March 22, 2022
Hope 3: His Name is Hope, episode 55
The numbers were adding up. The cars he had gone through numbered 17. The traffic tickets for one year were about 5. I don’t even know how many of the gifts we had given him were gone—pawned. Nor how many times he said “You’re not my real mother.” And the stories he expected me to believe seemed endless. On and on.
And as the numbers climbed, my hope dipped and disappeared.
Resources:
- Read: His Name Is Hope: https://tinyurl.com/bddd8k94
- Join the Prayer for Prodigals community here: https://bit.ly/3uyhSWQ
- Sign up for Judy’s monthly newsletter here: https://bit.ly/39TBlYt
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1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,000
If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right here at When You Love a Prodigal,
2
00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:16,000
and also help and hope for your own life journey.
3
00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:22,000
Today we are continuing a five-part series on hope.
4
00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:25,000
We all need hope, don't we?
5
00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:33,000
When you love a prodigal, you need hope, and we hold on to it, but it doesn't always happen the way we hope.
6
00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:40,000
And oh how we need to know the one whose name is hope.
7
00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:45,000
Be listening for ways that you can hold on to your hope.
8
00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:49,000
Jot them down so you don't forget them.
9
00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:54,000
The numbers we're adding up for our prodigal son.
10
00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:58,000
The cars he had gone through, number 17.
11
00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:03,000
The traffic tickets for one year were about five.
12
00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:13,000
I don't even know how many gifts we had given him were gone, pond or stolen by one of his friends.
13
00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:17,000
Nor how many times he said,
14
00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:25,000
you're not my real mother, and the stories he expected me to believe seemed endless.
15
00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:27,000
It goes on and on.
16
00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:36,000
The numbers of offenses that break your heart and give you great concern for your prodigal.
17
00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:43,000
As the numbers climbed, my hope dipped and sometimes disappeared,
18
00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:48,000
because when you love a prodigal, you often lose hope.
19
00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:55,000
In moments and days, seasons of despair, we look for hope.
20
00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:04,000
Everyone, whether you have a prodigal or not, at some time is looking for hope to grab on to.
21
00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:15,000
In an election season, people look for hope for a candidate who will turn things around or restore order or lead with integrity.
22
00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:17,000
And many see no hope.
23
00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:20,000
In a financial crisis, how will we survive?
24
00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:22,000
Who will rescue us?
25
00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,000
Is there hope?
26
00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:32,000
When loss, loss of a loved one or our health or a job or a relationship devastates us,
27
00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:35,000
how will we go on?
28
00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:37,000
Can we keep hoping?
29
00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:39,000
Where do we look for hope?
30
00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:46,000
To family, to friends, a new job, a move, the government?
31
00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:52,000
But finding no hope, what is there but despair or resignation?
32
00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:56,000
Giving up, it seems hopeless.
33
00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:01,000
And when you love a prodigal, you know these feelings.
34
00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:11,000
When he comes home drunk once again, when she gets pregnant, when he calls from the juvenile detention center,
35
00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:21,000
when you discover she is still cutting herself, when he says he wants nothing to do with you or your God,
36
00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:34,000
when she has run away, when the hospital calls to say he is overdosed, you feel helpless and hopeless.
37
00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:36,000
But hold on.
38
00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:38,000
We do have hope.
39
00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:43,000
Our God has said his name is hope.
40
00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:52,000
Romans 15 tells us, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,
41
00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:59,000
so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
42
00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:01,000
I'm going to read it again.
43
00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:02,000
I read it last week.
44
00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:07,000
This verse is wonderfully encouraging and powerful.
45
00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:13,000
May the God of hope, that's his name, one of his many names, but he's the God of hope.
46
00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:18,000
May he fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,
47
00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:25,000
so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
48
00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:30,000
Is that how you've been overflowing with hope?
49
00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:36,000
Why is it such good news that one of our God's names is hope?
50
00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:40,000
Why should it fill us with hope?
51
00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:48,000
The apostle Paul tells Timothy, Even if we are faithless, he will remain faithful,
52
00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:52,000
for he cannot deny himself.
53
00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:56,000
God cannot deny or disown himself.
54
00:04:56,000 --> 00:05:01,000
He must be who he is, and he is his names, whatever they are.
55
00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:03,000
They're the truth about him.
56
00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:08,000
And in this case, he is our source of hope.
57
00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:16,000
There are a lot of other pictures that we get about God from other names like love, peace,
58
00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:28,000
Almighty, healer, provider, shepherd, fortress, defender, all those things we need at different times.
59
00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,000
And hope.
60
00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:32,000
He is the God of hope.
61
00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:42,000
The meaning of hope is the desire of some good with an expectation of obtaining it.
62
00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:44,000
That meaning itself is hopeful.
63
00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:57,000
There's a little acrostic using hope, H-O-P-E, and it's holding on with patient expectation.
