Overflowing with Hope

 Can we overflow with hope?

Paul wasn't done talking about hope to the Romans in chapter 8. He references it at least twice more before the end of the book.

Romans 12:12 says:

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."

At first I found it a little strange that all of these were put together. But, I think they actually often go together in life.

Hope is often challenged by our circumstances. But it's something we can still have. As we keep praying and seeking God through all of the challenging things life brings our way, our hope can remain and we can find joy.

That brings me to one more reference to hope. Romans 15:13 says:

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit who is in you."

Hope isn't something we have to try to come up with on our own. That's a relief. Because I'd have very little hope most of the time if it all depended on me.

We serve a God of hope and He has given us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit fills us with hope.

Our job is to choose to trust.

That's what makes hope feel hard so often. We don't trust easily. We don't want to trust anyone or anything but ourselves.

For hope to live in us and overflow from us, we have to choose to trust God daily - sometimes minute-by-minute.

Where are you placing your trust?

Do you choose to trust God daily, so that you can be filled to overflowing with hope?

Hope for the Future

 What is hope for?

As we continue to read Paul's writing about hope in Romans, we move into one of my favourite chapters in Scripture. I regularly go back to Romans 8 to be reminded of the incredible truths in this chapter. 

But there is a section of this chapter that I have spent less time on. They're the verses not highlighted or underlined - or, they were before I really took the time to understand the hope they talk about.

Romans 8:22-25 says:

"We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes  for what they already have? But if we hope  for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently."

Paul writes that the hope we're holding onto has a future focus - an eternal focus. That's what gets us through when life gets hard. We know there's something coming that's worth the struggle now.

The challenge is how easily we forget this. We get caught up in our earthly circumstances and that's all we see. And we lost our hope.

We have to remember to lift our eyes off our circumstances. To set them on what is coming. To set them on eternity with Jesus.

When I think about this challenge, I remember another conversation I had with my Grandma. This one didn't come on the golf course. It came in a few short minutes before church on a Sunday morning.

I don't remember when we had this conversation - I'd actually forgotten about it until I was studying what Scripture had to say about hope. I know this conversation was a few years before she ended up in long term care, but well after Parkinson's disease had made her require a wheelchair for much of life. She was waiting for the service to start and for my Grandpa to be finished greeting people and come to sit with her.

She told me quite honestly how frustrating it was to her to be stuck wherever her wheelchair got parked and have to wait for people to come over to her. How frustrating the limited mobility, even at home, was. But, then she began to talk about her hope for eternity. That she knew a time was coming when she would no longer be limited.

I missed the significance of those words at the time, but they hit me as I was studying this passage. My Grandma was groaning as she struggled on this earth and waited for what she knew was coming. She was hoping for what was to come in the midst of a challenging disease that was slowly stealing her independence. And, although she would tell you she wasn't always good at waiting patiently, there was a grace to how she waited and held onto the hope of eternity.

It challenges me about where I'm looking. 2021 was a hard one for me and I struggled to hold onto hope. I see now, just how important it is to lift our eyes if we're going to hold onto hope.

Where are you looking for hope?

Where are you placing your hope?

Does the place you're looking for it need to change?

Hope & Faith

 As I've kept studying hope, I kept being drawn back to one particular book of Scripture. The book of Romans has a lot to say about hope.

It doesn't take Paul long to start pointing toward our need for hope. Although the word hope doesn't appear until chapter 4, everything up to then points to our need for hope. 

As Paul outlines the fallenness of people, the sinful choices they have made, he is making a case for something. Even as Paul moves to talk about God's faithfulness to us, he's laying the groundwork for hope and its importance in our lives.

Abraham is widely remembered in Scripture and in our conversations for his faith, but alongside that comes hope. Romans 4:18 says:

"Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as had been said to him, 'So shall your offspring be'."

From and earthly perspective, Abraham having children and being the father of many nations wasn't possible. These words came when "his body was as good as dead" and "Sarah's womb was also dead." (Romans 4:19). Yes, Abraham still had hope that God could do it.

