My Favorite Four-Letter Word

 

I used to say it was love, but I have moved on to hope. Love is a very good word, but it varies from the mundane to the sublime: I love lemon pie, I love going on vacation, I love my husband, I love God and God loves me.

As a personal choice, hope ranks first. Levels of love may vary, depending on other people. For example, I expected lemon pie with meringue but it came with whipped topping. As for vacations, did I really love them all?

If I’m honest, my love for my husband went down at times of misunderstanding. And, though I love God, I don’t always fully understand how much He loves Me!

Job is one of the best examples of hope despite a challenging relationship. His wife had no patience with his suffering. She said, “Why don’t you just curse God and die?” (Job 2:9-10).

Job let her negativity float on by. Hope was his choice and he would not give it up: “Should I accept only good things from God, and nothing bad?”

He had an even stronger answer when three well-meaning but non-comforting friends came by: “Even if God kills me, I’ll still trust Him” (Job 13:15).

Job’s hope gave him the strength to stay focused on his faith.

Hope results in joy. A characteristic of believers is to be joyful in hope, patient

in affliction, and faithful in prayer (Romans 12:12, NIV).

Since patience and faithfulness are listed among the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), it would seem that hope, and the joy it brings, have a purpose.

Job’s story is one of patience, perseverance, and the ability to endure. The way I see it, hope might have been Job’s favorite four-letter word, too.