Against All Hope

Against All Hope

Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping. Romans 4:18

GOD PROMISED ABRAHAM DESCENDANTS when he and his wife were already at an unreasonable age to have children. Then God waited another twenty-five years before doing anything about it. On the surface, that seems cruel. God could have fulfilled the promise right away or waited to tell Abraham about it days before the time of fulfillment, sparing him all those years of painful anticipation. But Abraham was given something to envision, plan on, hope for, and wait for—for two and a half decades. We can hardly fault him for wrestling, for the questions he asked during the process, for the ways he wondered how the promise was to be fulfilled. After all, God had not told him up front how it would happen. Why not assume other culturally appropriate ways of fulfillment? Abraham did, and he was wrong. He simply had to wait, question whether he had been faithful enough, get stretched beyond belief, and then come back to what God had said. He went through an excruciating process.

That’s quite a disorienting position, yet God puts us in it often. He gives us promises, hopes, visions, dreams, a quiet “yes” to our prayers—and then waits. Sometimes those promises take years, decades, possibly even generations to fulfill. They rarely play out right away.

You may find yourself in the awkward position of having a “yes” from God while living long seasons in an apparent “no.” You’ll have a choice to make. Are you going to reason your way out of the yes, question whether you’ve been disqualified from receiving it somewhere along the way, or simply lose heart? Or are you going to choose hope anyway? Against all hope, Abraham chose hope. When believing became difficult, he still believed. He did question, and he did have some ups and downs. But they were all part of the journey of faith. Long delays and adverse circumstances are part of that journey because that’s how God gives us eyes for eternity and conforms us to Kingdom ways. Know that, reconcile your heart with it, and then choose hope. Even against all hope, believe.

When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away your ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.