Helmet of Hope

It’s audio devo day!

Are you confident that Jesus will deliver you from whatever trial you are currently facing? If so, you are wearing the helmet of hope! This week we talk about how essential hope is to winning our battles. The expectation of God’s goodness frames and protects our thought life. Be strengthened and encouraged as you listen here:

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Are you expecting Jesus to save you from your current troubles? Do you have a sense of confident expectation that you will see His goodness at work in your behalf? No matter what hard thing is happening right now, do you believe that He will ultimately deliver you from it?

If you answered yes to these questions, whether or not you realize it, you are wearing the helmet of salvation. This is the next piece of armor we find as we continue down our Ephesians 6 list: “Put on salvation as your helmet…” (Eph. 6:17, NLT). Holy Spirit also mentions this amazing component of our armor in 1 Thessalonians 5:8, explaining, “The hope of salvation should be our helmet” (NCV). This lets us know that it’s not just salvation you are wearing on your head. More specifically, it’s the hope of salvation. What is hope? It’s the confident anticipation of God’s goodness. Therefore, wearing the helmet of salvation means you are confidently expecting His saving power to work on your behalf.  

To put on the helmet of salvation is to choose to be expectant of God’s redeeming work in our lives. It’s embracing the hope of salvation. Hope is not just a wistful desire. It’s not a tentative wish escaping from our souls, not a mere murmur of “I hope it all works out.” Hope is so much more powerful than that. Hope is the confident expectation that you are going to see God’s hand at work, coming to your aid. Hope anchors you into the loving nature of God. It is that which rises up within you and declares, “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Ps. 27:13, NIV).

The helmet of salvation is the helmet of hope. It is yet another critical component of the armor of light; of the revelation that God has provided for our protection. Where does the helmet go? Over your mind. Over your thoughts. The hope of God’s goodness is the protection that you need for your thought life.

To understand this vital piece of armor better, let’s take a closer look at this word, salvation. Of course, first and foremost, when we hear this word, we think of becoming a Christian. We think of “getting saved.” What a priceless word this is to us indeed! Jesus has saved us from our sins and given us eternal life. The hope of heaven is indeed a vital part of the helmet of salvation.

However, we can’t miss the rest of the meaning. Biblically, the word salvation also carries the general sense of the meaning “rescue,” just as it does in English. The hope of salvation is also the specific hope that God will rescue you from whatever peril or trial you are currently facing. The Greek word for salvation, soterion, a noun, is directly related to the verb sozo, to save. Sozo is a rich term that means “to save, to heal, to deliver, to protect, to preserve, to keep safe and sound, to rescue, to restore, to make whole.”

All of this goes into our hope! Dear one, you can confidently expect that God will save you, rescue you, heal you, and restore you. I will add, though, this kind of confident expectation takes practice. You and I need to practice choosing to expect His goodness. As we do, we will find our thoughts protected from the hopelessness the enemy tries to bring against us. The helmet of hope will secure that space between your ears as an atmosphere of life and peace.

Now, don’t get me wrong here. I am not saying that God will give you a quick, easy out to all of your problems. After all I have walked through in this life, I know just as well as you that our days on Planet Earth have an inevitable portion of suffering included in them. I have had to endure through some seasons of intense adversity that have dragged on for many years. I know! I get you. I hear you. I see you. And that is exactly why we need the helmet of hope.

We find the hope of God’s rescue embodied wonderfully in this verse from 1 Peter: “And then, after your brief suffering, the God of all loving grace, who has called you to share in his eternal glory in Christ, will personally and powerfully restore you and make you stronger than ever. Yes, he will set you firmly in place and build you up” (1 Pet. 5:10, TPT). Hm. “Brief suffering.” In another place, Holy Spirit calls our troubles “light and momentary” (2 Cor. 4:17, NIV). I’m going to be honest with you. Just the other day, with tears rolling down my cheeks, I told Jesus that what I am facing right now is not light. It’s heavy! Likewise, it doesn’t feel brief!

I’ve noticed something about this seeming discrepancy. God’s definition of brief is quite different from ours. After all, two thousand years ago, Jesus said He was coming back “soon.” A thousand years really does feel like a day to Him, apparently.

But you know, even as those tears streamed down my face, my spirit was connecting into hope. I know, deep down in the deepest part of me, that the One who loves me more than His own life is at work in my circumstances. He is at work where I can’t see it. He is always working on my behalf. I know that I know that I know that I will see His goodness once again manifest in what I am facing today. The very core of me declares, “As for me, I will always have hope” (Ps. 71:14, NIV).

I always will. No matter how hard it gets, I will always have hope. Because I know who my God is. And I know that He is for me. He is going to personally and powerfully restore me and make me stronger than ever. He is going to set me firmly in place and build me up.

Where does this hope come from? It comes directly from the intimate knowledge I have of Jesus. I have long walked closely with Him. I know at a deep, deep level that His heart is towards me and He longs to do good for me. I also see His heart in the stories I read about Him. One that sticks out the most is that of His interaction with the leper who dared approach Him for healing. “If you are willing, you can make me clean,” he uttered searchingly, kneeling in desperate petition before the Savior (Mark 1:40, NKJV).

Jesus’ answer will change our lives if we allow it to: “Deeply moved, Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, ‘I want to. Be clean’” (v. 41, MSG). “I want to.” That is the image of the invisible God. That is the exact representation of the Father’s being. “I want to.”

God wants to rescue you. This is a fundamental aspect of His nature. He wants to save you. He wants to deliver you. He wants to restore you. He wants to make you whole.

This is why you can confidently expect that He will.

Let’s read this verse in its fullness now: “But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation” (1 Thess. 5:8, NLT).

The confident hope of salvation keeps us clearheaded. It frames our thought life in a way that is wonderfully life-giving. It gives us an accurate filter through which to view the hard things we face. We come to develop a thinking pattern that says, God wants to deliver me from this. After I have suffered a little while, He will.

The helmet of salvation. The helmet of hope. God wants to encompass your mind with the revelation of His desire to do good to you. The light of this revelation is a crucial part of the armor of light. Live in the light. Let that light envelope your thoughts even now. He is whispering to your heart in this moment, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jer. 29:11, KJV).

He plans on giving you an expected end. I’ll ask you again. Are you expecting Jesus to rescue you from your current trial? He wants to! And if He wants to, who can stop Him? Let’s trumpet it out together from the depths of our spirits:

“I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Ps. 27:13, NIV).

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Have you ever thought about hope being an indispensable part of walking in victory during spiritual battles?