We Need Hope From God

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 

Sometimes hope can seem hard to come by. We hope our afflictions improve, and yet day after day they stay the same or get worse. We wonder if we will ever see any relief. 

As Christians we know we serve the God of Hope. Everything about Christianity is based upon hope. We have hope in a Savior who arose from the dead. We have the hope of heaven when our lives down here are through. We ask for daily bread from our Father God hoping He will meet our needs.  

"Hope is the word which God has written on the brow of every man." — Victor Hugo 

Within every Christian is the Holy Spirit of God. When we find our hope failing, or weakening, we need to call upon Him to renew our strength, and reinvigorate our hope. For hope is not a feeling, it is a decision and an inner force that compels us to keep going when it would be easy to quit and give up. 

Hope is a powerful, spiritual force. It lifts tired hands and weary feet to step out in faith toward a hope that lies before us. Hope changes things, but mostly it changes us. 

Today you may feel that you have no strength and no hope. I would encourage you to call upon God to strengthen you from within. The power of God resides within you and can fill you with hope to carry you beyond your present weakness and current discouragement.  

Prayer: Dear Lord, each day brings its own difficulties and discouragements. We need You to fill us with hope, empower us by Your Holy Spirit to see past our temporary problems and into a future where hope constantly refreshes us. Amen. 

When You Cannot Meet Expectations

“When she saw her hope unfulfilled, her expectation gone, she took another of her cubs and made him a strong lion.” Ezekiel 19:5 

  

  In the expectations game everyone loses when it comes to living with an illness. We can become discouraged and depressed when our hopes are dashed, when we have a few “good days” and expect them to continue, only to be knocked flat again by affliction. 

  Expectations can create all sorts of problems between spouses and friends and family. We say we will do something, or make plans ahead of time to go to an event, only to have our hopes thwarted and the injury multiplied by disappointing those close to us. And the situation is not improved by those who have little understanding or willingness to accept such disappointment. 

  We cannot control the reactions of others. If grown people act like immature children because the stars do not always align perfectly for them there is nothing we can do about it. If people have short memories, forgetting the good days God has blessed them with, and are only willing to focus on disappointments, we can’t make them broaden their vision to see the entire picture.  

  The rain often follows sunny days, the seasons of life and the seasons of our illness change. It is wonderful to see the sun shining after so many rainy days, and how great it is when the Lord blesses us with improvements in our circumstances after a difficult period. But though we may try to see and accept these situations philosophically, others may ignore the good things and only focus on the half-empty glass in front of them. 

  It can be painful when friends and family turn away from us because of our afflictions. It is astounding that when we need friends and family the most, they can shun us, react with anger and resentment when we are under the pressure of flaring illness and pain.  

  I have learned over the years to take my frustrations and disappointments to God. For He will give you the strength and patience to deal with difficult individuals, and with the worsening affliction. 

  It is very sad that on top of the weight of affliction and illness the afflicted must also deal with unmet expectations of others.  

  Give the Lord your frustrations, and pray for patience with those who have unreal expectations when you are dealing with affliction.  

  Prayer: Dear Lord, frustrations abound in our lives because of afflictions, and disappointment, especially coming from others, is very hard to bear. Help us to be patient in affliction. Amen. 

There Is More To The Picture

“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12 

  

  “There’s always another story. There’s more than meets the eye.” ---W. H. Auden 

  There is so much truth to that. We often see difficult circumstances through a narrow lens that doesn’t let in all the light or the complete image. Sometimes tunnel vision robs us of the entire picture that surrounds us. 

  When I think of suffering, pain, tragedy and loss, I try to remind myself that what I can understand is entirely limited by the fact of my humanity. I’m not God. I don’t know everything. I cannot see all things. I don’t understand all that is involved in every situation, but must allow God to be God, and trust in His decisions and oversight. 

  We pass judgment so easily; we are too quick to think the worst. 

  Humility can be our friend by reminding us that we only see the beginning of the story, just the first few lines in the play, and the end can bring us to a conclusion much different than the circumstances allow right now. Trusting God to bring a good ending to the story, even while the portion we see looks very grim, can bring better understanding to the temporary painful episodes in our lives. 

  Life can deliver us difficult blows, striking us so hard that we fall to our knees. Afflictions of all sorts can disable us, cripple us, and make us feel very small compared to our circumstances. 

  When the dark night of trials and tribulations surround us, when depression crushes us with its mountainous weight, it is then that we must look to God. Even in anger and frustration asking for His intervention in our lives and in our terrible circumstances. Perhaps our frustration is with God, the answer is still to go to Him, tell Him how we feel, and pour the pain of our lives into His hands. That is an act of faith that I believe God will honor. 

  Our lives are very short on this earth, and sometimes God trusts us with pain and misery, with loss and separation of the things we love and cherish. The Lord may not give us good answers to the losses we feel deep in our hearts, but if we will look up, if we will cling to a shred of hope, we can get through today, and perhaps tomorrow as well. 

  God gives us our daily bread, and it is day by day that we must carry our burdens and face our hardships trusting that each day His grace and mercy will pull us through. Only God knows all things and we must trust Him when our vision is narrow and we don’t understand the way ahead. 

  Prayer: Dear Lord, our vision is limited, we do not see what You see, so help us to be humble in that truth. Amen.