S(Job 8:13) Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish.
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This accusation from Bildad only increased Job's suffering. Bildad misused the truth about hope. It is true that hope is the expectation of what we desire, and it is true that anyone's hope to be successful and happy apart from God's designs will always eventually lead, as Bildad said, to annihilated hope--hopelessness. Yes, hope in God will always eventually lead to eternally expanding cycles of desire and fulfillment (Romans 5:1-15; 8:18; Hebrews 6:19), but Bildad missed a pivotal insight, that godliness and suffering are not mutually exclusive.
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How do I use truth? Believing that God is truth, that His Word is truth, and that Jesus is the perfect expression of God, do I allow the Holy Spirit to use God's Word to reconfigure my understanding of life? Do I allow His Word to reshape me so I'm increasingly like God's only Son? Is my hope, my highest desire in God (Psalms 31:24; 119:81,114)?
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Lord, I invite Your Word to have free course throughout my life (2 Thess. 3:1). Help me to be boldly honest and lovingly truthful...first in my relationship with You, then with others. Help me to share Your truth in life-giving ways so hope is increases and rightly rests in You alone, never in me, other people, or systems.
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