Hope Unswervingly

Read Isaiah 30:18 When a child asks his parent for candy at 5:00 o’clock, the answer will typically be something like, “You may have one after supper.” The child may whine and complain that he wants it right now, that he’s hungry, or that the candy will not spoil his appetite. But parents with their child’s best interest in mind will say, “No, you have to wait.” Why do they do that? It’s because they know that good nutrition must come first before sweets for their child to be healthy. They know it is better to teach their child to wait than to give in to his demands at every turn. Parents know that there are things for which a child must learn to wait because it will be better and more beneficial later than it is right now. God is the ultimate Parent. He knows this principle better than any of us, and He uses it in our lives to teach and discipline us as well. Remember that His plan always comes out of His goodness and grace. A parent saying “no” or “wait” does not mean he does not...

Read John 11:1-4 (We'll go farther in the story next time) Jesus’ friend Lazarus was sick. Very sick. His sisters sent for Jesus, the compassionate miracle-worker. When Jesus didn’t come right away, Martha and Mary suffered. They expected Jesus, the Healer who loved them, to come and save Lazarus. When Lazarus died instead, they were left with their own thoughts and questions. I can imagine that they wavered in their faith, sometimes thinking, “Jesus has so many people to help, of course He couldn’t just come when we asked,” and sometimes “But He’s our friend. Aren’t we important enough to Him that He would come and help?” They maybe even wondered why Jesus didn’t say the word from afar and save Lazarus’ life. He’d done it for others. Why not for them?

Read Genesis 13:14-17; 15:5-7; 17:4-8; 18:10  I am in a waiting period in my life. At the beginning of it, I tried everything I could think of. I had a self-imposed timeline of one month to “fix it” or I was sure I would no longer have any control over the outcome. My actions were frantic. My words were often angry. My prayers were desperate and pleading. When the month had passed, I was no closer to my desired outcome than I had been at the beginning, but my prayers had been heard. God spoke to me like a little girl winding down from a tantrum, “OK, are you calm enough to listen now? I have some things I want to say but you’ve been making such a fuss, you couldn’t hear them.” When I gave up the human effort, I felt clear direction from God as to what I was supposed to do with this time. As months passed, though, I have gone through periods of discouragement, wondering how long the wait will be and what outcome God has in mind. Each time I have gotten to this point, God...

Read Lamentations 3:22-26 At a family gathering, 3-year-old cousin Ben invited my husband to play hide-and-seek. “You find me. I’ll hide,” he said. Ben promptly covered his own eyes and plopped down on the deck right in front of everybody and announced, “I’m hiding!” Jim played along, searching all over the area and even lifting Ben up to look underneath him and see if he was hiding there!   Our job involves continuing to seek God with all of our hearts – even when it hurts, when things don’t make sense, or when we can’t possibly see a positive outcome. God hides in plain sight, making it easy for us to find Him if we will just make the effort. When we do, he promises to listen, to be found, to gather and to restore us. It is not likely that we go through this process of seeking God just once in our waiting. For me, it has been a cycle of actively seeking, followed by times of resting in His peace and feeling His strength. Then I begin to feel discouragement and anxiety...

Read James 5:7-11 While you are learning to be patient for God’s plan to unfold, it is also helpful to remember that when God is perceived to be SILENT, it does not mean he is IDLE. Any parent or small children knows the feeling – that moment when we realize that the kids playing in the next room have been awfully quiet for quite a while. When my nephew was little, my sister (his mother) had a moment like that. While she was working in the kitchen, the kids had been out of sight in another room for quite a while and she heard no fighting or typical kid noises. Gradually she began to realize how long they had been quiet, and decided to go check on them. Not wanting to interrupt the quiet play, she peered around the corner into the room. Before her lay a winter wonderland of bean bag chair stuffing, being pushed, scooped, and driven through by a variety of toy machines. Silent most definitely did NOT mean idle. Imagine yourself as that parent who realizes things are amazi...