Biblical Reasons to Have Hope from Isaiah

Is your heart hungry for hope? I have good news for you, friend: there are three great Biblical reasons to have hope. When we recall and meditate on these profound truths, our hearts get oxygen to breathe again and cultivate a joyful expectation.

One of the great tests of 2020, and this test continues, is the testing of hope. When our life collapses, when the entire world is turned upside down and our normalcy is profoundly altered, where is our hope? What do we hope for?

The things we hope for are the things we expect that fuel and nourish our souls, strengthening them for the journey ahead. When there is a lack of fuel for hope, how are we supposed to live?

Three Biblical Reasons to Have Hope

Faith without hope is not enough. We need to add the assurance of a future good coming to us, so we have the strength to endure the present sufferings and trials.

God spoke comfort through the prophet Isaiah back then to the Jewish people, and He speaks to us nowadays, breathing fresh hope when life unravels.

We can identify three Biblical reasons to have hope in God’s comforting message, starting with Isaiah chapter 40, right through the last chapter. Every reason is tied up to one of the three different levels of hope:

• The hopes for our earthly life and life circumstances;
• The deeper hopes for our spiritual well-being and soul wholeness;
• The deepest hopes and longings for heaven on earth.

For each of these hopes, God provides a reason, a promise, and an answer, a solid truth on which we can lean on and build our hopes.

Provision for Our Needs in This Life

The first reason is the truth that God always provides for our immediate needs as the Psalmist declares, “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” (Psalm 23:1)

In the book of Isaiah, this provision for the immediate problem, giving hope for the near future, is the prophecy of Cyrus, who will liberate the Jewish people from the Babylonians. He will allow the Jews to come back to Jerusalem and start the long and difficult restoration work. And truly, all these prophecies come to fulfillment, as described in Ezra 1:1-4.

This is a great encouragement, but what about when God’s provision is not what we expected?

Even when our lives don’t turn out as we want and expect, we still have God’s promise to meet our deeper hopes and longings. What happened to us is not God’s defeat. God has planned something new, and His plan is greater than everything we have seen before.

Provision for Our Spiritual Well-being and Wholeness

We all have this deep yearning in our hearts to be whole, free, and peaceful. Our broken hearts long for holiness and wholeness. We can survive the disappointment of more superficial hopes easier when connected with favorable life circumstances.

But how can we survive when our deeper, truest hopes for this life are dashed?

In Isaiah chapter 53, we meet the Suffering Servant who will save the world through His suffering. Christ’s death and resurrection have fulfilled this prophecy.

In Christ, God provides the ultimate solution to our spiritual problem. In Him, we have constant provision for our souls and spirit. Through Him, we are spiritually restored and have constant access to the Throne of Grace. He is the good Shepherd and nothing can snatch us from His hand.

God’s Ultimate Provision for Our Deepest Hopes

The believer’s life on earth is not easy. We will be tempted, tested, and will experience suffering and losses. In such a time of deep suffering, we need a hope that doesn’t shake, and that is not tethered by visible, shaky things. We need the assurance that our deepest longings will be met.

“Our hearts cry to God with the psalmist, “Take my side as you promised; I’ll live then for sure. Don’t disappoint all my grand hopes.” (Psalm 119:116 The Message)

No, God will not disappoint our grand hopes: the hopes for the redemption of our bodies and heaven on earth, the hopes for our eternal future. It is safe for us to anchor our greatest hope to God’s irrevocable promise of the renewal of all things, the grand restoration, new heaven, and new earth. (Isaiah 65:17-25), (Revelation 21), (Matthew 19:28-30).

We Have All Reasons to Hope

We have all reasons to hope, because of God’s rock-solid promises, guaranteed by His faithfulness to support and sustain all these three levels of hope in us.

As hope-receivers we can also become hope-bringers. We can become good-news bringers, shouting from the mountain tops (our various platforms and places of influence) that the Lord is coming and “his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.” (Isaiah 40:10 NIV)

Your Turn

Which of your hopes have been dashed? Which of these three reasons to have hope spoke mostly to you?

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This article was first posted on OnTheWayBG.com.