Been a long while since I’ve last posted – going to try and clear the dust mites and cob-webs from my blog. ;-)
So here’s what’s up - this week, and the week prior, I’ve been hearing and/or reminded of the verse in Psalms where it states “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (Psalms 42:11). I feel like it’s been everywhere! Songs, thoughts, things people say, random things throughout the day, ect.
I honestly love the concept of “hope.” It is, to me, a very strong and powerful thing. It is a driving force. It is faith based, so to speak, and while it can leave one vulnerable it can also be the most reassuring thing.
What’s caught my particular attention, though, is hope and how it plays a role in knowing and believing in Christ, and how that, in turn, affects my day-to-day life. My faith and belief in Christ produces within me a lot of hope. Because I can look back on my life and see where hope in Christ has led me out of many difficult times. My hope in God has enabled me to feel secure in this life, regardless of what hardship comes my way. Really cool thing! And I know I am well taken care of and looked after by Him. But this is definitely something I lose sight of often.
I feel as though there are so many things in this world that ask us to place our hope in it when, in the end, it tends to only leave us feeling empty and broken. Whether it be hope in a company, hope in money, a person, a thing, an idea or alternative concept, or what have you. There is no firm foundation to stand on. Things constantly change, shift, or just end completely. This makes it hard to know for certain if your hope in that particular thing will end in your favor.
It’s pretty frustrating, is it not?
This is what brings me to where my particular hope steams from and what’s been nagging at my heart lately. Prior to knowing and believing in Christ I put a lot of hope and trust in worldly things (and, honestly, I still do sometimes!) but I was always let down and disappointed.
I’d put hope in a person to fulfill my every need and expectation – that always ended badly.
I put hope in my job to always care for my financial needs – that would end badly as well.
I put hope in the plans I set for myself and, as you can probably assume, that didn’t end in my favor either.
The list goes on!
Therefore, due to the consistency in which things change, I’ve come to learn (and am speaking entirely from experience) that hope in anything other than Christ can leave one feeling pretty darn disappointed. I always wanted something more, something I could know for certain would last, and something I feel wouldn’t ever change. I got a whole lot more than I ever could have anticipated when I started to learn and understand Christ and all that He stood for.
There wasn’t/isn’t anything about Him that was unappealing to me. Nothing about Him, or His message, that made me second guess putting faith in Him. He changed me completely, inside and out. Because of His hand in my life I’m overflowing with a whole new kind of hope and this feeling of fullness I’ve never experienced before. It hasn’t been an easy thing to do and I still struggle to fully put all of my hope/trust/faith in Him, for every, and any, need I have. But at the end of the day my hope in Christ has never left me feeling empty or disappointed. Ever. And that’s something that I can’t confidently say about anything else I’ve ever tried to put my faith and trust in.
Might seem a tad crazy at first, sure, but ultimately it’s the most amazing thing to experience knowing you can have 100% confidence in this one thing.
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