Hope Against Hope: Receiving God's Promises Through Love
Devotional
Day 1: Trials produce mature hope rooted in God's love
You are invited to see suffering not as God’s absence but as the soil where perseverance, character, and a deeper hope grow. When the love of God is poured into your heart by the Spirit, the quality of your hope changes so it no longer disappoints even amid delays and pain. Let this reshape how you measure God's faithfulness—not by immediate rescue, but by the way his love forms Christ in you through the waiting. [01:16:28]
Romans 5:1-5 (ESV) 1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Reflection: When you face a current trial, what habit could you adopt this week that will help you intentionally receive and dwell in God’s love (rather than only seeking a change in your circumstances)?
Day 2: Faith perseveres when hope seems impossible
When the promise looks absurd by natural measures, faith chooses to believe God’s character over circumstances and does not waver. Like Abraham, you can hold two kinds of hope—the natural expectation and the supernatural conviction that God can perform what he has promised. Practically, this means refusing to base trust on evidence and instead growing strong in faith as you give glory to God for what he will do. [58:46]
Romans 4:18-21 (ESV) 18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
Reflection: Identify one “impossible” area where you are tempted to cower before the facts; what is one concrete step you will take this week to give glory to God and act as though his promise is true?
Day 3: Perseverant faith leads to inheriting God's promises
God desires that each person show earnestness and persistence so hope reaches full assurance and does not grow sluggish. The call is to imitate those who, through faith and patience, inherit what God has promised—enduring long enough for character and proven love to form. Stand with others in faithful diligence; community agreement waters the seed of promise and strengthens weary hope. [48:25]
Hebrews 6:11-12 (ESV) 11 And we desire that each one of you show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Reflection: What is one practical way you can cultivate "earnestness" this week (a rhythm, accountability, or discipline) that keeps your hope from going sluggish?
Day 4: God's promises often arrive amid pain and irony
Promises frequently come through seasons that include pain, awkward irony, and places where the very arena of your calling is where you face difficulty. The workmanship of God often uses those hard places to form maturity so that when the blessing arrives, it won’t be taken as an identity-covering but as something to steward and release for others. Trust that the pain is not disqualifying; it is the refining context for a promise that will ultimately bless many. [01:04:18]
Genesis 17:17 (ESV) 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”
Reflection: Where in your life is the place of calling also the place of greatest pain, and what is one compassionate, faith-filled perspective you can choose this week to see that pain as part of God’s refining work?
Day 5: Justification is by faith, not by works
Every person stands guilty apart from Christ, but justification comes as a free gift when faith receives the exchange of Jesus' righteousness for our sin. That truth removes the pressure to manufacture identity from achievements and frees you to steward blessings as overflow rather than as coverings. Resting in this justification lets you relax like a weaned child in the Father's arms and serve from fullness, not from lack. [53:15]
Romans 3:23 (ESV) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Reflection: In what specific area are you tempted to find your value in performance or success, and what single act of faith will you take to remind yourself that your identity is secured in Christ alone?
Sermon Summary
When God is for us, fear has nothing to stand on. I reminded our hearts that we can rest like a weaned child in a mother’s arms because the Almighty has set His favor upon us. From there we opened Hebrews 6 and Romans 4–5, tracing Abraham’s long road from promise to fulfillment. The promise to bless and multiply wasn’t meant to terminate on Abraham but to flow through him to the world. That same pattern still holds: the things God gives are not for propping up our value or masking our insecurity. If we make the promise our identity, we’ll never be able to lay it back on the altar.
Abraham’s story is not tidy. It includes delay, missteps, family drama, and the painful irony that the very place of promise became the place of pain. He even had to pray for healing over Abimelech’s house—championing the breakthrough he still lacked at home. Paul names the anatomy of this kind of journey: hope (the early spark), followed by tribulation, perseverance, proven character, and a new kind of hope that doesn’t disappoint because God pours His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. That love changes the quality of hope. It matures us so we can carry the promise without being carried away by it.