After reading this about Abraham, we see Paul move into talking about hope specifically. Romans 5:1-5 says:

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith in this grace in which we know stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us."

This makes sense with hope being "a characteristic of genuine faith in God" (Bridgeway Bible Dictionary), as I wrote about last week. And Abraham's story as recalled in Romans 4 is an example of this.

Hope is not in the things of this world. It is in God. It it in His promises. In His glory.

The hard part of all of this is that hope often grows most in the hard times of life - it's also when it is most challenged. That's when we're looking for something more, something beyond what this world offers. Because know so much of this world disappoints us. We put our hope in something on earth and it fails us.

But, Romans 5 tells us that when our hope is in God's glory, it doesn't put us to shame. Other translations say hope does not disappoint. Hope in God is something that won't fail us.

As William Barclay writes:

"When a man's hope is in God it cannot turn to dust and ashes. When a man's hope is in God it cannot be disappointed. When a man's hope is in the love of God it cannot be an illusion, for God is loving us with an everlasting love, which is backed by an everlasting power." (William Barclay, Letter to the Romans, pg 73)

It all comes down to where we place our hope. When our hope is in God, it is secure.

What is Hope?

 Hope . . .

What does it mean?

How do you hold onto it when it seems to be taken away regularly?

Is there a place we can actually place our hope that won't fail or disappoint us?

These are questions I asked in a post a few weeks ago.

I didn't have answers then, but they were questions that were pulling me to dig into Scripture to look for answers. I've spent the last few weeks looking at all the places in Scripture I could find the word hope - looking for answers to my questions.

I actually started with looking up the dictionary definition of hope.

The definition, according to Merriam-Webster dictionary, was actually much broader than I expected. I realized that when we use it in our everyday lives, the problem doesn't come from the way we define it; it comes from somewhere deeper.

I've tried to figure out to summarize the definition I found and I couldn't. So I am going to share the definition here. (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hope)

intransitive verb

1 :to cherish a desire with anticipation :to want something to happen or be true

transitive verb

1 :to desire with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment

2 :to expect with confidence

noun

1 :desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment

     also :expectation of fulfillment or success

2 :someone or something on which hopes are centered

3 :something desired or hoped for

All of that seemed like what I hear and what I've talked and thought about when it comes to hope. So, there has to be something about it that we're still missing.

Why does the Bible talk about hope as being something we can be sure of?

If there's one thing we've learned as a whole in the last couple years, it's how quickly hope for something can disappear and we're left disappointed - trying to pick up the pieces again. Yes, as I read what the Bible has to say about hope, it seemed to point to something more stable, more sure.

As I was studying this, I found a definition of hope in my Bible dictionary that I found helpful. It says:

"Hope is a characteristic of genuine faith in God. Such hope is different from the hope people in general might speak of. It is not a mere wish for something, but a strong confidence that is placed in God." (Bridgeway Bible Dictionary, page 180)

That makes sense with my thoughts about it comes down to where we place our hope. 

The things that have disappointed and been suddenly yanked away in the last couple years are the things of this earth.

But God hasn't changed.

His Word hasn't changed.

His promises haven't changed.

So, a hope placed in God can't be taken away by something that happens in this world.

This is what gave the early Christians the boldness and the confidence to stand in the face of the opposition they faced. The book of Acts and Paul's letters are full of these declarations.

Near the end of his life and ministry, Paul says there words:

"And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today." (Acts 6:26)

We only have to skim a few of Paul's letters to the early church to know the price that he paid while holding onto this hope. There was something compelling about hope in what God has promised that kept Paul going, even in the face of difficult circumstances on earth.

So, I guess it all comes back to where we're placing our hope.

If it's in the things of this world, then we're going to find our hope easily shattered.

But, if it's in the things of God, then I can hold onto it no matter what this world brings our way.