64
00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:00,000
Okay, that probably sounds impossible.
65
00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:06,000
But that's what we can do because we know the God whose name is hope.
66
00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:09,000
He says, hold on, because I'm holding you.
67
00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:19,000
He says, with patient, well, because we can trust him, expectation that God will take care of this,
68
00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:24,000
the result will be what God has in mind.
69
00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:30,000
When we hope, we acknowledge that we have not seen the answer we desire yet.
70
00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:33,000
We don't even know what that answer would be.
71
00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:40,000
But we know the why and where and who of hope, our faithful God.
72
00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:47,000
And we could go to him with our tears and our fears, our anger, our despair.
73
00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:50,000
He says, I will give you hope.
74
00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:52,000
That's it, hope.
75
00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:53,000
No answers.
76
00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:55,000
We don't get what we are asking for.
77
00:06:55,000 --> 00:07:03,000
Our prodigals don't return or change or make better choices or follow Jesus.
78
00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:11,000
Paul reminds us, but hope that is seen, that turns out the way we want, is no hope at all.
79
00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:14,000
Who hopes for what they already have.
80
00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:21,000
But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
81
00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:26,000
So we wait and hope with this assurance.
82
00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:32,000
This is the verse that took me through our 15 years with our prodigal.
83
00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:41,000
In Isaiah 60, I am the Lord, and it's time I will do this swiftly.
84
00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:48,000
Over and over, I was back at that same verse believing that he is God,
85
00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:51,000
and he's working even though I can't see it.
86
00:07:51,000 --> 00:08:01,000
And he lives in no time, and so it's swift, even though it seems like a long time to us sometimes.
87
00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:12,000
We can wait with hope because God is working and his name is hope.
88
00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:15,000
Let me ask you a couple of questions.
89
00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:25,000
How could knowing that one of God's names is hope help to sustain you in your prayers for your loved one?
90
00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:28,000
Think about that.
91
00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:34,000
How have you found it possible to feel helpless but also hopeful,
92
00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:49,000
helpless in that you can't make it happen the way you want, but hopeful that the God whose name is hope, who is working, will make it happen in his perfect way and timing.
93
00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:56,000
Next week, we are going to talk about 10 reasons to keep hoping.
94
00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:59,000
I think you should come back for that.
95
00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:02,000
10 reasons to keep hoping.
96
00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:05,000
Don't forget, take a look at the show notes.
97
00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:09,000
There's lots of resources at JudyDouglass.com.
98
00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:15,000
And thank you for joining me today on the When You Love a Prodigal podcast.
99
00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:24,000
And you know, you can go and rate it and subscribe to it and maybe even give me a nice review.
100
00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:32,000
Your review really helps other people choose to come and listen.
101
00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:55,000
Until next week, keep hoping in the God whose name is hope. God bless you.
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,000
If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right here at When You Love a Prodigal,
2
00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:16,000
and also help and hope for your own life journey.
3
00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:22,000
Today we are continuing a five-part series on hope.
4
00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:25,000
We all need hope, don't we?
5
00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:33,000
When you love a prodigal, you need hope, and we hold on to it, but it doesn't always happen the way we hope.
6
00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:40,000
And oh how we need to know the one whose name is hope.
7
00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:45,000
Be listening for ways that you can hold on to your hope.
8
00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:49,000
Jot them down so you don't forget them.
9
00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:54,000
The numbers we're adding up for our prodigal son.
10
00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:58,000
The cars he had gone through, number 17.
11
00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:03,000
The traffic tickets for one year were about five.
12
00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:13,000
I don't even know how many gifts we had given him were gone, pond or stolen by one of his friends.
13
00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:17,000
Nor how many times he said,
14
00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:25,000
you're not my real mother, and the stories he expected me to believe seemed endless.
15
00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:27,000
It goes on and on.
16
00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:36,000
The numbers of offenses that break your heart and give you great concern for your prodigal.
17
00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:43,000
As the numbers climbed, my hope dipped and sometimes disappeared,
18
00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:48,000
because when you love a prodigal, you often lose hope.
19
00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:55,000
In moments and days, seasons of despair, we look for hope.
20
00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:04,000
Everyone, whether you have a prodigal or not, at some time is looking for hope to grab on to.
21
00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:15,000
In an election season, people look for hope for a candidate who will turn things around or restore order or lead with integrity.
22
00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:17,000
And many see no hope.
23
00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:20,000
In a financial crisis, how will we survive?
24
00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:22,000
Who will rescue us?
25
00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,000
Is there hope?
26
00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:32,000
When loss, loss of a loved one or our health or a job or a relationship devastates us,
27
00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:35,000
how will we go on?
28
00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:37,000
Can we keep hoping?
29
00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:39,000
Where do we look for hope?
30
00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:46,000
To family, to friends, a new job, a move, the government?
31
00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:52,000
But finding no hope, what is there but despair or resignation?
