Episode 149 - Seeking True and Lasting Hope

When it comes to hope, all of us are seekers.  We seek to discover, sustain, or regain hope.

In this episode I talk about what a seeker is and how all of us are or should be seekers.  

Transcript

Hello Friends, I’m your host Dr. Dave Laton and thank you for joining me in Our Journey to Hope.

It is my desire through this podcast to bring you information about how to discover, sustain, or perhaps regain hope.  

There is a common word used to describe those looking to improve their life situation, whether spiritually, physically, or relationally.  They are referred to as seekers.

In this episode I want to look at the concept of someone who is a seeker but in the context of how it relates to our journey to hope.

There is an ancient Chinese proverb that states, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”  These words have application to those who are seeking to discover, sustain, or regain hope.  

Any worthwhile endeavor has desired outcomes otherwise how would we know we are where we wanted to be.  Our journey to hope is certainly a worthwhile endeavor.  In regards to hope, we see our journey as one where we seek to discover hope, especially true and lasting hope.   

How do we begin our journey to hope if our hope is challenged?  How do we know we are on the right pathway to hope?  These and similar questions are especially important when we feel life is throwing all kinds of obstacles in our way.

In answer to that, we can look at the parable told by Jesus in Luke 15.  You probably have heard it.  It’s called, the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  What I want to focus on initially in this great parable is when the young man began his journey home, and consequently to hope.  He began his journey with false hope.  He hoped in his riches, relationships, and self.  He ended up in a seemingly hopeless situation.  Hope was there, but he had to seek it out.

As the parable unfolds, this young man has squandered his inheritance and was now left destitute.  He had no friends, no way to live, and seemed hopeless.  The only work he could find was feeding pigs.  He became so hungry and lost that he even considered eating the pig food.  

Then the story takes another dramatic turn.  He begins to remember life at home.  The parable says that he began to come to his senses.  In doing so, he resolves to return home seeking restoration in his father’s house, even as a servant.

Like this young man, when we find ourselves mired in the slop of our environment in life, we hunger for relief.  We begin to come to our senses and seek towards home.  We yearn for the life of hope we seem to have lost.  We begin our journey, one step at a time.  

And like the father in the parable, God sees us from afar and run to meet us and wrap his loving arms around us, joyfully welcoming us home.  That’s the beauty and the promise of not only this parable but of other promises of comfort provided by our Lord.  That is the promise of hope that awaits us.

That hope, found in the relationship with our Lord is true and lasting hope.  

Proverbs 8:17 is an example of the promise of hope.  In speaking about God, it states, “I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.”

A seeker of hope is someone searching to discover or regain hope. We might feel we have no hope.  We might feel we once had hope but for some reason, perhaps even beyond our control, we seem to have lost our way and are now floundering in life with no direction.  

Here are some characteristics common to most seekers:

• We are focusing on self but feel a sense of something greater 
• We feel dissatisfaction with our current situation, especially our spiritual condition
• We are motivated to change but not sure of how or the direction
• We feel confused from different answers regarding our condition

 There are many reasons why one becomes a seeker and begins their journey to hope.  Generally, we fall into three categories: A significant life event, a realization of insufficiency in our life or situation, or we are brought to an awareness of the need to regain or strengthen our hope.    

A significant event in life describes those moments when we realize that we need help.  We realize we can’t deal with life events by ourselves.  It might the death of a loved one, a weakening in our relationship with someone we love, a catastrophic event we are involved in, or other such tragic moments in life.  

Fortunately, not every seeker has to endure a negative event in life to realize the need to grow in hope.  Many become seekers as we come to realize a feeling of insufficiency in our life.  This leads us to recognize the need to begin the journey.  

It is likely that many of us fit into this description as seekers.  We sense that hope is weak or is waning and we seek to regain it or strengthen it.   

No matter the reason, we all find ourselves seeking greater hope.  Hope is critical to all parts of our life.  How then do we find it as we journey in life.

A seeker is also one hungering and thirsting for righteousness (Matthew 5:6).  We all start as seekers, and as our Lord promised, we will be satisfied (Matthew 7:7).  But the initial seeking and finding God is just the beginning.  As we continue to develop spiritually the seeking for even greater awareness and relationship with God should continue.  Discovery leads to more desire to seek and more discovery.  It is a positive cycle of spiritual growth.

Those who have discovered God’s will and are growing have a responsibility to fellow seekers.  We look for other seekers and seize upon the opportunity to teach them about Jesus and God’s will for their lives, beginning with their salvation.  We listen to them to understand their needs.  By this we help them, perhaps also showing them the same needs were felt by others.  We take them to God’s word and show them the path God provides.  We do this with love knowing from where we’ve come and to where we are going.

So, there are two kinds of seekers.  Those seeking to discover or regain hope in their life.  And those who have found hope and are seeing to sustain it and grow in it.

Friends, thank you for joining me as together we journey to hope.  I trust in some small way we have encouraged you to discover, sustain, or regain hope through this effort.   

I invite you to contact me if you have questions or comments, or if you wish to share with me something you’ve experienced in your journey to hope.  My email is info@ourjourneytohope.com.   

And please, share this podcast with someone whose hope is being challenged.

I look forward to sharing more with you soon.  Again, I'm Dr. Dave Laton, and thank you for listening.  And until our next episode, remember, we give all glory to God our Father.