Hope’s Prisoner
Zechariah 9:12 Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee;
With the experience of loss there is a disabling desperation that threatens to disrupt any possibility of progress in life, with all purpose for living apparently gone forever. The passing of a loved companion, the terminal prognosis of a medical exam, the loss of occupation, the devaluation or loss of investments, the severing of lifelong relationships, the apparent chronic failure of personal ventures…. can bring a loss of breath and dimming of the very motivation that would give reason for waking to another day- hope.
For every traveler, though, who seems to have lost all to the domination and destruction of a barren desert, an oasis exists like a stronghold against the depravity of loss. For the one who has tasted of its spring, there is a bondage to its refuge that refuses to be drawn away to the barrenness. When all else seems to have been burned up in the scorching sun, there is a place under the Tree of Life where protection has been found in a shade that is an eternal barrier against hope’s threats. To venture beyond its sustaining shadow is no longer a consideration for the one who has become a prisoner to its sustenance, and no matter how great the loss of all other sources, the Fountain of life will never be given up for hopelessness. The greater the loss, the greater the possibility as the Source of that fountain has promised not only continued existence, but an existence that is provided with a double return of all that has been lost. With every moment in His presence and every drink from His spring there is a further renewed vision of a future full of possibilities that will completely overwhelm any loss. Where desperation and loss would impose their domination, there can be a willful entry to the stronghold of hope where the magnitude of God’s glory gives eternal perspective to the reality of His provision over any deficiency.
What a marvelous bondage, what a glorious incarceration is this barrier of hope that would disallow any escape to the destruction of our promised abundance in Christ. Like the tether attached to my young brother’s britches on our trip to the Grand Canyon, we will not be allowed to fall into the chasm of hopelessness as long as we commit ourselves to the realm of His presence and its ever sustaining and protecting hope. With a magnified vision of the double over any tragic loss, there is a secured stronghold to which we can turn this day with confidence of a future and a hope in the promise of life in Christ.
Isaiah 59:19 So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
Psalms 16:8 I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
:9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
:10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
:11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
