Those who hope in the LORD


By Rev. Sarah Ruch, Pastor at Messiah Lutheran Church in Aurora

“But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.” --Isaiah 40:31(NIV)


            I have to be honest; I’ve always been uncomfortable with the word ‘hope’ when we use it to describe our faith.  We use this word all the time and it shows up all over Scripture, but I feel like perhaps we use this word differently today than when it was first written in Scripture. I’m not a Hebrew scholar, so I could be wrong, but when I think about this word I think about our everyday conversations and saying things like, “I sure hope the sun is out tomorrow!” or “I hope our farmers have an abundant harvest this year.”  When we use it in this way, ‘hope’ isn’t being used to describe something that is a certainty. Rather, it’s something that may or may not come to fruition. Maybe the sun will be out tomorrow, but maybe it won’t. Maybe the harvest will be abundant this year, but maybe it won’t.

            The idea of ‘hope’ embodies much more than we give it credit for though. When it comes to our faith, we’re not saying that we’re uncertain whether we’ll receive God’s promises.  Instead, we’re stating our expectation that these promises will be given to us today and in the days to come.  When it comes to our faith, ‘hope’ is all about what we trust in and the understanding that what we trust in will radically affect our day to day lives as well as our eternal lives with God. Could it be possible for us to hear this beautiful verse from the prophet Isaiah as, “those who place their expectation in the Lord will renew their strength”?

            There’s another important word in this verse that we need to pay attention to if we are to understand this promise fully, and it’s a word that deeply resonates with me personally. There is an ongoing struggle within me to fully trust that strength doesn’t come from within me or my own workings.  Scripture tells us this time and time again, and yet, I keep trying to build my own strength by controlling the circumstances of life, gaining a reputation for success and knowledge in my profession, being the perfect mother and wife and Pastor and daughter and friend.  I’m fairly certain I’m not the only one who feels this way.  And I’m fairly certain that you end up feeling just like I do because ultimately, I fail. I get tired, and I feel rundown, and my mood plummets. And I’m reminded, once again, that strength isn’t supposed to come from within me. I’m not the one who holds power in this life. Instead, I am called to surrender the false expectation of personal strength so that God can freely work through me with the strength that only God can give.

            God is Creator, Savior, and Guide. What can I do that God cannot? Absolutely nothing. And I might even take that one step further. Without God, there is nothing I can do. Thankfully for us, God knew this, just as God knew that we would keep on trying anyway. In his goodness then, God sent us his Son so that we might have just a sliver of the power God has. This is not the power to take control or to rely on ourselves. This is the power that comes through the cross; allowing us to approach God, bow our heads, and ask for forgiveness. And our hope, our expectation, is that we have the ability to do this each and every time the world convinces us that strength can be built from within. It is because of God’s promise to love us and gift of Jesus Christ that we can die to ourselves and our own pursuit of control, power, and ‘strength’ and then rise to new life where we joyfully allow God to be the one who is control. The abundant life that God has promised us is lived fully when we find our strength in God.


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