Hope Unswervingly

  Read Isaiah 30:20-22 What truth is contained in these verses!! When we seek the Lord during hard times, things will become clearer and powerful things happen. Let's look at the three basic lessons that have become clear to me as I've studied this passage. First, God provides what we need – “meager bread and water.” Although we may be learning to do without some things, we still have a God who will meet our needs and help us become aware of our greediness for more than that. He has promised that when we first seek Him, He will provide for the daily stuff we tend to worry about (Matthew 6:33). Second, our Teacher will not be hidden and He will not be silent. Adversity helps us to grow and to learn about what God wants from us. As we stumble through the chaos, we will begin to see God in the midst of it, and God’s voice will become clearer.   He will lead us in His ways. Finally, when we are struggling, our lives get sifted. As the shaking continues, we begin to recogni...

Read Psalm 25, especially focusing on verses 16-22. David closes this Psalm with heartfelt words, speaking all the things He needs from God at this time. This is exactly what God wants of us. We have declared our trust and are living it out by keeping our eyes on God. Now ask. Speak to God from the depths of your being and tell Him what you long for. I often find that when I’m hurting the most, words don’t come very easily. However, reading the Psalms as prayers often express exactly what I’m feeling. Verses 16-22 give a wonderful example if you don’t know where to start. I am alone. (v. 16) Our distress can leave us in a dark and empty place, feeling like there is absolutely no one to whom we can turn. Acknowledge this feeling and remember that God does not EVER leave us alone. Bring me out of my sufferings. (v. 17) We’ve already mentioned that the Christian life does not prevent suffering, but that God always provides a way through it. Look to Him for the solution. Take away ...

Read Psalm 25:12-15 Much of the waiting process has to do with learning where your focus needs to be. If we focus on what we don’t have or don’t yet know, we lose out on so much of what God has for us right now. These verses of Psalm 25 remind us of the benefits of keeping our eyes focused on God. The one who lives in worshipful submission to God Almighty will be given direction in life (v. 12) Our human understanding does not give us a complete or accurate picture of what it will take to get to the end result of our waiting, but God does know that picture. If we stay focused on Him, we will receive His guidance as we navigate this unfamiliar road. I’m one who likes to travel with a map in her lap. I enjoy looking ahead at the route, knowing the final destination, and marking off the cities and landmarks we go by on the way there. I am less enamored with a GPS that only shows me the next turn I’ll need to make. I guess that requires a lot more trust in the device than I tend to hav...

Read Psalm 25:1-5 Psalm 25 is a prayer of one who waits for the Lord. If we break it down, we will see a basic pattern for prayer that will help us to pray effectively in times of waiting, much like the Lord’s Prayer teaches us a pattern to use in our daily prayer time. David starts out by declaring his dependence on God. Verses 1-5 state that he trusts God and turns to Him for what he’s waiting for. That kind of trust will not disappoint, but misplaced trust will cause problems. On top of this basic declaration of trust, David pleads for understanding and guidance to teach him along the way. Putting these verses in more blunt language of today, it might read “Lord, I know I can trust you. Don’t prove me wrong.” This is an excellent place to start our prayers. When we declare our faith in God, even when we don’t feel it so completely, we put our focus in the right place. The solution to our problem or situation will not come from somewhere else; it will come from God. God wants t...

Read Proverbs 16:9 Why does waiting seem to be so hard for us? We tend to see waiting as an idle or pointless delay in our plans, hopes and dreams. But what if there is purpose to it? What if I can be active in my waiting? How would that change my perspective, my attitude, and indeed, my life? From the start of life we are impatient, and some of us never “outgrow” it! The toddler whines to get the toy he wants right now. The teenager gets upset at the phone when the video is slow to download. The adult goes into debt so that she doesn’t have to wait for that wonderful fill-in-the-blank that will make life so much better. Each of these is a symptom of impatience, and a sign that we have not learned God’s lesson that waiting is an essential part of our Christian development. Without it, we become a world of Veruca Salts of Willy Wonka fame, going around pointing at all of our wants and desires and screaming out, “I want it now, Daddy!” As I look back on my prayers in my earlier fa...