It doesn't somehow make everything easy to place our hope in God and His promises. Life is still hard. But, it makes it possible not to lose all hope.

Hope?

 18 posts in 12 months.

2021 was a pretty quiet year on here.

It wasn't intentional. I started the year with plans for more, but then the events that would make up the year began to unfold and I didn't know what to write. I typically write about what I'm learning or studying here, but, for me, 2021 was really just about surviving more than anything else. Much of the time when I sat down to write, I had nothing to say.

Now, we're four days into the new year and I'm looking ahead to what 2022 might bring. I'm hopeful and I'm hesitant at the same time.

Hopeful about what could come and what God could do.

Hesitant because, after almost two years of disappointment and cancelled things, I'm finding it hard to fully engage in too much planning and looking ahead.

I'm wrestling with hope.

What does it mean?

How do you hold onto it when it seems to be taken away regularly?

Is there a place I can actually put my hope that will never disappoint me or fail me?

Romans 15:13 is a verse one of my friends prays regularly over others in conversation, that talks about hope. She did exactly that on Sunday after church in our conversation. 

It says:

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

The God of hope.

This is the God we serve. A God of hope.

When I read this verse this morning and really took some time to think about it, it became clear that hope is possible because we serve a God of hope.

Not only do we serve a God of hope, we can be overflowing with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit in us. It doesn't seem that this is something that is dependent on circumstances. So, hope is possible regardless of what's going on in our lives. It is possible because we have the Holy Spirit.

Hope is something I know Scripture talks about a lot. And I think we need to look at what all of Scripture says to really understand it. That's something I'm going to be doing for the next while as we begin 2022. As I learn more about it, I'll share it here.

For now, I'm holding onto those words Paul wrote in Romans 15:13:

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Holding Onto Hope

 What are you hoping for? What are you hoping in?

Where have you placed your hope?

These are the questions running through my mind tonight.

I've had a number of conversations with people lately who are struggling to see or feel any hope. And I am too.

This past year has been a hard one for many of us. Isolation and loneliness. Wondering if or when this will all end. Feeling like we see glimpses of the end of this, only to have them dashed again.

It's hard to have hope when it always seems to fall apart. When it never seems to go the way we hoped.

But, I've beginning to wonder if our struggle with hope is because we're placing it in the wrong places. 

What if hope feels impossible right now because we're hoping for the wrong thing? Or because we're placing our hope in the wrong thing?

By the wrong thing, I don't mean things that are sin. The wrong thing isn't about some sort of moral choice we make.

Much of what we hope for and place our hope in are things on earth, things that fade or fall apart. And when those things do what they will always do, we struggle with hope.

What would happen if we changed the place the where place our hope?

What if we intentionally hose to place our hope in something more than the world has to offer?

I love the way the writer of Hebrews talks about hope in Hebrews 11:1

"Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it." (NCV)

Hope is tied to faith. Hope comes from faith. The NIV talks about having confidence in what we hope for. That's something that sounds like it offers more than the things of this world.

In Romans 5:5, Paul tells us why we can have hope:

"And this will never disappoint us, because God has poured out His love to fill our hearts. He gave us His love through the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to us." (NCV)

Hope that comes from God and is placed in God will never disappoint us. That's a pretty great promise!

So I'm challenged tonight about where I'm placing my hope. And reminded that I need to place it in God, because He will never disappoint.

In the midst of all that is currently happening in our world, it's easy to lose hope - if it's something on earth we're placing our hope in.

But, we can choose differently.

Today, I'm choosing again to place my hope in God. And, honestly, that might be a choice I have to make again in 5 minutes. But, it's one I'll keep making.

Maybe you need to do the same thing. It might not be easy. It might need to be a minute-by-minute choice right now. But, it's worth it.

What can you do today to reminder you to put your hope in God?

