If faith be impotent it’s because hope is dead and if hope
be dead then peoples, persons and nations shall descend into the dark abyss of
despair and slide eventually into extinction.
The scriptures declare unequivocally that faith is the
substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen. Clearly seen
here is a correlation that cannot be ignored: being that faith is of hope and
hope births faith. The viability of faith then lies in the existence of hope;
if there is no hope then faith cannot come into existence because hope of a
necessity precedes the advent of faith. We understand therefore that the
impotence of faith might point to the conspicuous absence of hope.
Most Christians, I presume,
understand the importance of faith. Did not the scriptures say that without
faith it is impossible to please God? Yea, truly we see that through faith men subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness,
obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant
in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens and women received their
dead raised to life again. If that then be so, and hope must need
precede faith, then I say there is more to hope than meets the eye.
So what then is hope?
The Greek word translated hope denotes expectation and anticipation. Expectation
denotes a thing desired but yet to be experienced. This means that that which
is seen [experienced] is no more hope, for a man does not still hope for that
which is already experienced. The key thing about hope is clearly its character
of immateriality. I cannot see, touch or smell your hope or expectation. Consequently
faith then is the substance of an expectation and the evidence of that which is
immaterial.
Our God, declares the
scripture is a God of hope [Romans 5:15]. Put another way, he is a God of
expectations or a God of the immaterial. By immateriality I speak not about a
lack of substance but rather the absence of a three dimensional reality
relating to what occupies space and has weight. I make this distinction because
contrary to human understanding and definition, the immaterial is not without
substance. A lack of hope is therefore not necessarily projected by the
deterioration of circumstances in the realm of time and space.
Taken a step further, we
know that the things which are seen are made from the things which are
invisible [Hebrews 11:3]. If this be true and it is, it therefore suggest that
the only things that cannot be created or brought into the reality of time and
space is that which has not first of all existed in the realm of the
immaterial; hence, it can be called a hopeless situation.
This gives light to the life
of Abraham in scriptures according to the book of Genesis. We read that God
promised him a son while he was about seventy five years of age. However,
Abraham went several years without the fulfilment of this promise to which his
reaction was to lend God a hand in the fulfilment of this promise; enters
Ishmael. This is a proof that in all these years Abraham did not hold on to the
hope of this promise till God appeared to him again at the age of a century
save one. After this encounter the bible states categorically that Abraham held
on to the hope of God’s promise to him regardless of external circumstances
[Romans 4: 18-20]
Therefore, it can be
rightly concluded that hope is the track upon which the train of faith speeds
towards its mark.
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