God With Us Brings Hope

Hope is often the only thing that keeps us afloat.

[IMAGE] John Aldridge sees green rubber work boots when he thinks of hope.

Have you ever heard those stories about someone lost at sea? In the summer of 2017, two longtime commercial fishermen—John Aldridge and Anthony Sosinski—set out to fish from Montauk, Long Island. As they headed out to sea, about forty miles offshore, Anthony was sleeping below deck while John started to get things ready for the catch they would soon begin to haul in. He was pulling on a handle with all his might when it snapped, sending him sprawling backward—and right off the back of the boat.

The boat was on autopilot, so it just kept cruising. As soon as he resurfaced from under the water, John began screaming for help.

Can you imagine what that must have felt like? If there’s ever been a hopeless situation, that has got to be it.

While John was trying to calm down, quiet his thoughts of certain death, and stay afloat, he realized that his boots were very buoyant. And he got an idea. He took one off, emptied it out, and plunged it back into the water so that it created an air pocket. It did. And it floated. So John stuck his boots under his arms as flotation devices.

At least he could stay afloat. A flicker of hope.

Four hours later, Anthony woke up and realized John was gone. He called the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard began its search procedures, even though the Coast Guard commander admitted he didn’t have much hope of finding John in so much open water.

On the boat, Anthony found the broken handle and knew what John must have been doing when he went overboard—which also meant he knew the ocean depth of where he would have been doing it.

John made it alive to morning and tried to keep his hope alive. But the hours kept passing, and there was no sign of help. Finally he spotted a fishing buoy and was able reach it and climb onto it. This was a new surge of hope.

In less than an hour a Coast Guard helicopter flew nearby and spotted John waving and splashing. They pulled him up to safety. “We’ve been looking for you for nine hours today,” the Coast Guard rescue diver told John. “Well, I’ve been looking for you for twelve,” John answered.

Miraculously, John Aldridge survived. What an amazing story! And what amazing hope! If it were most of us out there bobbing alone in the middle of the ocean, we probably would have given up hope that there was even a chance—a sliver of a chance—to survive.

But hope is like that. Hope is the whisper that maybe, maybe these boots will float if I turn them upside down.

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What is hope in your life?

For some, hope is the first candle to be lit when the power goes out in the storm.

Hope is the first day you wake up and can breathe again after an awful cold.

And hope is that percentage you do have of beating the cancer.

Hope is the faint line on that stick when you’ve been struggling to get pregnant.

It’s the first ray of sunshine through your window after a tearful, difficult night.

Hope is the first soldier to land on the beach.

Hope is hearing the words, “He’s going to be OK.”

Hope is the flicker of maybe, just maybe.

Hope is the fuel of faith and dreams.

And hope is what we celebrate on this first Sunday of Advent.

Entering Advent

Advent is actually a season of hope. The word advent means “coming” or “arrival,” and the season is marked by expectation, waiting, anticipation, and longing.

Advent is not just an extension of Christmas—it is a season that links the past, present, and future.

Advent offers us the opportunity to share in the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah, to celebrate His birth, and to be alert for His second coming. During Advent we wait for both—it’s an active, assured, and hopeful waiting.

During Advent we have an opportunity to set aside time to prepare our hearts and help us place our focus on a far greater story than our own—the story of God’s redeeming love for our world.

It is a season of expectation and preparation, an opportunity to align ourselves with God’s presence more than just the hectic season of presents.

Rather, simply, Advent is a celebration that God comes. God comes to be with us. He is the God with Us. In the darkness, in the pain, in the chaos, He comes. And He makes a way.

The Long Journey of Hope

That’s the way God has been working throughout history. You see, back in the beginning, in the way God intended this creation, He walked freely and openly with Adam and Eve. He was with us, and humanity enjoyed wholeness and intimacy with God.

But you know the story. Adam and Eve chose sin. Separation divided God and humans. The brokenness of our world that we know far too well is the ongoing result.

But do you realize that ever since, God has been working toward restoration and healing and wholeness for us and all He has made? This is the overall story of the Bible. Throughout it, we can see God making a way and reminding His people that He is still at work.

We see it in God’s covenant with Abraham, then called Abram:

Genesis 12:3 NLT

3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”

When God encountered Jacob at Bethel, He renewed that covenant and reinforced the hope rooted in His faithfulness: “I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you”

Genesis 28:15 NLT

15 What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”

But much time passed, years and generations and centuries, and we humans are an impatient breed. “How long, O God?” was the cry of the ancient Israelite people.

But through it all, there was a deep and ongoing longing for God to fulfill His covenant and His promise of a Messiah, who would come to make everything right.

The prophet Isaiah is the poster prophet for Advent, this season of longing, expecting, and hoping for God to be with us. Through Isaiah, God gave Israel and us many prophecies and promises about the Messiah He would send. And in that way, Isaiah was a voice of hope.

Isaiah lived seven hundred years before Jesus, but he gave us beautiful words that ring with hope for the coming Messiah. Listen to some of these:

Isaiah 7:14 NLT

14 All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).

and

Isaiah 9:2 NLT

2  The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine.

A little later in the same chapter, Isaiah wrote:

Isaiah 9:6–7 NLT

6 For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!

Can you imagine living in an ancient world, well before the time of digital or even much written information, and hearing a message like that? Can you imagine the hope that would spring in the people’s hearts?

