“Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.” Psalm
130:7, NIV
I
will always remember the phone call I got at work that day. It was my husband,
and his tone was more serious than normal. He was calling with bad news. Someone
close to me had died – from suicide. I was shocked – I never would have
imagined this person choosing to end it all. Why? We learned more in the days that
followed, and when we had sifted through all of the details, one fact remained.
His circumstances had gotten to the point where he didn’t believe they would
change, and he couldn’t imagine life going on “as is.” He had lost hope.
It
has been said that humans can live for about 40 days without food, about three
days without water, and about eight minutes without air – but not even a second
without hope. While I’m not sure about the technical truth of that sentiment,
it does express the vital importance of hope in our lives.
Hope.
We hear the word so often that
we often confuse its meaning. We use it to talk
about our desires and our expectations – hoping for rain, or sunshine, or a
better job, or a spouse, or children. A quick internet search for quotes about
hope yields half a billion results, and many of the top ones have to do with an
expectation that your circumstances, however bad they seen, will turn out all
right in the end.
But
what do you do when you really don’t think your circumstances will change? Are
you supposed to just believe they
will? Is hope only about believing things will get better, or is there more to
it than that?
The
psalmist in the passage above pointed to a different kind of hope. Not hope
that our circumstances will change, but hope “in the LORD.” And why? Because God
is all-powerful and will give us a happily-ever-after ending? The reasons the
psalmist gives are simple: The Lord
is the source of unfailing love and redemption.
God
wants our hope not to be in an event, or a set of circumstances, or even
another person. In this fallen world, all of those will, at some point, fail. Instead,
our hope is to be in him, trusting in his love and his salvation in spite of
our circumstances.
Why
does the psalmist point out these things? I think first, because when we are at
the end of our rope, it is easy to question God’s love. If God really loved me, we think, my circumstances would be
different. We are easily pulled
into the belief that love protects from all harm, and so our circumstances
cause us to question his love. And yet the psalmist assures us that God’s love
is unfailing. When all else around us fails – our health, our friends, our
finances – his love doesn’t.
We
can also hope in God because with him is full
redemption. God is not just into redemption, but full redemption. He redeems us completely. He wants to take every
part of our lives and use it for his glory, even the things we can’t imagine
being usable by him.
Placing
our hope in God when life feels hopeless means choosing to believe in his love
in spite of our circumstances and trusting Him to take our hopeless situation
and use it for his glory. When we do, he takes that offering, however meager,
and enables us not only to endure, but to soar.
Father, sometimes my situation
feels so hopeless. Please help me to believe the truth of your love and your
redemptive power. Take my life and make something beautiful of it. Amen.
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR: Kristi Bothur is a pastor's wife,
teacher, and mother of five - two on earth and three in heaven. She has a
heart for other women who have experienced the loss of children during
pregnancy or in early infancy, and she has a passion for sharing the truth of
God's word in a way that makes sense in everyday life. She and her husband
are the founders of "Naomi's Circle", a ministry for parents of
babies in heaven (www.naomiscircle.weebly.com). You
are welcome to contact her at naomiscircle@gmail.com. Kristi lives in
Columbia, South Carolina, with her husband, daughter, and son.
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