restored. The hope that your children will get past their rebellious stages.

Hope is good to have. But hope is not enough if it is only inside of you. There has to be an outward hope applied to your situation. You must speak your hope and live according to your hope so that your hope will produce! Faith is the substance of things "hoped for"! That means that you must have substance with your hope. In other words, your hope must have something more to it than just a gut feeling or wishful thinking. There has to be wishful speaking and wishful living involved.



Job is saying in this passage that if the tree is cut down, then hope can be applied! In other words, if the tree is still standing, there is no hope for the tree needed. You can stand around wondering whether or not it will grow again. You can write books about it growing again. You can tell everyone you know that it will grow again. But until it is cut, there is no hope needed! Until it is cut down, your hope has no substance. The same with your daily walk with the Lord. You have to walk in the hope that things will get better. They had to get bad for you to exercise your hope.

Your hope is only tried when things go wrong. And your hope must be tried so that it can be strengthened, and your hope in the invisible God of heaven and his righteous return will be solid. When God brings you out of all this you are going through, your hope will have produced what could not be seen.

In other words, your hope, when it's tested, will produce what it did not have. So, keep your hope in your words and your actions, not just inside of you. Don't just know it, but speak it and act on it. You will survive and live past this test and your hope will be fulfilled.

God richly bless you.

Shalom!

Suggested Reading: Psa. 16:9, Psa. 39:7, Rom. 8:25, Rom. 12:12