Hope that Doesn't Disappoint

'. . . those who hope in Me will not be disappointed."
                                                       -Isaiah 49:23

Usually when I start a post with a Bible verse, I'm looking at the larger context of the verse in trying to understand it. I know that context is important when talking about Scripture, but this time, my thoughts are specific to these 9 words of this one verse. I believe the concept I'm talking about is supported by the whole of Scripture.

We all hope in something. Whether we realize it or not, we've all placed our hope in something or in many things. The reality is that we could probably all list a few things we are currently, or have in the past, put our hope in.

As we've probably all realized at one point or another, the thing(s) we're placed our hope in does disappoint and we discover that our hope was misplaced. Anything or any person we place our hope in on earth will disappoint us eventually. Any circumstance we place our hope in will disappoint us.

It's only when we put our hope in God that we won't be disappointed.

But, how do we reconcile the times we feel disappointed with our hope being placed in a God Who says, if we hope in Him we'll never be disappointed?

I don't think we can guarantee we'll never be disappointed about something, even when we're choosing to place our hope in God. I think, the difference comes in how we handle those feelings of disappointment. We can feel disappointed, but we're not lost in despair because it's not where we ultimately place our hope.

Even when things go wrong.
Even when things aren't happening the way we think they should
Even when we're longing for something that hasn't happened yet

We feel disappointed over these things, but when our hope isn't placed in them, we know that's not the end. The disappointment lasts only a moment, because that's not where we have placed our hope.

Where have you placed your hope?

Our Part to Play

Once we've made our bold ask of Jesus, do we have a part to play? Do we need to continue to act on our faith? Or do we just get to sit back and wait now?

In the last post we looked at the first part of Mark 5:21-43. Today, I want to look at the rest of the passage. (You can click here to read the passage.) The continuation of the story - the results of their bold asks for healing.

The woman had to trust Jesus enough to be found out - to be exposed. She had to acknowledge it was her who touched His cloak and share her story of why. Not to be healed - that part happened the moment she touched Jesus' cloak. But, to be able to fully walk our her healing and live the new life it brought for her.

Jairus had to believe Jesus enough to believe it possible, even when it didn't seem possible for his daughter to be healed now. He received word  his daughter had died, so now he had to believe Jesus could bring her back to life, not just heal her from sickness.

In both cases, people were bold enough to ask in the first place, but then they had a part to play in walking it out. Receiving the full healing they were asking for required them to act in faith. It wasn't passive.

I wonder if this is something we often miss in our prayers for healing. We think we just ask and then sit back and wait. God may do it instantly and not require anything from us sometimes. But, what if there's more to it than that? What if God wants us to step out in obedience? What if the way we'll see the healing is to walk it out?

Both Jairus and the woman had a choice to make. They both played a part in experiencing the fullness of healing they asked Jesus for.

Jairus had to choose to continue to believe that Jesus could still heal his daughter. Even when it no longer seemed possible.

The woman was healed of her physical illness the moment she touched Jesus' cloak. She could have been satisfied with that. When Jesus stopped and asked who had touched His cloak, she could have kept quiet and just slipped away into the crowd.

She still would have gone away physically healed, but I don't think she would have experienced the social, emotional, and mental healing she experienced by coming forward and telling Jesus the whole truth of her situation. In sharing her story and allowing Jesus to speak to the shame, fear, and worthlessness she had also carried, she was freed to completely walk in her healing.

When we miss the part of the healing that requires us to walk in it, I think we miss the fullness of what it could be for us. We don't receive the complete healing God wants to give us.

What healing have you asked God for? Is He asking you to do something to begin to walk it out and experience the complete healing He wants to give?

Escape

Sometimes an escape from what we call normal life becomes necessary. My blog went quiet for a week because that's exactly what I needed. An escape from what is my normal life to something different.

Time for some camping with friends. Some people asked me if camping with friends and their kids would really be break. I told them yes before and even after I would still say it was. Even crazy wind, rain, and thunderstorms, on the same day we had scorching heat didn't stop the time away from being an escape.

