Choose Hope

2 Kings 7:1-2, NIV

1 Elisha said, "Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the LORD says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria."
2 The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, "Look, even if the LORD should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?" "You will see it with your own eyes," answered Elisha, "but you will not eat any of it!"


We make choices every day: negative choices, positive choices, unwise choices, wise choices, and many other choices.

1. People who chose hope.
1) Physical despair.
2) Despair, dying of hunger (2Ki 7:3-4).
3) God who is with those who choose hope (2Ki 7:6-7).

2. The Cross is hope plus.
1) The hope of forgiveness and righteousness (Ro 3:24).
2) The hope of holiness and the fullness of the Holy Spirit (1Co 6:11).
3) The hope of healing and health (1Pe 2:24).
4) The hope of freedom from the curse and the blessing of Abraham (Gal 3:13-14).
5) The hope of eternal life and heaven (Jn 14:1-3).

3. Why did I preach the gospel of hope?
1) Two different perspectives from the reality of life.
① The faith of the Cross from the perspective of people living a happy and comfortable life.
A. Ethical and moral emphasis on keeping the commandments and the law.
B. Social involvement, human rights, solving the gap between the rich and poor, reformation, world peace, etc.
C. Conservation of nature, environmental protection.
D. Earthly paradise.
② The faith of the Cross from the perspective of people who are sick, poor, alienated, and uneducated, and from those who worry about life today and tremble in fear about life tomorrow.
A. The Gospel gives hope ? Jesus’ grace of redemption (Lk 4:18-19).
B. God, who is alive and helping us (Heb 13:8; Mt 28:20).
C. The Lord sets us free from sickness and saves us from suffering.
- A cry for help to save us from the desperate reality of life (Mt 7:11).
2) God’s calling given to me ? Be a preacher of hope.
① Fivefold Gospel. ② Threefold Blessing. ③ Fourth dimensional spirituality.

4. Fight despair and hopelessness.
1) Choose to think hopeful thoughts by looking at the Cross.
2) Do not dream of despair, but dream of hope.
3) Believe that there will be days of hope ? No matter how dark the night, dawn will come
(Ro 8:28).
4) Continually speak words of hope (Pr 18:21; 2Ki 7:19-20).

Job said, “Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.” We must not be a slave to suffering but one who succeeds with hope. Like the four lepers, we must join hand in hand and go forward.