Hope, Healing & Freedom Podcast : Ep 04
TRANSCRIPT
Author Hal Lindsey says, “A Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope.”
Our key verse for today is Romans 15:13, which says:
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 15:13
The english word “hope” and the biblical concept of “hope” are very different. We use the word hope to mean something desired, as in I hope it does not rain on Saturday. The biblical word for hope carries the meaning of the confident expectation of good. Hebrews 11:1 says:
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:1
This verse is not saying that faith is the substance of something that we desire or “hope” will happen. It is saying that faith is based on our confident expectation of good based on the work of Jesus in our lives.
I heard the author Jack Frost say that the Bible is a story about a Father who lost His children, and the extravagant measures He went to in order to get them back. It was this good Father who wanted us restored to relationship with Him so badly that He gave His only Son to suffer and die a cruel and painful death in our place. Jesus paid that price that we could not pay in order that we might become children of God. We now have the privilege of calling this good Father Abba, which means Daddy or Papa.
Our hope as believers is based on knowing the person and character of Jesus Christ as our personal savior. Jesus makes a way for us to have a restored relationship with a very good Father God. Everything we hope for, everything we have a confident expectation of good about in our lives comes because of Him. So when we lose hope, we have lost sight of Father God.
There is an interesting verse from Jeremiah that talks about what happens when people lose hope. Jeremiah 18:12 says:
“And they said, “That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will everyone obey the dictates of his evil heart.”
Jeremiah 18:12
When people lose hope, they turn to their own ideas and desires. When God is no longer seen as a good Father, people turn to their own plans and desires which makes the hopelessness grow stronger.
For many years I struggled with the sin of pornography. I tried and tried to stop. I repented more times than I can count. I fasted. I prayed. I put more time into Bible study being told that might help, but the struggle continued and even got worse.
Eventually I became hopeless! So what did I do? I did what this verse says. I walked according to my own plans. I sought out every “self-help” plan that I could find to stop my addiction. I read tons of Christian books on how to stop an addiction. I even got so deceived at one point that I decided for a time that since God was not helping me stop this addiction, then it must be ok with Him. Talk about obeying the dictates of an evil heart.
Through all of the study and reading that I had done I eventually learned that the best I could expect was to manage my sin. I was taught according to these books that through self-effort I could control the struggle and not give in to it. And that is what I did. At the time this was much better than giving in to the temptations. But to be honest, it really was not freedom. I had to fight every time I sat down to work on my computer not to look at pornography. Over time I began to feel so hopeless that I wanted to give up. This hopelessness told me that freedom from this struggle was not available, that this struggle was just something that I would have to live with my entire life. I was a Christian counselor at the time, by the way, and was using what I had learned to teach others how to manage their sin as well.
Then we were introduced to Restoring the Foundations. The first time I heard about the four problem areas of RTF ministry, hope rose up in me. I had for the first time in my life the confident expectation of good because I could see why I was trapped in this addiction. Then as we went through RTF ministry and we dealt with the generational sin that was passed down from my ancestors, we dealt with the lies that I had believed about this struggle and about myself, then Jesus came and healed my broken heart, and then I took my authority as a child of God and kicked out the oppressor, I experienced freedom for the very first time in my life. Freedom was no longer having to manage my struggle. Freedom was being able to sit down at my computer without even the desire to look at anything. Freedom was being able to live without the guilt and shame of living with such an awful struggle.
We lose hope when our view of God gets distorted. Many times this happens when we view God through a hurtful situation in our lives. When we get hurt, our view of life gets tainted by that hurt so we come up with conclusions that are not telling us the truth. It is not uncommon when bad things happen to have thoughts like, “God, why didn’t You stop that from happening.” Or “God, You deserted me and I had to go through that alone.” These lies and the hurt of that event begins to distort our view of God which can cause us to rely on our own plans and the dictates of our own hearts. When our view of God gets distorted, we lose hope.
Our verse for today is Romans 15:13 –
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 15:13
By dealing with the hurt and the lies these hurts cause, we can restore our view of God. Look at this verse. When the lies are broken, we will see that God is a good God. That He is the God of hope which gives us a confident expectation of good. When we know He is good, and we base our Hebrews 11:1 faith on that goodness, then our confident expectation of good causes us to be filled with joy and peace. And it gets even better. This confident expectation of good “abounds” in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes the joy and peace grow and abound. I want all of that I can get, and I’m sure you do also.
When I was going through a healing time dealing with my struggle with pornography, I saw myself in a pit named pornography and try as hard as I wanted, I could not get out of the pit. It felt like I could not get out of the pit because Jesus was not helping me. As I was explaining my hurt and frustration to Jesus, He said to me, “You are not really in a pit. You are only in that pit because you believe you are.” Instantly I was out of the pit and I realized that I was the one holding myself in the pit. I was believing the lie that my sin was so awful that Jesus would not help me. I was doubting that God really is a good Father.
Something that can help us know God as our good Father is asking Him to show us if there are any hope stealing lies that are distorting our view of Him. Ask Him if there are any wounds that are causing us to have judgments against the goodness of God. Then we can take what He shows us, whether a lie we are believing, or a hurt that is unhealed, and do some self ministry. Doing self ministry is something that is part of a lifestyle of living in Hope, Healing and Freedom.
I know this; that if the God of hope can set me free from what felt like my hopeless addiction to pronography, He can set you free from whatever you are dealing with. He is a good Father.
