Hoping Against Hope
Have you ever felt hopeless? Ever had that sickening feeling
that disaster is about to strike and there is nothing you can do to avoid it?
You look around for help and everybody else seems unaware of your problem.
Doesn’t anybody care?
Years ago we moved to Montana to start a church. It was a big
step of faith to take my family from a large metro area to a small western
town. I believed God was leading us. Judy and the kids were apprehensive. It
being the Christmas season added more anxiety. We made the move and the church
started to grow.
Some time later, I began doubting whether I had heard God
right. It was a little late to second-guess myself but fear started to creep
in. My confidence both at church and at home began to waver. What was I
thinking? I wasn’t trained to start a church from scratch. I was way over my
head and way out of my comfort zone.
Judy suggested I get away for a few days and pull myself
together. A friend offered his secluded lake cabin. I had never done anything
like that before. Leaving responsibilities behind, I set out to hear God, scary
to say the least!
Shortly after arriving, I grabbed my Bible and sat out on
the deck. Flipping it open and glancing down I saw these words: “When everything
was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of
what he saw he could not do but on what God said he would do…he plunged into
the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on
what He said.”
It felt like I was having a blood transfusion: my tired
blood exchanged for hope-enriched blood. I could feel the weight of hopelessness
falling off. Slowly my mental wheels started to focus on what God had promised.
From that day I began the journey of learning the discipline to stay focused on
what God will do and not on what I can’t do. My job is to hope against hope.
That is work enough!
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