I've been reflecting on what made this an escape from normal life in the few days since I'v been back. The conclusion I've come to is the absence of technology and the inability to do anything about the list of all the things I needed to do at home. My escape was a break from the things that can tire me out without me even realizing it. The laptop left at home. The cell phone mostly off - checked only a couple times a day. And I was too far away for the list to matter. That's what made it an escape.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the busy-ness and demands of life that we lose sight of our need to get away. But, we were created to nee time away from the demands of life, because even the good things can drain us over time.

Jesus modelled this and taught it to His disciples. After feeding the five thousand, Jesus sent His disciples away from the crowds and then spent time alone by Himself. "Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowd. After He has dismissed them, He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray." (Matthew 14:22-23).

After a time of busy ministry Jesus took a break and He made sure His disciples took one too. He escaped for a while before He stepped back into the demands of His ministry and life. This wasn't a one time thing for Him either. (See also Mark 1:35 and 6:31-32.)

If Jesus needed to escape to a solitary place sometimes and taught His disciples the importance of doing so, then how much more do we need to do the same?

There's no clear prescription for what this time should look like - just that we need to do it. It's not about what it looks like, doing a specific thing. It's about taking time away.

For me these times of escape have had many different looks. Camping. A retreat. A walk or hike. A couple hours of just ignoring my phone and email. It's not so much the format of it, but the practice of it that matters.

When was the last time you escaped the demands of life to be refreshed?

Are you in need of another time?

What do you need to do to plan or schedule your next time of escape?

Will You Jump in the Puddle?

The pouring rain has turned the ground into a muddy mess. Puddles are forming as the ground cannot absorb any more water.

From the safety of chapel, I watch out the window. Ladies get out of their cars, grab their studd, and carefully make their way through the muddy parking lot to get inside.

They're looking down . . . taking careful steps . . . avoiding the puddles . . . stepping only the spots that look the like the firmest path to take.

Even as the rain stop, the parking lot remains wet and full of puddles.

It's the beginning of a weekend retreat for all who are here. A weekend away to laugh and have fun. A weekend away to hear from God - to allow Him to speak to us.

As the evening winds down and conversation in my room begins as get ready for some sleep, I hear God ask me a question: "Will you jump in the puddle?"

I'm taken back to the scene I watched earlier in the evening as the ladies arrived - how I watched them step carefully to avoid the puddles.

Stepping in the puddles is messy, dirty, and often unpleasant. As kids we go puddle jumping and find joy in it, but as we grow up we start doing all we can to avoid stepping in the puddles and we definitely don't jump in them intentionally.

I drift off to sleep. The question still on my mind. And I'm not yet sure what it means.

"Will you jump in the puddle?"

The question is still there in the morning. I'm still not sure what God means by it yet.

"Will you jump in the puddle?"

We avoid jumping in puddles because it's messy, dirty, and unpleasant. And we avoid talking to God about certain things in our lives or going to certain places in our lives because it's messy, dirty, and unpleasant. We don't like jumping in puddles physically and we don't like doing it spiritually either.

"Will you jump in the puddle?"

God's invitation comes again.

Am I willing to go with Him into one of those areas I would usually avoid? Am I willing to get messy and dirty and deal with what is unpleasant with Him?

Will I jump in the puddle with Him? Because He's not asking me to go there alone. He will be in  it with me.

Will I jump in the puddle and look at what is there that I've been avoiding? And in the process discover it's a puddle because God has poured His grace and love in such abundance on that area. Discover that I can deal with that part ofmy life because God's grace and love for me is more than enough.

"Will you jump in the puddle?"

The question keeps coming until I answer it.

I believe this is a question God asks all of us at different times in our lives. He asks us to trust Him and step into the mess where it's dirty and unpleasant. He asks us to step into this so He can do His work - so He can clean up the mess.

"Will you jump in the puddle?"

