Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.
—Psalm 33:22
“What are you discussing?” incognito Jesus asked.
So, they told him about the crucifixion of their leader. “We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel,” they said (Lk 24:21). We had hoped—past tense. The Emmaus duo’s hope had crashed at the cross.
“How slow you are to believe all that the prophets have spoken,” he said. It wasn’t that they didn’t know what the prophets had spoken, but that they were slow to believe them.
That’s still the rub, isn’t it? We know the promising words of scripture, but may be slow to believe them when life takes a bad turn.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Rom 15:13).
Don’t let your hope become past tense.