Pregnant with Hope

A favorite verse huh?  

What if I can’t pick one?  

I mean seriously, there are verses that speak to me at different times for different reasons.  My favorite verse(s) are sort of like those topical verse things – when you are ________ read ___________. 

When I am really feeling low, I like “Jesus wept.”  Jesus allowed Himself to experience His humanity by weeping.  He struggled with Himself and with His Father in the Garden.  He expressed His anguish on the cross with “why have You forsaken Me?  If Jesus, our example can be real and vulnerable, I can too.

When I am struggling with the future, I like “He who began a good work in you shall complete it.”  If you read my Sounds of Hope blog, you know I get bummed and frustrated and have all sorts of angst about my future.  This verse reminds me that it’s not over until it is over.

I could go on and on with this – sometimes the verse “The gift makes room for itself” gives me a jolt of hope.  Or other times, I ponder at length what does deep calls to deep mean – I’ve had people pray it over me so many times that it sort of echoes in my brain.  Last week, I think I discovered one of the things it means – someone said that my Sounds of Hope blog reaches into her soul and I say exactly what she feels. 

But if I were to pick one verse today, it would be Romans 8:24: For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?

Listen to how Eugene Peterson translates this in The Message:That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us.

I'm pregnant with dreams and desires for effective ministry. When God first laid on my heart to start The Age of Hope Ministries many years ago, He gave me that middle phrase – but hope that is seen is no hope at all.  If you’ve ever hit a place where you hope is gone, you know it is more devastating than most anything else we can experience.  

We need hope to keep going.  But when we see it, it’s not hope.  Waiting is very hard for me and I’ve been waiting for a lot of things a very, very, very long time.  But in the waiting, I hold on to the unseen hope.