32
00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:56,000
Giving up, it seems hopeless.
33
00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:01,000
And when you love a prodigal, you know these feelings.
34
00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:11,000
When he comes home drunk once again, when she gets pregnant, when he calls from the juvenile detention center,
35
00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:21,000
when you discover she is still cutting herself, when he says he wants nothing to do with you or your God,
36
00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:34,000
when she has run away, when the hospital calls to say he is overdosed, you feel helpless and hopeless.
37
00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:36,000
But hold on.
38
00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:38,000
We do have hope.
39
00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:43,000
Our God has said his name is hope.
40
00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:52,000
Romans 15 tells us, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,
41
00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:59,000
so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
42
00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:01,000
I'm going to read it again.
43
00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:02,000
I read it last week.
44
00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:07,000
This verse is wonderfully encouraging and powerful.
45
00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:13,000
May the God of hope, that's his name, one of his many names, but he's the God of hope.
46
00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:18,000
May he fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,
47
00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:25,000
so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
48
00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:30,000
Is that how you've been overflowing with hope?
49
00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:36,000
Why is it such good news that one of our God's names is hope?
50
00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:40,000
Why should it fill us with hope?
51
00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:48,000
The apostle Paul tells Timothy, Even if we are faithless, he will remain faithful,
52
00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:52,000
for he cannot deny himself.
53
00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:56,000
God cannot deny or disown himself.
54
00:04:56,000 --> 00:05:01,000
He must be who he is, and he is his names, whatever they are.
55
00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:03,000
They're the truth about him.
56
00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:08,000
And in this case, he is our source of hope.
57
00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:16,000
There are a lot of other pictures that we get about God from other names like love, peace,
58
00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:28,000
Almighty, healer, provider, shepherd, fortress, defender, all those things we need at different times.
59
00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,000
And hope.
60
00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:32,000
He is the God of hope.
61
00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:42,000
The meaning of hope is the desire of some good with an expectation of obtaining it.
62
00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:44,000
That meaning itself is hopeful.
63
00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:57,000
There's a little acrostic using hope, H-O-P-E, and it's holding on with patient expectation.
64
00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:00,000
Okay, that probably sounds impossible.
65
00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:06,000
But that's what we can do because we know the God whose name is hope.
66
00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:09,000
He says, hold on, because I'm holding you.
67
00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:19,000
He says, with patient, well, because we can trust him, expectation that God will take care of this,
68
00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:24,000
the result will be what God has in mind.
69
00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:30,000
When we hope, we acknowledge that we have not seen the answer we desire yet.
70
00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:33,000
We don't even know what that answer would be.
71
00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:40,000
But we know the why and where and who of hope, our faithful God.
72
00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:47,000
And we could go to him with our tears and our fears, our anger, our despair.
73
00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:50,000
He says, I will give you hope.
74
00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:52,000
That's it, hope.
75
00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:53,000
No answers.
76
00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:55,000
We don't get what we are asking for.
77
00:06:55,000 --> 00:07:03,000
Our prodigals don't return or change or make better choices or follow Jesus.
78
00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:11,000
Paul reminds us, but hope that is seen, that turns out the way we want, is no hope at all.
79
00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:14,000
Who hopes for what they already have.
80
00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:21,000
But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
81
00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:26,000
So we wait and hope with this assurance.
82
00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:32,000
This is the verse that took me through our 15 years with our prodigal.
83
00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:41,000
In Isaiah 60, I am the Lord, and it's time I will do this swiftly.
84
00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:48,000
Over and over, I was back at that same verse believing that he is God,
85
00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:51,000
and he's working even though I can't see it.
86
00:07:51,000 --> 00:08:01,000
And he lives in no time, and so it's swift, even though it seems like a long time to us sometimes.
87
00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:12,000
We can wait with hope because God is working and his name is hope.
88
00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:15,000
Let me ask you a couple of questions.
89
00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:25,000
How could knowing that one of God's names is hope help to sustain you in your prayers for your loved one?
90
00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:28,000
Think about that.
91
00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:34,000
How have you found it possible to feel helpless but also hopeful,
92
00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:49,000
helpless in that you can't make it happen the way you want, but hopeful that the God whose name is hope, who is working, will make it happen in his perfect way and timing.
93
00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:56,000
Next week, we are going to talk about 10 reasons to keep hoping.
94
00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:59,000
I think you should come back for that.
95
00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:02,000
10 reasons to keep hoping.
96
00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:05,000
Don't forget, take a look at the show notes.
97
00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:09,000
There's lots of resources at JudyDouglass.com.
98
00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:15,000
And thank you for joining me today on the When You Love a Prodigal podcast.
99
00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:24,000
And you know, you can go and rate it and subscribe to it and maybe even give me a nice review.
100
00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:32,000
Your review really helps other people choose to come and listen.
101
00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:55,000
Until next week, keep hoping in the God whose name is hope. God bless you.
