Recovery Offers Hope
One Sunday morning two travelers were walking a path about seven miles outside of Jerusalem. They were quite distressed and saddened by events that had occurred two days prior. They were suddenly joined by a third traveler who questioned their somber mood.
“You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard of all the things that have happened,” one of them replied with a hopeless tone.
In all of their misery they couldn’t convince this stranger to join in their sorrow. Instead he offered some encouraging explanations and then mysteriously disappeared. It wasn’t until he was gone that they realized who he was.
We will return to that story in a moment.
Someone once wrote that an individual can survive 40 days without food. Four days without water. Four minutes without air; but only four seconds without hope.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13
So what causes us to lose hope? That question is difficult to address in one short article, but we should start by looking at what we are losing. What exactly is hope? Several scriptures approach it from different angles. We will examine one…
For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Romans 15:4
This verse emphasizes two important aspects to obtaining “hope”…
- Endurance
- Encouragement through the scriptures
Endurance is the ability to persevere hardship. There is no simple or easy way to experience hardship. It involves pain and suffering. If we try to drink it away or wish it to be gone we have not endured. Endurance becomes possible when we accept hardships as a part of life. Jesus allowed the two travels to continue in their sorrow so they would endure.
Encouragement through the scriptures. Scriptures are essentially God’s promises. He has never failed on one yet and won’t in the future. A study of the conversation between Jesus and these travelers shows that he encouraged them with scriptures. He emphasized how all these events were predicted long ago and they simply needed to have faith. As they were listening to Jesus time seemed to pass quickly and suddenly they were at their destination. The encouragement helped them endure.
Remember that these two men were followers of Jesus. They had heard him teach and seen him perform miracles. Then they watched him die a horrible death. Imagine what they must have felt. For three years they walked with Jesus, listening to all of the encouragement of the scriptures. Then they perceived that His death was stronger than the promise. With the death of Jesus came the death of hope.
Then they walk the path outside of Jerusalem. And little do they know the very author of hope joins them. However they cannot see him. Have you ever been hopeless in the very presence of hope?
Those of us in recovery know all too well the difficulties we endure. We should never give up hope. We don’t want to be like our two sorrow-filled travelers who remained hopeless in the very presence of Jesus. While we may not see the physical being of Jesus, He is with us in the presence of the Holy Spirit. We must open our mind and our heart to … trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)