Mark spoke this morning on the first Advent theme of hope, using the acrostic below to explain this:
Heaven
Opened
Please
Enter
The Christian view of hope is not a desperate wish that God would do something, but a sure conviction, a positive action of our mind, that God is already doing something. Ps 33:18-22 reminds us that hope brings down God’s blessings on us. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, leaving us feeling forsaken and abandoned, but God wants to fulfil our longings and heal our brokenness. (Prov 13:12).One of the difficulties we face with hope is not knowing God’s timescales, but there are many examples of God opening heaven in the Bible and each time, it is to reveal His desire to bless.
In Gen 28:12-14, Jacob had a dream of an open heaven, with angels ascending and descending on a ladder. When God opens heaven for us, it becomes a tree of life to us. Jesus said to Nathanael that he would see heaven open and the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man (John 1:51), God sends His angels to guard, lead and provide for us. The ultimate opening of heaven is seen at Christmas, when Jesus is given to us as the hope of all mankind.
In Acts 11:5-9, we see another time when God opened heaven for Peter, resulting not only in new dietary laws, but an assurance that what God has called clean should not be called impure or common. This vision, which led to the greater evangelisation of Gentiles, resulted in much blessing and in salvation for many.
God invites us to feast on His many blessings which are poured out for us. Ps 23:5 paints the picture of a table of God’s blessings stretching farther than the eye can see. The picture here is of overflowing blessing, of anointing for service and of unstoppable blessing, even if enemies abound.
We often talk of the heavens opening when we are referring to deluges of rain. God invites us to enter the deluge of blessing he has for us, wanting us to be soaked. Rom 15:13 reminds us that God is the founder of hope (He is the ‘God of hope’) and He wants to fill us with joy and peace as we trust in Him so that we too can overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. This overflowing is an abundance, an excess, and hope is able to motivate us and sustain us through periods of uncertainty and despair.