The next time the rain pours, the area that became a puddle last time becomes a firm place to stand. A firm place to launch our jump into the next puddle. Because we've allowed God to do His work there and we know He is full of grace and love to handle the biggest, messiest puddles in our lives.

"Will you jump in the puddle?"

Maybe that's the question, God is asking you right now. Maybe He's asking you to take that next step and allow Him into those broken and messy areas of your life, so He can transform them.

"Will you jump in the puddle?"

Change Your Perspective

Two steps forward . . . one step back . . . one step forward . . . two steps back . . . two steps forward . . . one step back.

Life often feels this way - especially our spiritual lives. We gain some ground in an area and then we discover we're going back again. If we notice, we can change direction again before we go all the way back.

In those moments, it can feel like we'll never get beyond this - like we'll always struggle in that specific area. We feel that because we're only seeing a small part of the whole. In that moment when we feel like we failed again all we see is the distance between where we were and where we are now. The distance we fell.

But, we're missing the bigger picture when that's all we're looking at. We're only seeing the distance we fell, not the greater distance we've come. That greater distance can only be seen when we pull back from the immediate. It requires us to change our perspective.

Changing our perspective doesn't mean we ignore what just happened or pretend it's not big deal. Changing our perspective gives us the motivation to get up and keep moving forward. As we see the journey we've been on that includes many moments of what looks and felt like going backwards, but we also see that overall we've been moving forward.

In those moments when we've fallen and gone backwards, we can be assured that we follow a God who gives us the opportunity to get up and try again, with Him helping us move on. Many of our heroes in the Bible have this as their story - Abraham, Moses, David, to name a few. They all had failures and struggles, but they got back up and kept going with God.

In our moments of greatest failure and struggle, we easily get discouraged if we focus only on the failure or the struggle. But, when we remember all that ground we have already covered with God walking with us, we have the courage to get back up and keep going.

Sometimes to change our perspective, we have to be intentional about remembering it all. We have to go back and remind ourselves of it all. Remind ourselves where we were and how far we've gone with God. Remind ourselves of all the second, third, tenth, hundredth chances God has given us and how eventually we walked it the way God was trying to take us.

Where are you right now?
Can you see the bigger picture of the whole journey?
Or are you lost in the latest failure or struggle and in need of a perspective change?

Pursue a Dream

As I thought about what to post for this day, I found that I was going back and reading some things I had posted since I started this blog. Sometimes when things to write about don't seem to be coming, I find that old posts inspire me. What I found this time, is that one of the posts was the one I wanted to share today.

I originally posted this on November 19, 2011. It's about pursuing our dreams and the excuses we make for not doing so. But, the reality that we can make all the excuses we want, but we have to choose to pursue our dreams even though everything doesn't seem to be right for doing so.

So here's the post I wrote then. May it encourage and challenge you in pursuing your own dreams.

---------------

A couple of days ago, I read a quote that challenged me and made me think. It talked about putting dreams on hold when we have things to work on in our lives.

"One of the lessons I have learned in six and a half decades of life is that very few dreams should go on hold while you improve the shortcomings of your life. ... To be sure, there are times when you need to stop what you are doing and focus on conquering a flaw. But of you wait till all your shortcomings are remedied, you dreams will die. All our advances are with a limp.
If you wait till you are beyond criticism to pursue your dream, you will never do it. You won't marry or stay married. You won't decide to have children or raise them. You won't take your first job or keep it. You won't go into missions or stay there. ... Few things paralyze people more than their own imperfections. And there are always people around to remind you of your flaws and suggest you can't move forward until you're better." (John Piper, Bloodlines)

When I read that, it seemed like all my excuses for not pursuing my dreams were shot down in a couple of paragraphs. How often do we do exactly that? We have a list of things in our lives that we feel we have to fix before we can even begin to think about pursuing our dreams.

And the reality is that when we think that way, we often don't ever get around to pursuing our dreams. We just continue to have more things we need to work on. Or the time it takes us to feel like we have actually fixed anything is just long enough that we lose enough of the excitement for our dream that we don't follow through on pursuing it.

