Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope.” (Zechariah 9:12 niv)
God’s people had been carried away into captivity, and they had no one to blame but themselves. Even so, God’s discipline wasn’t forever, and the time of restoration had come. God returned many of them to their land, while some remained behind. Their hopeless situation hadn’t been hopeless at all. In fact, it was full of promise.
That’s a small picture of a much larger rescue—and of an ongoing dynamic in our lives. We find ourselves in serious predicaments and deep disappointments, sometimes as victims and sometimes of our own doing. In either case, God calls us prisoners of hope. He has promised redemption and restoration. He has accomplished the solution. If we trust him, all our situations are full of promise.
There’s something comforting about being a “prisoner of hope.” We don’t have to muster it up. We don’t have to manufacture our solutions. We just trust, believe, expect. In truth, we couldn’t escape the hope of his promise even if we wanted to. It’s ours. And the hope he gives will never leave us disappointed.