I offered a picture: a climber slips, gets caught by a rope, and still falls into a pit. The rope, over time, becomes an umbilical cord—heaven’s love flowing into the soul. The Father is less interested in immediately getting us out of the pit than He is in getting heaven into us. When that shift happens, we stop staring at the clock and start welcoming Christ’s formation. Then, when God does lift us, we can steward the blessing as conduit, not as cover. We finished by standing with one another in agreement—watering the seeds of promise with prayer—because what God wants to give this body is meant to flow through us to our region and the nations.
Key Takeaways
1. God is for you—rest in Him When the soul settles into God’s favor, fear loses its leverage. Rest is not passivity; it’s trust that quiets the inner storm. From that rest, obedience becomes lighter and courage rises because we’re no longer defending ourselves. We live from adoption, not anxiety. [38:31]
2. Your promise is not your identity If we make the promise our significance, we can’t place it on the altar when asked. Identity must be rooted in Christ so the promise can flow through us rather than stick to us. Otherwise we’ll use blessings like fig leaves to cover shame and fear. God forms us so the gift won’t deform us. [50:44]
3. Trials birth a different kind of hope The path from promise to fulfillment runs through tribulation, perseverance, and proven character. Pain without love breeds bitterness, but love poured into pain ripens the soul. That’s how hope transforms from wishful thinking into resilient confidence that does not disappoint. [78:58]
4. Bless others with what you still lack Abraham had to pray fruitfulness over another household while his remained barren. God often asks us to champion in others the very breakthrough we’re waiting for. This purifies motives, stretches love, and disentangles us from entitlement, making room for grace. [70:53]
5. Let love transform you in the pit Sometimes the rope that saved us becomes an umbilical cord that feeds us. God may delay rescue to deliver heaven into our inner world. When love fills the delay, our perspective shifts from escape to formation—and that’s where true maturity grows. [83:46]
Bible reading (ESV) - Hebrews 6:11–15 11 And we desire that each one of you show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. 13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise.
Observation questions
What does “full assurance of hope until the end” look like in the life of a believer according to this passage? [48:25]
How does the passage link faith and patience to inheriting God’s promises? What phrase points to that connection in the text? [48:55]
Which moments in Abraham’s story show delay, missteps, or family drama as part of the promise journey (for example: Hagar, years of waiting, Abimelech)? List specific events. [01:03:06]
Where in Hebrews does the text suggest the blessing given to Abraham was meant to flow through him to bless others, and what does that imply? [50:06]
Interpretation questions
What role does patient endurance serve in forming the character necessary to steward a promise rather than be mastered by it? [01:18:58]
How can it be understood that the very place of promise becomes the place of pain (for example, the circumcision paradox or childbirth being made painful)? What theological purpose might this serve? [01:06:16]
Why would God have Abraham pray for breakthrough in Abimelech’s household before Abraham’s own child was born? What does this request reveal about the refining of motive and love? [01:10:53]
How does the image of a rescuing rope becoming an umbilical cord change the way one interprets God’s delays—are delays primarily about rescue or formation? [01:23:46]
Application questions
God is for you — rest in His favor. When has resting in God weakened fear in your life? What practical discipline will you adopt this week to “rest like a weaned child” in God’s arms (daily prayer, a short Scripture to repeat, a Sabbath practice)? [38:31]
The promise is not your identity. What blessing or achievement have you been tempted to use as your primary identity? How will you begin to re-root your identity in Christ so that the blessing flows through you instead of sticking to you? (Name one concrete step.) [50:44]
Trials can birth a more resilient hope when God’s love is poured into the place of suffering. Identify one current trial that tests your hope. Where do you already see God’s love in that situation, and what next step will you take to welcome that transforming love? [01:18:58]
Bless others with what you still lack. Who is one person you can champion in prayer or action right now—someone who has a breakthrough you long for? What exactly will you do this week to pray for or serve them? [01:10:53]
Let love transform you in the pit. When you feel stalled or stuck, what two practices help you receive “heaven into you” (for example: a focused time of confession and gratitude, a listening prayer, meeting with a trusted friend)? Commit to trying them this week. [01:23:46]
Water the seed of promise by agreement. Who in this group or community will you commit to stand in agreement with and pray for regularly? Set a specific plan (who, when, and how often) to partner with their promise. [01:33:27]
Use these questions to guide honest conversation, mutual encouragement, and concrete next steps that help people grow in trust, character, and love as they wait for God’s promises to be fulfilled.