The sentence from the quote that seemed to jump off the page at me was: "All our advances are with a limp." There is incredible truth in that statement. We don't move forward in life perfectly. As we pursue our dreams, we will make mistakes and we discover things about ourselves that we need to change or "fix." We do move forward with a limp. The important thing is that we do move forward.

What are your dreams? Are you pursuing them? Why are you not pursuing them? What would it take for you to begin to pursue them?

God's Word Never Fails

In my last post on the angel's message for Mary and her response to it, I skipped one verse in the angel's message. I didn't want to ignore it. It struck me when I read it and I wanted to spend more time on it.

"For no word from God will ever fail." (Luke 1:37)

In this one simple sentence, the angel spoke of one of the greatest truths about God. If God says He will do something, we can be sure that it will happen. It may not happen according to the timeline we wish it would, but it will happen in God's time.

Even the birth of the Messiah was an example of this. Old Testament prophets spoke of the Messiah to come. The law of the Old Testament that they were still living by pointed to the Messiah. But that didn't mean the Messiah came when the people of Israel may have wished He would come. They had been waiting for a long time and I'm sure many of them would have given up hope or found it very difficult to hold on to hope. But the message of the angel to Mary was proof of the truth of what He said in Luke 1:37.

No word from God will ever fail.

I think this verse jumped off the page at me because it's something I needed to be reminded of right now. It's a reminder I've needed often in my life and I would guess the same is true for most who call themselves followers of Christ.

When life is hard or things aren't going the way we had hoped they would, it can be easy to stop believing God will do what He has said He would do. We begin to doubt that what God's Word says to us is true, because we forget that God doesn't promise this life will be easy or happen exactly as we wish it would. He promises that He will be with us through it all. And that is true even when life isn't going what we would deem to be well.

I don't know what is going on in your life this holiday season, but whatever is, I hope you are able to take encouragement from Luke 1:37 and the incredible promise it contains. For no word from God will ever fail. In the midst of whatever life has brought, we can rest in the promise that God will never leave us to get through it on our own. That's exactly what we're celebrating this time of year - that God came near to us.

In the In-Between

The Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday . . . it seems to be a time that gets little reference. Sometimes I wonder why we treat it as so insignificant.

It certainly wasn't insignificant for Jesus' disciple. Everything they had known for the last three years was thrown into confusion.

They were in between and left with what seemed like no hope. They didn't know what was coming. That Saturday, all they knew was that Jesus had been crucified and was dead.

And along with that went their dreams, their plans, their hope.

It's not a place we like to sit, because it's unpleasant. It's hard. It's dark. It's scary. We don't like to dwell on those things unless we know something good is coming.

So, we quickly jump to the resurrection. We want to jump right to the good - jump over the bad.

But in doing so, I think we miss some lessons that can only be learned in those in-between times.

If we're really honest, we can probably all share our own stories of living in the in-between. Of living in-between the death of something good and the start of something new.

We can identify more with the disciples on Saturday than we care to. We know what it's like to lose hope. To walk the hard, dark road.

That road may look different for each of us based on our own life experiences, but we've walked the road ourselves.

And looking back, we see all that we learned in those times. We see the lessons learned in the in-between. We see how we have become who we are from those times in our lives.

I would guess that each of the disciples was shaped by that time in between - when they learned the full truth of who Jesus was and what He had come to do.

We are profoundly shaped by what we learn in the in-between.

Maybe we need to become better at learning to pause in those times. And maybe we can learn to do that better by pausing on the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday and remembering what it must have been like for Jesus' disciples and friends on that day.

If we take the time to do that, it makes Easter Sunday an even greater reason to celebrate. We've felt the loss of hope and now we can celebrate the fullness of greater hope than we could ever have comprehended without the time in-between.

How do you do at living life in the in-between?

Have you learned lessons that have shaped who you are today in the in-between?