Hallowed Hope

 “Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in the Lord his God” Psalms 146:5 NKJV


Naturally, hope while in a state of sickness is healing. The poor are hopeful in the prosperity of their material status; and the wrongfully oppressed or imprisoned person will embrace freedom. Unfortunately, this outcome-based hope is not usually helpful. If not even hurtful, helpless hope keeps its believers under the caprices of human manipulation and false security. While deeply meditating on the referenced helpful hope by the psalmist, it is instructive to get inspired by the hallowed hope projected in Ezra’s prayer to God for the restoration of Israel to the will of God. Israel had fallen into the sin of marriages with mixed multitudes against the will of God, and the judgement of God was looming. But after Ezra’s submission to hallowed hope in the sacred place of prayer and supplication to God, “…Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, spoke up and said to Ezra, “We have trespassed against our God, and have taken pagan wives from the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope in Israel in spite of this”” (Ezra 10:2). Little wonder why “Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven” is enshrined in the Lord’s prayer recommended for His disciples. Invariably, hallowed hope is the only helpful hope in God’s providence and submission to the fulfillment of His perfect will; hope in any other provision is hurtful and helpless.


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