The Power of Biblical Hope: Binding Yourself to God in Hard Times to Hope in the Lord
- Lee Young
- Jun 23, 2025
- 2 min read
Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)
31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
This week’s passage brings us to a topic that can easily be diminished in our understanding. Hope is a frequently used word in our vernacular, yet often, the way we interact with this concept falls short of what God intends when He calls us to place our hope in Him.
The word ‘hope’ in our passage is a root word meaning ‘to bind together.’ From this, the figurative meaning comes from the idea of a servant attaching himself to his master to attend to him quickly and efficiently. In this analogy, we can see a master demanding this from a servant; however, in Jewish culture, a master was expected to treat his servants as his own children with kindness and compassion, rather than compulsion. God is not coercing us to bind ourselves to Him. He has given us the choice. In times of distress, we can bind ourselves to Him, or we can let the issue separate us from Him.
Additionally, in Jewish culture, when a person in distress chooses to become a servant to another, their new master accepts responsibility for all the needs of their new servant. A servant would select their master, work six years for them, then they were free to go in the seventh year or earlier if the Year of Jubilee occurred within the six years of work (Leviticus 25:39-40). They would choose their master based on the master’s ability to take care of all their needs.
It would have been foolish to choose a master entirely capable of taking care of all of one’s needs, only to stray from that master. The distance would separate them from their master and the entirety of his resources. The wisest way to survive a time of hardship was to choose well, finding the master with the most remarkable compassion and the most significant resources, then to be a good servant, staying near the master to attend to Him. This would result in a man or family moving from desperation due to their situation to exuberant joy, knowing that their time with the master will ensure their immediate needs are taken care of, as well as laying a foundation for future success.
We cannot claim we are putting our hope in God if we are not binding ourselves to Him to attend to Him. If we only pray over our troubles without giving praise and thanks to Him, there is no hope. If we spend all our time trying to address our own issues instead of helping those He has sent us to, there is no hope. If we don’t give ourselves to Him fully, there is no hope. But when we give ourselves to Him fully and serve His interests more than our own, there is great joy and the expectation of good long into our future.
Prayer: Lord, keep me from lip service, but give myself entirely to you in certain hope that You will take care of all my needs. Amen.
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