Sweet Hope

          We have been inundated with information, both bad and good. Our thoughts are swimming and our minds are racing.  We have seen and heard about the hurt, the pain, and the sheer exhaustion of many. Our hearts are breaking over the immensity of the problems before us. We ask, Lord, what can we do?  

There is so much need.  Not one person on this planet is without need, and no one likes being weak or helpless.  We don’t like to admit that we have weaknesses, but we often find ourselves in a state of weakness.  And everyone is weak right now, including ourselves.  

When we are weak we ought to rejoice, for it is then that God’s power is strongest.  He intends for us to lean on Him, worship Him, and rely upon Him.  He loves to help His own.  He is the good Shepherd of the sheep.  

      We sense our utter dependance on the Lord as we prepare to leave our homes and go to others in need.  We cannot do anything apart from Him. Like those who once were unclean but now are returning to the camp healed and restored, we return having been refined by our own trials.  Our desire is to worship our Healer in a spirit of thankfulness and then to turn toward a perishing world.  

Saying Grace by Norman Rockwell

Along with worshiping comes a commissioning. We are being sent on a rescue mission led by the One who saves.  Our hope is in the One who has gone before us, the forerunner of our faith.  

       We have been commissioned to go into the world to tell others what Christ Jesus has done.  We were sick, we were helpless, sinners lost beyond all hope, but Jesus rescued us and gave us life.  Now we are ambassadors for a good and gracious King.  

In our comings and goings, we will find countless ways to share our hope in Christ.  We can be a kind and patient hand, bringing comfort and help.  We can prayerfully listen.  We can laugh and sing with those who are rejoicing, and we can grieve with those who are weeping.  We can answer the searching questions of our friends and neighbors, our family and acquaintances.  And we have a home, a place to welcome others in. 

Will we be ready to invite others to taste and see that the Lord is good?  Will we prepare our homes to be safe places of hospitality, rest, worship and work?  Will we be ready to show Christ to a weary world?  Will we love our neighbors as we love ourselves?

Many of us may feel like Moses, unqualified and empty handed, unsure and fearful.  But God has given us all that we need.  We have seen Him and we know Him.  We can say that we have met with the living God.  We can say that we are His.

Raisins by Norman Rockwell

    So what do you have in your hand?  Whatever you have, God can use it for His glory and for the good of many.  Do you have a home, a car, a kitchen, a kitchen table, a porch, a lawn chair, a Bible or some time?  Then you have something!  We all have an opportunity to give a reason for our hope right now.  For “we who have fled for refuge… have a strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.  We have this as a sure and steady anchor of the soul.” Hebrews 6

We live under the care of the One who knows all things, who steadies us amidst a sea of troubles.  He carries our worries and anxieties so that we can be free to do the good works set apart for us before time began.  This is our time, our place, to live, work, worship and love to the praise and glory of our heavenly Father.  We have a hope that anchors our souls and sweetens every hard and bitter trial.  It is in the power of His hope and and His stabilizing love that we can do abundantly more than we could ever ask or think on our own.  He who calls us to this is faithful and He will hold us fast, both now and forevermore. 

Anchored in Hope, 

Your Fellow Sojourner