December 3 • Getting Through 

Hope wires our mind and orients us toward the future.  Hope gives strength and guides actions. Hope is what you need to take another step. We put our hope in many things: money, status, relationships. We can make it far on the strength of our mind, body, and will, but the time will come when we clearly see that our souls cannot rest in our strength. 

Things change. Today you are happy; tomorrow you are sad. Today, you are confident, but the words or actions of someone else wreak havoc. If hope is to sustain you, it must be built on something stronger than you. No matter how great or important or powerful something is, everything in this world is doomed to destruction and decay. Everything changes. Everything comes to ruin. Except for One. “I the Lord do not change. Therefore you are not destroyed.” [Malachi 3]

As you go through difficulties, consider that God might be chipping away at all your half-hearted hopes. As you get more disillusioned with people, institutions, or yourself, take a moment to dwell on what this is doing to your mental framework of the future. Your suffering could lead you to despair. Or it could lead you to a more real and authentic hope. It may not seem like it, but God is providing for you and even protecting you as you face hardship and pain. You will get through this. Be patient. Pray. And wait on the One who doesn’t change. 

“Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather. And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.” [Psalm 39:6-7]