Sermon Clips
How can we be afraid, no matter who's against us, if God is for us? How can you be afraid? People of God, family of God, how can you be fearful or anxious if God is for you? If the God of the universe that every other dominion has to submit to is for you, then what do you have to be afraid of?
[00:37:42]
(25 seconds)
``Is a promise from God ever meant to give you your value, identity, or significance? Is what God gives to you supposed to provide your value or your identity? Your talent, breakthrough, what you do for a living, your success? Is that where you get your significance, identity, or value? Why? Why isn't that where we get it? Well, if Abraham got his value from his promise, would he ever have been able to lay it back on the altar? No.
[00:50:10]
(46 seconds)
#IdentityNotPromise
The promise, the fulfillment of a promise, the breakthrough, the success that God gives us, is not really to us to cover anything that we need. It's supposed to come through us, but often we grab onto the breakthrough, the success, and we use that because we don't know who we are. And we use that, like Adam used fig leaves, to cover his nakedness, to cover our embarrassment, our shame, our sense of lack, our insecurity, our fears. Right? We use it to protect us.
[00:50:55]
(32 seconds)
I'm piecing together different scriptures outside of Romans, but basically, we have what Paul calls justification. We're justified in Christ, meaning, although I am guilty of sin, if I put my faith in him, he forgives that sin, and he puts the sin on the cross where Jesus is, and he gives me something I don't deserve. He gives Jesus what I can't handle, which is my sin and the death that it deserves. And then he gives me, in exchange, the righteousness of Jesus and the life of Jesus.
[00:54:09]
(37 seconds)
We're justified in Christ, meaning, although I am guilty of sin, if I put my faith in him, he forgives that sin, and he puts the sin on the cross where Jesus is, and he gives me something I don't deserve. He gives Jesus what I can't handle, which is my sin and the death that it deserves. And then he gives me, in exchange, the righteousness of Jesus and the life of Jesus. So there's like this exchange that happens because of Calvary, because of the cross.
[00:54:17]
(34 seconds)
#JustifiedByFaith
Not only legally am I righteous before God, but on the inside, now my very desires have changed. That's what it means to be a new creation in Christ. The inside of me has been transformed. Does anybody here remember the day that the darkness and the death that was operating on the inside of you, and you were wandering aimlessly through life, trying to succeed, trying to be somebody, knowing you couldn't do it, and failing miserably, and you were tired of your life, tired of yourself. And then all of a sudden, you put your faith in Christ, and God came, and he replaced all of that death with the life of Jesus.
[00:54:59]
(39 seconds)
#MadeNewInChrist
Always, always, always, salvation came by faith. That's the whole point. By faith, through the grace of God, not any work of following the law, not any work of being good or moral enough, but by just believing God and receiving His free gift of forgiveness. His free gift of life. Isn't that powerful? Okay? It's real easy to screw that up and forget. Because we like to work hard. We like to earn. We like to see the scales of justice balanced. But, see, every promise is a free gift.
[00:58:12]
(35 seconds)
#FaithNotWorks
Always, always, always, salvation came by faith. That's the whole point. By faith, through the grace of God, not any work of following the law, not any work of being good or moral enough, but by just believing God and receiving His free gift of forgiveness. His free gift of life. Isn't that powerful? Okay? It's real easy to screw that up and forget. Because we like to work hard. We like to earn. We like to see the scales of justice balanced. But, see, every promise is a free gift.