As we turn our attention to the Christmas narrative in Luke, Zechariah would have been well acquainted with the words and prophecies of Isaiah. He was a priest.

But Zechariah was still in shock when suddenly, out of the blue, on an ordinary day when he was going about his priestly duties, God dropped a megadose of hope into Zechariah’s world for the people of Israel.

It’s been four hundred years since Israel has had a clear prophetic voice and message from God. Four hundred years!

So when an angel showed up and told Zechariah that he would have a son who “will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17), Zechariah knew the significance. He knew the prophecies of the Messiah. And he also knew that this was a miraculous occurrence all the way around.

Can you imagine the hope that sprang up within this couple and the people around them when they heard this news?

The old prophecies are about to be fulfilled! The one prophesied to come in the spirit of Elijah to prepare the way for the Messiah is coming!

God is moving to restore hope that He is still here—that the human expression of God with Us is still coming. That God is about to stir things up and change eternity forever!

Hope in Israel was alive again! Hope on earth at its deepest levels was alive again!

Maybe some of you are thinking,

That’s all nice and great for those people thousands of years ago, but what about for us? What about for me?

They weren’t fighting cancer.

Their spouse wasn’t killed fighting in a war on the other side of the world—or didn’t walk out on them.

They didn’t lose their job with no warning, with bills to pay and debts stacking up and kids expecting Christmas presents, not to mention meals on the table.

No matter what kind of problems and struggles you are facing right now, no matter what kind of season of darkness and pain you are in, let me encourage you not to abandon hope. Hope is still alive, even in our deepest pain and most hopeless circumstances. Hope is alive because God is with us.

How can we know? How can we find that tiny spark of hope when we’re on the verge of giving up?

I think there are several ways that all of us can kindle and reconnect with God’s hope during this Advent season, no matter what kind of circumstances we are facing.

Hope Based on God’s Word

The first is hope based on God’s Word.

Part of “God with Us” is the written word that He has left us. These are His promises to His people—both long ago and today.

They are a piece of Him.

They are beacons of hope, reminders that can penetrate our hearts and spirits and assure us that no matter what we are facing, no matter how bleak tomorrow looks, no matter how bad the pain, God will never leave us or forsake us. And nothing can separate us from Him.

Consider these words:

Psalm 139:7–12 NLT

7 I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! 8 If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. 9 If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, 10 even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. 11 I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— 12 but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.

Can you feel the hope in those words? You are not alone.

God with Us means that He always will be with us, and nothing—nothing—can take that away.

Scripture is filled with stories and words and promises that can rekindle a supernatural hope within us. As we move through Advent, let me encourage you to dig into the words of the Bible expectantly.

Because God is with us, we can take hope that we are never alone, that He is always working in and among us, and that He is not done yet with His greatest and final work of healing.

Along with His words, we trust in God’s character.

Hope Based on God’s Character

The second way we can rekindle hope is to put our focus on God’s character—on who He is and promises to be.

Mark 5:25–34 NLT

25 A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. 26 She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. 28 For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition. 30 Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?” 31 His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” 32 But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”

This is our God. This is His character. Jesus is worthy. He was and still is God with Us.

He fulfilled Israel’s hope for the Messiah when He arrived that first Christmas.

He fulfilled humanity’s hopes for victory over death when He resurrected that first Easter.

And one day He will ultimately fulfill all hope and complete God’s work of restoration for all creation.

This is the promise He left us with to give us a foundation of confidence and boldness: “I am with you always, to the very end of the age” This is a promise worthy to fuel our hope.

Because God is true to His character, because of who He is, we can take hope in Him.

Hope Based on God’s Faithfulness

The third way we can find and choose hope is by focusing on God’s faithfulness.

How has God worked in your life?

What are those moments and memories when you have experienced God’s work in your life?

You know those times when you had no doubt He was there and He was working. Maybe it’s been recently. Maybe it’s been a long time ago. But in those circumstances swirling around you, the presence of God’s Spirit was with you.

What does that have to do with hope? What do those memories have to do with your here and now?

Gratitude breeds hope.

Thankfulness fosters hope.

Acknowledgment and appreciation bring hope.

Listen to these words from Jeremiah found in Lamentations, a book most of us may not spend too much time reading:

Lamentations 3:21–24 NLT

21 Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: 22 The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. 23 Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”

Did you catch that at the beginning? “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope.” Jeremiah understood that there is hope in the future when we remember what God has done in the past.

He knew that hope sparks like a fire.

It flows like water.

It grows like a seed.

Hope grows and spreads like a living thing.

It can dwindle and wane and, yes, even die. But with nurture and care, it can revive and flourish and multiply.

Focusing on gratitude can renew and grow our hope. Recognizing and appreciating the good that God has shown us in the past can increase our hope for all He will do in the future. Sharing this gratitude and hope with those who love and support us can multiply its effects. As we nurture this living hope, it can sustain us through our darkest days as we wait for God to move.

Benediction

Romans 15:13 NLT

13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.