In this week?��s devotional, I want to lay out two principles about hope found in Isaiah 59. Here?��s the first ?�� the doorway to hope is hopelessness. It sounds contradictory, doesn?��t it? But the only way you will ever find true hope is to give up on all those places where you?��ve put your hope before. Our default is to find hope horizontally, in the situations, locations, and relationships of everyday life. How many times have you thought, ?��If only I had ______?��? Or, ?��If only I lived _____?��? That?��s finding your hope horizontally.
You?��re not going to meet a person who will give you life. No one can give you the peace and security you?��re seeking. You?��re not going to get a job that will make life worth living. You?��re not going to own a possession that will give you the happiness that you seek. You?��re not going to have an experience that will fulfill you. It?��s all horizontal hope, and before you can find true, life-giving hope, you need to reach a point of hopelessness.
Here?��s the second principle ?�� to be reliable, hope needs to fix what is broken. Hope must address the biggest, deepest, and darkest dilemma of our life. Isaiah 59:2 tells us what is broken. ?��But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.?��
Just as horizontal hope will fail us, a horizontal diagnosis will miss what is truly broken. I like to think that my biggest problem in life exists outside me, not inside me. I want to say my problems are situational, locational, or relational. But they?��re not. My biggest problem is vertical and personal.
There is something that lurks inside me that is dark and dangerous ?�� sin. It kidnaps my thoughts, diverts my desires, and distorts my words. Only Christ can fix this problem. No horizontal hope can ever fix a vertical problem. So God promises to send His son as the vertical and ultimate solution. ?��And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression (59:2).?��
That?��s the Christmas story. The Christmas story is about hope coming. That?��s why the angels sing the glorious song that we?��ll focus on next week. That?��s why the wise men came to worship. That?��s why the shepherds were blown away. Hope had invaded the earth in the person of the Lord Jesus. Hope had come.
This Advent season, celebrate the true, life-giving source of Hope. And remember, hope is never a situation. Hope is never a location. Hope is never an ideology. Hope is a person, and his name is Jesus Christ.
- Name some situations, locations, and relationships that our culture defines as sources of hope?
- Reflect on times when you searched for hope in the wrong places. What was the outcome?
- Reflect on times when you relied on Christ as your only source of hope. What was the outcome?
- Who in your life is in need of Hope? How can you use the Advent season to share Hope with others?
God bless
Paul David Tripp