[00:58:12]
(35 seconds)
And, most people give up on a promise. Or, they give up on something God has shown them. Not right after the promise is given. But, it's some time in the middle between when the promise is given and its fulfillment. During those years or months or however long it is. We give up and we either just abandon the promise and say, you know what? It's not worth it. This is too hard. It's never going to happen. Or, we just kind of settle for a little bit less. And, we just settle into something that's less than what he said. And, we just go for that. Because, it's easier. And, it's just too hard to keep believing.
[01:15:16]
(34 seconds)
#PersevereNotSettle
Hope number two doesn't disappoint. Because, why? The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. This is the key. How do you go from point A, hope number one, promise, through all this long stuff, not give up, not settle, not get offended with God, and just say, you know what, forget it, and get to the place where you can actually inherit a promise from God and see it come to pass. The key is not just to gut out the waiting and the pain, because how many of you know pain without love brings deep bitterness.
[01:18:59]
(47 seconds)
#LoveOverBitterness
This is the key. This is the key. How do you go from point A, hope number one, promise, through all this long stuff, not give up, not settle, not get offended with God, and just say, you know what, forget it, and get to the place where you can actually inherit a promise from God and see it come to pass. The key is not just to gut out the waiting and the pain, because how many of you know pain without love brings deep bitterness. But if the love of God is poured into the place of delay and pain and disappointment, something happens.
[01:19:12]
(42 seconds)
Something happens that begins to transform our hope and turn it into something of a completely different quality, where just because it's impossible and there's no way it'll ever happen, doesn't actually change our day, doesn't change our mindset. That's crazy. That's called great faith. That's a big boy, big girl stuff. That's maturity. In the kingdom, those who achieve or obtain promises are the mature. Those who give up on promises are those who refuse to grow up and refuse to mature in Christ.
[01:19:54]
(42 seconds)
He still kept me from falling all the way. He's providing for me. All my needs are met. His presence is with me. His grace is still with me. I still belong to him. He hasn't abandoned me. The love of the Father starts to come into his spirit. Because he's allowing the Holy Spirit to do a work of love in him. And all of a sudden his mindset of, I need to get out of here, changes. And he realizes, ah, God's not so much interested in getting me out of the pit as much as he is getting heaven into me.
[01:24:25]
(38 seconds)
And his whole mindset changes. And he realizes, okay, before God puts me in heaven, he wants to put heaven in me. And all of a sudden, what starts to happen is that climber starts to operate in love in the pit. No longer looking for rescue, but looking for transformation on the inside. And the oppositional hard people start to be impacted by love. The marriage starts to change. And what used to be a pit, a hard place financially, relationally, health issues, God starts to work on all these things. Transformation starts to happen.
[01:25:30]
(39 seconds)
#HeavenInMe
You go through trial, tribulation, long delay, opposition, offense towards God even, and bitterness with people, hardship. And then you allow the love of God to work through you and in you and begin to transform the people around you as he's transforming you. And you see God at work all of a sudden. It's not so much looking at the clock going, God, when are you going to show up? When is this all going to be worth it? When are you going to do the thing that you said you're going to do? It's no longer about that anymore. It's about God just have your way in me.
[01:26:45]
(31 seconds)
#LetGodHaveHisWay
It's not so much looking at the clock going, God, when are you going to show up? When is this all going to be worth it? When are you going to do the thing that you said you're going to do? It's no longer about that anymore. It's about God just have your way in me. Because the promise is not my identity. It's not my value. It's not who I am. It's not my significance. It's who the Father is and what he's doing in me. He's forming Christ in me. That's my value. That's my significance. That's my identity.
[01:27:03]
(27 seconds)
