It is my confident hope that spring will one day arrive in Chicago.
I have faith that even though I am wearing a wool sweater and boots today and my back yard looks like this…
…that in a few weeks it will look like this.
My hope is reasonable, because spring follows winter every year. Never fails. There is no evidence of spring today, but I trust that it is coming.
Life, at least some aspects of it, on this earth can be like winter in Chicago; dreary, dormant and chilly. Is it reasonable to hope for a thaw in a frozen relationship or the rebirth of a dormant dream or renewed health after disease? Or is that just wishful thinking?
When I hope for something, I pray the words of Hebrews 11:1. “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” I pray something like this,
“Lord, I have absolutely no evidence for this hope. None. All I have is faith in you, my loving, all-powerful, gracious Father. Will you grant me what I am hoping for? It looks impossible to me, but nothing is impossible for you.”
He has answered more than one of those prayers.
Interestingly, what follows in the rest of Hebrews 11, also called the “Hall of Faith,” are commendations of the faithfulness of the “ancients,” like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Moses for starters. However, they did not all receive all that they had hoped for on this earth. Abraham, promised a nation and land, had only one son and a small plot of ground on which he buried his wife. Moses took the nation of Israel to the edge of the Promised Land, but he himself did not enter it.
Hope and faith like the ancients must extend beyond this life and into the next.
Spring is a yearly demonstration of renewal, victorious life after death, and a powerful promise that one day everything will be permanently and eternally restored.
It is my confident hope that I will one day experience an eternal resurrection by faith in Jesus Christ, my risen Savior, and that I will also know the beginnings of the fulfillment of my hopes here on this earth. And I will continue to pray in faith for all that I hope for.
Is there an aspect of your life that you hope will change from “winter” to “spring?”
Has God answered your prayers of “Hebrews 11” faith?
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we await our adoptions as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.” Romans 8:22-23
This was originally posted on Connecting Dots to God on March 16, 2013. The fact that it is now April 19th and it snowed yesterday may have had something to do with why I re-posted it.
Connecting Dots...to God 
Dear Judy, I am doing a quick e-mail check before bed and I came upon your post and I decided to read instead of delete. I am sorry to say that I don’t read every one of your posts. Sometimes I am just overwhelmed by e-mails and I don’t want another thing (even a good thing) to read. But tonight I opened and read. It was just what I needed. After four months of hosting a baby boy in our home we brought him back to reunite with his family. It was a joyous day for his family. They really love each other and that made saying goodbye today a bit easier. But as I looked around at his environment and the poverty that they live in…and most likely the poverty his parents grew up in…and his grandparents…I was overwhelmed by the sadness of the cycle of poverty. To me this looks pretty hopeless. How could his family or Dionte as an adult or the millions of other families living this way ever get out of this cycle? And then I read your post. It was just the reminder I needed. It looks impossible to me. It looks hopeless. There is no evidence to support hope. But I have faith and I believe that our Father is loving, gracious, merciful, and all-powerful. And so I will leave this in his hands and pray. Just thought you would like to know that in God’s loving kindness he led me to you post right before bed…right when I needed it. He is so good to me. Thank you Judy. Jane
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Wow.