Aug. 5,  2007
Background Scripture: 2 Kings 25:1-2,5-7; Lamentations: 3:25-33,55-58

Devotional Reading: Psalms 23

In 1978, after the publication of my book, Rediscovering The Gift of Healing, I got a call from a television talk-show producer in New York. He was “putting together a program on spiritual healing” and he wanted me to come to New York to be taped for the show.

The interview in New York seemed to be going well until he asked if I believed the gift of healing was just for special individuals or whether everyone has it. I said that, although there are people specially endowed with it, God also gives the gift of healing to the Church and therefore to all Christians who corporately seek and employ it.

There were a few uncomfortable moments of silence before he said, “Well, uh, you wouldn’t say that on the program, would you?”
And I replied, “Yes, if I am asked.” There were a few more moments of silence until he said, “Okay, well, we’ll be in touch with you.” That was the last I ever heard from him.

In 1 Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul lists “hope,” along with “faith” and “love,” as one of the three greatest gifts of God. All of us have experienced people who seem to have this unique gift: No matter what happens, they seem never to run out of hope in God.

Yet, while some are specially gifted in hope, it is not their exclusive possession. None of us are lacking hope because God is withholding it from us. If there is a “withholding,” it is on our part.
Sorrow and mourning

The Book of Lamentations is composed of five poems occasioned by the mourning over the desolation of Jerusalem at the hands of the Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 25). The name of the book comes from the first word in the original Hebrew, which is translated into English as “Lamentations,” the act of expressing sorrow and mourning.

Yet, despite the pervasive mood of gloom that is associated with Lamentations, there is much in it that can also teach us how to receive God’s gift of hope. Just as we can learn to pray as intercessors for the healing and help of others, so we can learn to hope.

(Note: Although it is not so noticeable in English translation, each of these poems is an acrostic, a literary form of poetic composition with the first letters of successive lines appearing in sequence to form words. In early Christian times “ICTHUS,” the Greek word for “fish,” was an acrostic – the first letters of each word spelling in Greek, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.” (Acrostics also appear in some Psalms and Proverbs.))

Lamentations 3 stands as the dividing line between despair and hope. The first 20 verses continue to express distress and despair. But in verse 21, the writer acknowledges: “This I have called to mind, and therefore I have hope: the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.”

If we are to learn to hope, we can begin with this affirmation. We may memorize the words, but we also need to meditate upon them until they become more than words.
Hope and patience

Secondly, we need to learn that “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (3:25,26). Hope and patience are tied together. You can’t have one without the other.

Third,  we need to learn “the Lord will not cast off forever, but though He cause grief, He will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast love; for He does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men” (3:31-33).

We must understand that the help we receive from God will not necessarily be in the same form as that for which we asked: He may not keep us from grief, but He will always heal our grief with His compassion.

Jenkin Lloyd-Jones has written: “You cannot put a great hope into a small soul.” But I have learned, as we all can, that hope can stretch a small soul until it is great enough. Hope may be learned as well as inherited.