It's all about hope

     This week, God was kind enough to give me a slow week to recover from the intensive class taken in the month of June.  Any time you’ve poured out a large amount of adrenaline, you can expect to have a corresponding dip until your supplies re-charge.  That’s the academic theory. See the wonderful book by Archibald Hart, entitled Adrenaline and Stress.  Of course, all the theory all goes out the window when it’s about you, doesn’t it? 

     I forgot that’s what was happening, and wondered why I was feeling wrung-out and depressed, and hopeless—that last one I don’t remember feeling for a very long time, and it was truly unsettling.  For awhile I prayed for help in that awful, helpless, terrifying condition.  I turned to God’s word, but felt a distance between us. Please, Lord, show me, help me, we’ve always been so close, even in the worst times.

     Then, finally, he opened my eyes and heart again to see what was going on.  In my vulnerable state, I was having a crisis of confidence, and forgetting that hope is not an emotion in God’s terms.  Just because my confidence in myself flagged this week, it was still rock solid in HIM.

     As I see it throughout the Bible, hope is confident trust that what has been promised will be fulfilled.  This trust includes looking forward with pleasure to that fulfillment. 

     He's the only one who deserves my confidence.  He has proven his faithfulness again and again. The more I take my eyes off myself and fix them back on him and the future he holds for me, the more I remember the abiding trust I have in him.  

     He has never let me down. He is the joy-bringer to my soul in the parched and weary land. He is I AM with me now, in my pain, bringing me through every part of it. Praise his Name!

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