| Prisoners
of Hope
One woman has a son and is due for an early release. She is
scared to go back home. Another was to be released in four
days and was sobbing as she came for prayer, sharing that
she had nowhere to go. Yet another will be released in the
fall after serving five years. She is uncertain, unsure and
unsteady. There is a young woman with AIDS who is quite ill.
She is scheduled to be released soon and has no idea what
to do or where to go. Will you pray for these women?These
are among the women who may be our neighbors; who sit in the
relative safety and security of a cell where structure exists,
routine is established, meals are provided. These are the
women who are afraid to be released because they are more
secure in the prison they know than the prisons looming large
and unknown in a cold and indifferent world. These are the
women who traded in the spike heels of prostitution and cocaine
for a corrections uniform. They are women who surrendered
their possessions at the prison gates, who surrendered their
hope. They walk in an environment of contained hopelessness.
The prospect of unlimited hopelessness is a burden too big
for them to bear. On a street a bock away is a woman who sits
in the prison of her house, chained to a fear that has gripped
her for years. There is a family whose hope is placed in the
lottery, only to lose week after week. Then there is the widow,
who sits in isolation, waiting for anyone to knock on her
door. At the hospital is the man they call terminal, waiting
to die. Under the bridge is the one they call homeless, young
and doe-eyed. There is illness, tragedy, another crisis. There
are the relationships that donít work. There are the
jobs that fall apart. It seems as if hope is gone, vanished
and vanquished by life. There are people in cells of all kinds
with locked gates. Some are wards of the state, some wards
of the fallen world. We might prefer to live in known hopelessness
rather than unknown hope. There is this one man in heaven;
His name is Jesus Christ, the Lion and the Lamb. He died for
our addictions, our sins, and our hopelessness. Jesus was,
and is, and shall forever be, the Restorer of our hope. To
the abandoned He says, ìI have not forsaken you.î
To the widow He says, ìI call you friend.î To
the imprisoned He says, ìYouíve not been given
the spirit of fear, but of adoption.î To the lost and
brokenhearted He says, ìBeloved one, Iíve come
for you.î To the hard-hearted He says, ìJust
open up so I can touch your heart.î To the prideful
He says, ìLittle one, lay those crowns youíre
holding onto down at my feet.î Jesus, the Restorer of
our hope. Jesus, the one who turned our valley of Achor into
a Door of Hope. In heaven the doors are open ñ the
door of hope is open to us today. It is an open door for us
to walk through. Walk through it today and receive hope. There
is something about hope. Our circumstances may not change,
but our response does. That overdue bill isnít a valley
of despair anymore ñ because we have hope. That illness
doesnít own us any longer ñ oh, we have this
hope. Just a spark of hope; that is all we need. The Holy
Spirit will ever so gently breathe on the spark to fan it
into the flame of hope. Jesus knows your unknown ñ
take hope! To the widow, go to your door. Someone is knocking
on it ñ it is your eternal Visitor, Jesus. He is your
hope. Our kids are in turmoil and we donít know what
to do. Point the bow of your boat toward the storm ñ
rise up and say, ìSolutions I may not have, but I know
the One with the Solution! I have HOPE! Shout ìgrace,
grace to the stormî ñ because we have hope. Jesus
came once on a donkey. He will come again, a warrior on a
white horse with the armies of heaven riding alongside. We
have hope ñ He lives! Hope ñ Heís returning!
Hope ñ we win!! O death, where is thy sting? We have
hope. If God is for us, who can be against us? It is great
hope. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Fill us with
hope. More than conquerors are we in Christ Jesus. I feel
this hope rising. He is able ñ to do exceedingly abundantly
more than I can ask or think ñ filled to overflowing
with this hope. Prison bars are rattling; shackles are coming
off ñ we speak hope! We have hope. We have Jesus. Paul
writes from prison in Eph. 4:1 that he is a ìprisoner
of the Lordî that he might walk worthy of the calling.
In Zechariah 9:12 we read: ìAs for you also, because
of the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free
from the waterless pit. Return to the stronghold, you prisoners
of hope. Even today I declare that I will restore double to
you.î Become a prisoner of the Lord ñ a prisoner
of hope?? We just got out! How could such a thing be? The
answer was clear for me when I heard of a state corrections
official who was invited to visit a group of men on death
row. The state official, who ran the department, was a believer.
He went to the facility and the warden escorted him to the
death row block. The group of men there thanked him for coming
and welcomed him. They said, ìSir, we know you are
a Christian. We have been praying for years that a man of
God would be put in charge of the prison system in this state.
The Lord has answered that prayer. We invited you to join
us ñ for a time of prayer and worship. Welcome to our
church; we call it the Church on Life Row.î These men
had become prisoners of a different kind; theyíd become
prisoners of hope. Sentenced to die by the hands of man, they
had been chosen by a Loving Father to have life, forevermore.
They were chained, chained to hope. This is the gospel of
Jesus Christ: in a 9 by 6 prison cell, the spirit of a free
man or woman can go anywhere. The spirit soars and nothing
can contain it. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
freedom. Return to your fortress today, beloved ones, you
prisoners of hope |
