Put Your Hope in God
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (Psalm 43:5)
The need in every age is for people to trust in God, and to live each minute in that trust. In the Greek grammar of the New Testament there was the ability to express a continuous action — one that is past, present, and future rolled into one. Paul used this tense often, such as when he wrote, “For to me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21), and it could be translated “to be living is Christ.”
Our faith in Him must rise above the thought that we, upon a different time and at a different place, once had faith in Christ. That must have been true if we have become believers that at some point in time we believed, but our faith must be more than just something that looks back upon the past in memory. Our faith must also rise above the thought that the time may come again in which we spontaneously believe in the future. That is also true that God sends to His children “seasons of refreshing” (Acts 3:19) from time to time. We need never fear that God will completely forsake us and that we will never hear His voice or feel His Spirit move within us. We will for He promises us to be with us, to revive us, and to encourage us.
But we are not to live in these realm of these two extremes — the ancient past in our lives or the mere possibilities of the future. Neither of these truly exist — they are both figments of our imaginations at this time. We must live in the faith that is present tense. Every Christian should make this a discipline of his mind — it is the only way to live victoriously — to constantly exercise faith whether he feels like it or not. This is what the psalmist expressed, and what God calls us to — to hope in God each day, and each minute of each day, constantly.
We must also live above our surroundings, and not feel defeated simply because some difficult matters are before us. We will usually find in life that difficult matters of some sort are always before us — some heavier than others. But even there we must learn the discipline of hoping in God, of not being overwhelmed by the frustrations, failures, and defeats of life.
The shallow nature lives in its impulses, its impressions, its intuitions, its instincts, and very largely its surroundings. The profound character looks beyond all these, and moves steadily on, sailing past all storms and clouds into the clear sunshine which is always on the other side, and waiting for the afterwards which always brings the reversion of sorrow, seeming defeat and failure. (A. B. Simpson)
Where is your faith today? Is it in the past? Does it lay somewhere in some unknown future? Does it lay low in your heart waiting a change in circumstances? Let the Spirit bring it out today, now, regardless of what your feelings. Say to your own soul, “Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God!”
