Mensa Otabil - Creating Hope When There Is No Hope
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Hello, I trust that you are having a good time and walking in victory, overcoming, and being hopeful about your life. Romans chapter 4, verse 17 onward, talks about Abraham, who had a lot of struggles in his life regarding whether he would have a child or not. This is how the Bible describes Abraham: «As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations, in the presence of him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls the things that do not exist as though they did.» Abraham, who contrary to hope, in hope believed God, who calls things that be not as though they were.
Abraham had a hopeless situation, so to speak. The Bible says that his body was dead and the womb of his wife was dead. Now, if you were a couple in your 70s, 80s, or 90s, with the man described as dead and the woman’s womb as dead, and still you wanted to have a child, everybody would think you were not mentally sound. It was a hopeless situation. But the Bible says that when there was no hope, Abraham created hope. It is possible to create hope when there is none. It’s calling the things that be not as though they were; it’s declaring something that is not your present reality.
Maybe now you are locked down, but you can declare freedom; you can declare that you will overcome; you can declare that you will be the head and not the tail. There is a story of a man called Viktor Frankl. Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist from Austria, but during the Second World War, he was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, where he was dehumanized in many ways. Yet, he survived, and he told the world why he survived. Viktor Frankl said that in prison, he realized that everything can be taken from a man, but the last thing that cannot be taken from a human being is our attitude to choose how we react in every circumstance or situation. In other words, you can be in a hopeless situation and choose hope; you can be in a fearful situation and choose faith; you can be poor and choose prosperity. You choose how you want to respond to life, not how life treats you.
So in the circumstances, as we’re all struggling and thinking about how the future will be—how we’re going to deal with our future and with life—I want you, like Abraham, to think, «It may be hopeless around me, but I’m going to call those things which be not as though they were.» Like Viktor Frankl, I’m in a prison, but I see myself free. I see myself operating a thriving business. Hope is critical to survival, so don’t give up hope. While we’re going through all that we are experiencing, life feels very unstable. I want you to see your life doing well—life beyond lockdown, life beyond this COVID-19, life beyond the virus. I want you to see your future, see your business, see your family, and trust God that the mental image you have about the future will meet His approval and that your eyes will meet with God. It is in hope that we make eye contact with God, and He brings to pass the expectations of the righteous. I pray for you that your hope will not disappoint you, that your hope will be fulfilled. I’ll see you again. Shalom, peace, and life to you.