PEOH — When Hope Gets Misplaced

There is a difference between having hope backwards and having hope misplaced.

Last time, we looked at EPOH. Every letter of HOPE was there, but the entire word was facing the wrong direction. It represented the way we can misunderstand biblical hope and turn it into little more than wishful thinking.

But this time, the letters aren’t backwards.

They’re scattered.

PEOH.

Everything needed to spell HOPE is still present. Nothing has been removed. The letters have simply landed in the wrong places.

And I wonder how often that happens with our hope.

We haven’t stopped believing in God. We haven’t walked away from our faith. We still pray. We still read His Word. We still believe He is faithful.

Yet somewhere along the way, our hope quietly moves.

Sometimes it moves so gradually that we don’t even notice.

We begin with God, but then God provides something good, and before long, our confidence begins resting in what He provided rather than in the One who provided it.

Money becomes security.

A person becomes our assurance that we’ll be okay.

A job becomes our source.

Success becomes evidence that God is pleased with us.

An answered prayer becomes evidence that God is faithful.

And perhaps the most subtle of all, the outcome we desire becomes the place where our hope lands.

None of these things have to be bad for our hope to become misplaced.

That is what makes misplaced hope so difficult to recognize.

We tend to think anything competing with God must look obviously wrong. But sometimes our hope becomes misplaced in something completely reasonable, even something God Himself has given us.

There is nothing wrong with having money. We need it to live.

There is nothing wrong with loving another person and finding comfort in that relationship.

There is nothing wrong with having a job and being grateful for the income it provides.

There is nothing wrong with wanting something we have worked on to succeed.

There is certainly nothing wrong with rejoicing over an answered prayer.

The question is not whether those things are good.

The question is whether we have asked them to carry something they were never designed to carry.

Psalm 42 gives us a beautiful picture of someone wrestling with this very issue.

The psalmist is troubled. His soul is cast down. He remembers better days, when he went with others to the house of God with joy and praise. Now his circumstances are different, and he is experiencing deep discouragement.

Then he speaks to his own soul:

“Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God…” (Psalm 42:5)

Three simple words.

Hope in God.

Not hope in circumstances changing.

Not hope in getting back what was lost.

Not hope in another person fixing the situation.

Not even hope in understanding why everything happened.

Hope in God.

There is an important difference between hoping for something from God and placing our hope in God.

We can absolutely hope for things.

We can hope for provision.

We can hope for healing.

We can hope for reconciliation.

We can hope for an opportunity.

We can hope for growth.

We can hope that something we have prayed about finally changes.

But those hopes must never become the foundation underneath us.

Because what happens when the thing we hoped for doesn’t happen?

What happens when the money decreases?

What happens when the person disappoints us?

What happens when the job disappears?

What happens when the opportunity doesn’t come?

What happens when something we believed would succeed doesn’t?

What happens when God’s answer to our prayer looks nothing like the answer we expected?

If our peace disappears with the thing, perhaps the thing had begun carrying more of our hope than we realized.

Sometimes we discover misplaced hope through disappointment.

We become frustrated with something because we expected it to make us feel secure.

We become devastated by someone’s response because we expected that person to reassure us of our worth.

We panic when finances change because somewhere along the way the amount in the account became the evidence that we would be okay.

We question God’s faithfulness when a prayer isn’t answered according to our expectations because we had quietly made the answer responsible for proving that God was listening.

And perhaps we even become exhausted trying to control outcomes because we have convinced ourselves that everything will finally be okay once life looks the way we think it should.

That’s a tremendous amount of weight to place on something temporary.

Money was never designed to carry our hope.

Neither was another person.

Neither was a job.

Neither was success.

Neither was an answered prayer.

Neither was an outcome.

They can be blessings. They can be provisions. They can be answers. They can be things for which we thank God deeply.

But they cannot become God.

This is where misplaced hope can become particularly deceptive. We may still be talking about God while depending upon something else.

We can pray, “God, provide for me,” while believing that a certain amount of money is what will finally make us secure.

We can pray, “God, lead me,” while already deciding which outcome must happen.

We can pray, “God, I trust You,” while inwardly believing that His trustworthiness will be proven by whether He does what we’re asking.

We haven’t necessarily rejected God.

Our hope has simply moved.

HOPE became PEOH.

All the pieces are still there, but they are no longer where they belong.

And perhaps the answer isn’t to stop wanting things, stop making plans, stop loving people, or stop praying specifically.

Perhaps the answer is much simpler.

Put hope back where it belongs.

In God.

Let money be provision without becoming security.

Let people be loved without becoming saviors.

Let a job be employment without becoming your source.

Let success be something to celebrate without becoming evidence of your worth.

Let answered prayer be something that causes gratitude without becoming the measurement of God’s faithfulness.

And let outcomes remain in God’s hands without requiring them to determine whether you trust Him.

Because God does not become faithful when the answer arrives.

He was faithful before we ever asked.

God does not become our provider when money appears.

He was our source before the provision took form.

God does not become good when circumstances improve.

He was good while we were still waiting.

Maybe this is why the psalmist had to speak directly to his own soul.

Sometimes our hearts need reminding where hope belongs.

Hope in God.

Not merely hope for something from God.

When we recognize that our hope has landed somewhere else, we don’t have to condemn ourselves. We can simply pick it up and return it to its proper place.

Because misplaced hope doesn’t always mean we stopped believing in God.

Sometimes it simply means we asked something else to carry what only God can carry.

Reflection

Where has my hope landed lately?

Has something good quietly become responsible for making me feel safe?

Has another person become responsible for reassuring me that I’m okay?

Has an outcome become responsible for proving that God is faithful?

Perhaps today is simply an invitation to put the letters back where they belong.

Not PEOH.

HOPE.

And not hope scattered among everything God might give us.

Hope in God.

Much Love

~Gayla~