We think life is pointed in the
right direction, hope for a stretch of smooth road, then the phone rings or a
letter arrives and … there is another ‘situation.’ After one of those phone calls yesterday, I
remarked to my administrative assistant, “Could I get even one month without
having a major challenge show up in my life?”
Almost in the same breath, I put the problem in God’s hand with faithful
expectation that He knows the way and that He is working for our good.
When, as a little boy, I would complain about something I found unpleasant my Grandma used to quote a snippet from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. She would say:
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
Disappointment turns some into angry people. It turns others into cynics never seeing a good thing in anyone or anything! It brings on despair in a few – a deep kind of depression turns every day to darkness. There is a better way to deal with life's disappointments. It’s called HOPE.
The Christian’s hope is much
more than mere optimism. It is a core conviction that God rules, that He is
actively working for our good. I know
that, but at our Bible Study fellowship last night, while reading Romans 8 to
the group, the promise took hold of me powerfully. Emotion choked me as I read those amazing
words inspired by the Spirit. "We know that God causes everything to work
together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his
purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to
become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers
and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And he gave
them right standing with himself, and he promised them his glory. What can we
say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be
against us?" (Romans 8:28-31, NLT) If you are wrestling with some uncertainty
today, go back and read those lines out loud.
Let the Word own you, settle you, and give you peace.
Our Christianity is not just about eternal life. Yes, Heaven is
on the horizon but IF we walk with the Lord with hope today, those unexpected
disappointments are met with a
supernatural serenity! Peter says it
like this: "In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an
inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you,
who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation
that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice,
though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of
trials." (1 Peter 1:3-6, NIV)
In this season, as we prepare
to celebrate the Resurrection, meet the challenges, the sorrows, the
disappointments – with ‘living hope!’
Because Christ emerged from His Tomb, even the grim, dark valley of
death, the last enemy, is overcome. Not even the thought of our mortality can
steal our hope and joy because of the inheritance of eternal life that is
assured.
When disappointment comes,
one of the first casualties is often faith. Don’t let that happen to you.
Instead, choose to trust. The bitterness of missed expectations is sweetened
when we set our ultimate hope in the Lord! Here’s a word from the Word for the
disappointed. Isaiah 40:30-31 reminds us that: "Even
youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and
fall; but those who hope in the
LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will
run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."
In this broken world, full of disappointment, marked by uncertainty about tomorrow, yes, with rainy days that come to all of us - we are people of hope. Ours is not a naive and silly way of thinking that will not see life as it is. It is not escapist. We are possessed by a hope settled on the rock solid guarantee of eternal life in God and His promise to work in us today to accomplish His will. And so we pray, ever more earnestly, "May your Kingdom come, and Your will be done - on earth, as it is in Heaven." Amen.
In this broken world, full of disappointment, marked by uncertainty about tomorrow, yes, with rainy days that come to all of us - we are people of hope. Ours is not a naive and silly way of thinking that will not see life as it is. It is not escapist. We are possessed by a hope settled on the rock solid guarantee of eternal life in God and His promise to work in us today to accomplish His will. And so we pray, ever more earnestly, "May your Kingdom come, and Your will be done - on earth, as it is in Heaven." Amen.
________
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus’ Name!
On Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand!
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