Find Lasting Hope Hope – Walk in Belief Bible Study

Prayer for Today
God, today grant me
Strength to do as You please
Wisdom to discern Your best for me
Compassion to serve others who need You
Power to overcome the world’s temptations

How Do We Find Lasting Hope?

There is a question that has been percolating in my mind for quite some time. The question is: how do we find lasting hope in the modern world? I do not have all the answers, but in the following passages we see the beginning of the pathway to finding lasting, soul-deep hope. The truth is that we do not just wake up one day and discover that we have found hope. Hope is a condition of the soul that is built over time. So, how do we build hope? This study is just the beginning of the topic of hope.

There is so much that the Bible says regarding hope. We could spend weeks, or longer, studying this topic. There are so many characters throughout the Bible that demonstrate true hope. This study is designed to be a quick one-week primer to jump start your study of hope.

Our world is such a broken place. People face unimaginable hardships each and every day. When we face hardship after hardship, we can become demoralized or downcast. Satan tries to use those times to cause us to lose hope. Look at Job. God tells Satan in Job 1:8 that Job was a man of God, filled with integrity and there is none like him on the earth. Everything was right with his world. And then Satan attacked.

Job’s First Encounter with Satan

In Job 1:12 we see that God allowed Satan to attack Job because He was confident that Job would remain faithful to Him. God allowed Satan to take everything Job had except his health. I am constantly reminded of 1 Corinthians 10:13 where Paul tells us that while God does allow us to be tempted, he does not allow the temptation to be more than we can bear. We see that evident in the situation with Job. God placed boundaries on the degree to which Satan could attack or tempt Job. With every temptation we must remember that God also provides a way of escape. We just need to trust Him.

Job Loses Everything

In one day, Job first lost all his oxen, all his donkeys, and his servants tending them were killed. Next, lightning struck and burned up all his sheep and the servants tending them. Then his camels were stolen and the servants tending them were killed. Finally, a great wind struck his oldest son’s house, knocked it down and killed all ten of his children. In one day, Job lost all but four servants.

And so it was that Satan attacked Job and stayed within the boundaries set by God. Job suffered unimaginable hardship and loss, but he remained faithful to God. Look at Job 1:20-22. Amidst all this hardship and devastation, Job was able to say “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away…” And Job closes by blessing the name of the Lord! I cannot imagine being able to say that after losing nearly everything.

Our Perspective on Job

We need to keep in mind that we have the benefit of being told of the exchange between God and Satan just before these things happened to Job. Job had no idea what Satan was up to and he had no idea that God was allowing these things to happen to him. The only thing that Job could grasp onto was the knowledge that his God was a good God and that there must be some purpose for his tremendous hardship.

It is easy to read the story and not grasp the full impact of what happened to Job. He was a pillar of the society at his time. He was a very successful businessperson and he had amassed great wealth. In contemporary times, we might say that he had the large house on the water with a swimming pool and enough room for family and friends to stay over. His business was thriving. And he had the sports car in the garage, and a luxury SUV for the times that he needed to get through snow or other bad weather. From the viewpoint of everyone around him, he had it made. He had everything a person could want. And now Job had nothing.

Job Loses All His Material Possessions

Job lost all his material possessions and the ability to earn a living. He went from the top of society to the bottom of society in the space of one day. Job was destitute. And about the time that Job likely thought things could not get much worse, Satan attacks again. Satan absolutely piles devastation on Job.

Job’s Second Encounter with Satan

As if that is not bad enough, Satan goes back to God and taunts him regarding Job (Job 2:1-5). Satan wants to take his health. God allows it but forbids Satan from taking Job’s life. He can take Job’s health, but he must allow Job to live. Talk about horrible. Job no sooner buries his kids and realizes he has lost all his wealth and possessions and then he wakes up with a debilitating illness. Satan pressed Job as far as God would allow. It was horrible. But look at the end of Job 2:10. “In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.”

Our Encounters with Satan

Just like he did with Job, Satan tries to use our times of hardship to cause doubt. He wants us to denounce our faith in God. In fact, that is exactly what he believes will happen. He cannot believe that we will remain faithful to God even when our world seems to be crashing down around us.

It is easy to look at the story of Job and nod understanding. Maybe even admire Job for his perseverance. But what happens when we lose a job, or a house? What happens when life threatening illness strikes a family member, or worse, a child? What happens when all of this causes us to lose our social standing and all our friends? It is easy to admire Job for his tenacity and remaining faithful to God. The question that remains is what we will do with the example set for us by Job.

At the end of whatever hardship plagues us, will we be able to respond as Job responded. It is easy to bless God in the good times, but will we be able to bless Him in the difficult times as well?

Our Way Out

As mentioned earlier, I constantly remind myself of 1 Corinthians 10:13:

1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV) ¹³ No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

God is good! He only gives us what we can handle. Knowing that God does not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear is soul comforting news! We just need to always be looking for the way of escape that He has promised to provide. If we will allow Him, God will use the hardships we face to strengthen our faith in Him. He will use our struggles to strengthen us if we will lean on Him.

God is good! He only gives us what we can handle. Knowing that God does not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear is soul comforting news!