Divine Hope

So I am doing a Beth Moore Study on the Fruit of the Spirit and this morning is was extra wonderful!! This is probably more for my benefit to help me process what the Lord showed me this morning but if it encourages any of the few people that look at this blog then that is an added bonus...

The greek meaning of hope is hupomone which means perseverance, endurance, and bearing up under difficult things inspired by a beneficial expectation. I learned something new about Job this morning. I spent some time studying the book of Job after I had the miscarriages and learned that he suffered greatly and remained faithful to God. This morning I saw practically how he did that. Job lost his family (all of them), his wealth, and his physical health. This is what he says in Job 23:8-10 "But if I go to the east, he is not there, if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him, when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him. But he knows the way that I take, when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold." Although Job could not find God, he knew that God had not lost him. Job knew that God had not overlooked one moment of His agony and he had hope in the very precious promise, "when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold." When gold is finished the refinement process it reaches the point of perfect luster and reflection. Job knew that these trials would refine him and make him more able to reflect God. So where did Job's hope come from? Job 19:25-27 says "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God, I myself will see him with my own eyes - I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me." This is incredible faith to me. Although Job had never seen God he hoped in the day that God would stand upon the earth and give Job a new body and he would see God and be like Him. What more do we need to have hope in All circumstances. I pray that this knowledge gives me endurance inspired by hope!!