Hope : What Job Did

I am going to start a word study. I am hoping to do it on Sunday nights. Depending on my schedule it will either be Sunday or Monday nights. I believe the Lord is leading me to do this.I would like to start all the studies in the Old Testament and then move to the New Testament.

The word that will start it all off and we will study it till we can get no more out of it is {drumroll please}

HOPE

So I will start out with a definition from Merriam-Webster {woo hoo} and then starting with a Scripture concerning hope.

Definition:

1. To desire with expectation.
2. Trust {there it is}
3. Desire together with expectation in getting what is wanted.

Scripture concerning hope from the Old Testament:

"Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him" Job 13:15

I must say from my own view that Job does impress me right off. This man had everything and then had everything taken away and no matter what happened and how it happened....he stayed faithful. He is definitely someone who loved the Lord with all his heart, all his mind, all his soul and all his strength. His own wife even told him to "hand in the towel", just give up. Yet he didn't. His friends surrounded him and told him all the reasons why he should just give up, not trust in the Lord, not hope in Him, yet Job continued. He stayed steadfast and faithful, all through it.

So here we have this guy...can you picture him, going about his day, praising the Lord? I can. He is abundantly blessed with family, favor and "things"....then BAM! all gone!!! His children, his animals, his home, his everything just gone....gone. Yet through it all Job had something I am very impressed with---very intrigued by he had: HOPE, hope that His God whom he had been faithfully serving would get everything that the Lord told him to expect. He would get favor, abundant blessings, eternal life, love, forgiveness......all those things the Lord promised, Job held onto during his time of trial & tribulation. Do I hold onto those things? Hm. I don't know if at first I could be as honorable as Job---I think I might have a different attitude, especially in the beginning---but Job taught me something---HANG IN THERE--HOLD ON TO THE PROMISES---this is just a season. No matter what anyone says--stay faithful to the Lord and you will have eternal life, stay faithful to the end--hold on, His promises are true. How about Abraham and Sarah? How about King David? How about Moses? Their hope, in what the Lord promised them, kept them hanging in there? Didn't it? What a wonderful God! He gives us that hope, by following through on His promises. He has showed us what it is like to hope and receive! He promised a Saviour that would overcome the world! That would establish His Kingdom---this is what King David held onto--Isaiah, Jeremiah---the hope they had--it kept them going. Our Lord fulfills His promises.

What do you think about Job and his hope? Blog it to me!