No matter what you’re going through, no matter if you’re winning or losing, hero or underdog, God is at work ... and He doesn’t want you to expend a single ounce of worry or fear over that thing, whatever it may be. All will be well. It’s going to be OK.
We can endure the loss of an awful lot. People throughout history have lost their health, their financial well-being, their reputations, their careers and success, but they’ve still gone on. People experience relational loss or emotional trauma and still carry on. Pain, rejection, isolation, even persecution and abuse. But human beings cannot survive the loss of ONE THING ... they cannot survive the loss of HOPE.
'Human beings cannot survive the loss of one thing ... they cannot survive the loss of hope.'
Hope is how we live. Hope is what gets us from one day to the next. You go to school and you hope one day you’ll graduate. You graduate and you hope you’ll be able to enter into a great career. You’re single and you hope you meet the right person and get married. You hope Jesus at least holds off His return until you can have your honeymoon. You hope you have children. We live by hope ... and when hope is gone, joy and courage evaporate.
One of the most profound Proverbs says: ‘Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.’ (Proverbs 13:12)
Here’s the deal with hope. The issue isn’t just whether you’re a hopeful person or not. The issue is: Are you putting your hope in the right thing? Jesus comes and says to put your hope in the Kingdom of God, because His plan for the universe will one day prevail. It will.
All will be well. It’s going to be OK. Don’t give up. Don’t quit. It’s only a matter of time. It’s not over yet.
And be blessed.
1 comment:
Hope is good. Hope is natural for free-spirited personalities. That's cool! Others develop a hopeful positive outlook and learn to practice all the proper proticol and skills that can make conversation pleasant (and even cause things to go their own way). That's probably wise. But it is true...just being hopeful (or even wise or charming)isn't as important as holding on to hope in God's plan no matter what. When "I hope so" becomes "I believe so"--That is Powerful! We are weak, but He is stong and He loves us. But He resists the pride and self-sufficiency He knows we struggle with. If we walk in the truth and put our trust in Him even when it doesn't look good, we can still believe. What is painful and appears as loss sometimes isn't. The darkest hour comes before the dawn. Your right -- it's where we put our hope. Picture this: Holy Sweet Jesus hanging and bleeding on a cross. That didn't look like hope or faith to most. It looked like loss. An empty lifeless body. Christians can even get desensitized to this familiar story and loose hope in this part, BUT then the earth shook and a dead man is alive again! Because of that part, we can have His Spirit living inside of us. There was a time I didn't understand what the Bible meant when it says we need to hang out with God in prayer and wait for His Spirit. Sometimes I don't feel like I have time for waiting, BUT He works through our surrender and infuses us with hope and faith to give more or ourselves on behalf of others there. God wants to fill the church in America with His Spirit and bring us all back to life. It's not far off somewhere. There's hope right NOW. Acts 2.
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