Read John 11:11-43 Let’s visit the sisters at Bethany one more time. Mary and Martha have set an example for us by believing in Jesus as the Messiah, even though He did not act in the way they expected or hoped. When Martha questions why Jesus didn’t come to save Lazarus’ life, she immediately follows it with a statement of faith. “Yet even now I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You.” (John 11:22) When Jesus tells her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live,” she affirms her belief again. There is no doubt that the sisters did not allow their questions to shake their faith. We don’t always understand why God does what He does, or why He waits to act, but we can still remain solid in our belief that God is God and He loves and cares for us. That never changes. We can depend on it. Jesus twice points out that the reason he waited was “so that you may believe.” (John 11:15, 42) This is a wonderful reminder ...

Read 1 Kings 18 My last two devotions have given us a glimpse into Elijah’s life, and we continue there today. My favorite part of this account is the last part of chapter 18, when we see Elijah’s faith in God as he continues to wait. We see the first glimpse of this in verse 41. After the demonstration of God’s power and the elimination of the prophets of Baal, Elijah confidently says to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a rainstorm.” Let me point out, there were still no clouds in the sky (we’ll hear about this in a minute). It was not really thundering or lightning. But Elijah’s faith in God’s promise was unwavering. He knew what God had said, and he had enough life experience with God to know that He was trustworthy.   It is not faith in the outcome that we need, but faith in the God who holds the outcome in His hands. Because of this faith, Elijah could hear the rainstorm before it was there. At this point, he assumes that posture of worship we h...

Read 1 Kings 18 Chapter 18 tells the detailed story of the dramatic demonstration Elijah used to remind the people who is the One True God. There is much rich content in this story, but instead of looking at too many details here, I want to focus on the end result and on one simple act Elijah did when it was over. In the contest between Baal and God, Elijah’s ultimate goal was to turn the people’s hearts back to worshiping God (verse 37). When the people saw the fire on the very wet wood, stones, dust, and even in the trench around the altar, “They fell face down and said, ‘Yahweh, He is God!’” This is the turning point in the story because God had promised the rain would come when the people’s hearts changed. We see this attitude of worship in Elijah too, as he is still waiting for that promised rain. “Elijah went up to the summit of Carmel.” And what did he do there? “He bowed down on the ground and put his face between his knees.” Elijah assumed this humble posture of wo...

Read 1 Kings 17 God instructs Elijah to go to Zarephath where he will find a widow who will provide for him. Elijah again obeys, but when he arrives and asks for provisions, he finds out she has nothing to give. One jar of flour, nearly empty. Just a drop of oil in the jug. Her plan? To bake one last loaf and prepare to die of starvation.  One with less faith than Elijah may have rolled his eyes and moved on, questioning God all the while. This is your provision? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to send me to someone rich who had plenty of extra? But that is not Elijah’s response. Trusting in God’s plan, he offered reassurance and comfort to the widow. He instructed her to go ahead and be hospitable and generous, and that this selfless action would provide for her and her son as well. (17:13-14) Both were obedient to God’s plan. Both helped each other. In their actions, both stopped focusing on their own needs and focused on the other. In the process, both had needs...

Read 2 Chronicles 20:5-12 When our son was a toddler, I was home with him almost full time. We spent our days together – days filled with reading books, doing chores, making food, disciplining, being creative, playing outside, and taking naps. He was an independent introvert, so he did not need me at his side all the time. I had a habit, though, of always letting him know if I was going to leave the room. “Be right back,” I’d say, as I went around the corner to empty the laundry basket, or whatever else needed to be done. I wasn’t sure it ever made a difference to him until one day, when he was old enough to begin stringing words together. He got up from what he was playing with, looked at me directly, and said, “Be right back” (using the same inflection and gesture I always did!) as he went into his room to retrieve another toy to add to his farm on the living room carpet. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized the impact of that small phrase. Although he never reacted ...

Read 2 Peter 1:5-7; James 1:2-4 I heard a discussion recently that centered on perseverance. Everyone there agreed - perseverance is a very good thing and is very important when times get rough. It will help see you through to the outcome you desire. Then someone added a caveat. She said that there comes a time when you may see that the outcome is not going to be what you wanted, so then it’s time to let go of perseverance. The trick, most agreed, was knowing when this was the case. Something in this didn’t sit right with me. As I looked around at all the nodding heads, I found myself asking out loud, “I wonder, is there value in perseverance even when the outcome is not what you had imagined?” Because of the setting, it was left hanging as a rhetorical question, but I have been reflecting on it ever since. If perseverance is only desirable if we can hope for a particular outcome, we are putting our hope in the outcome, and not in God or His word. We are settling for a huma...