Hope

Hey, as I speak to you, I want you to pretend that I am sitting here at your kitchen table, sipping coffee, and enjoying our warm friendship.  You have invited me over because you have been going through some tough times and are feeling depressed…in fact, desperation has begun to take hold.  You are very relieved to know that someone has come to help…your name is Hopeless.

I can remember as a child, hoping and wishing and sometimes being satisfied, but often being disappointed.  If I dreamed that something good would happen at an event or get together with friends, I would be so disappointed because my dream and the outcome did not agree.  Female…yes!  Romantic…for sure!  Did I believe in a knight in shining armor?  Looking for perfection in me and my man? You can count on it!  I had no idea that I was setting myself up for failure!  I was full of false expectation.

I remember when all of that began to change.  I had a sick child in the hospital, and the doctors were not finding the cause of the problem. I was sitting in the cafeteria of the hospital, moping and with the miseries like everyone around me.  Hopeless and helpless!  No one understood how I felt.  It hurt sooo bad, watching my child hurt.  I felt invisible, like no one could see me.  There was no one to help me.

Then, I heard about as audible a voice as I’ve ever heard say to me, “What are you doing?  Why are you moaning and moping around like the other parents in this room, as if you have no hope? “ 

I looked around and realized that no one was there that I could see.  However, the assurance, the peace of that Hope that is in me, continued to talk to me.  He said, “Get up and give these people hope.”   

I knew that my Lord was speaking to me.  Very much like the voice that says, “Better take an umbrella when it is going to rain” was this voice.  When He says, “My sheep hear my voice (he’s speaking of His followers – those that know Him as savior and Lord).  As a Christian, a follower of Christ, and as a believer that He is alive today and lives in His followers, I knew that my shepherd was speaking to me.

I did indeed get up. I talked and prayed with two different women that night.  One of them was a young woman, who was supposed to have gone home that day.  Her baby had all of a sudden developed fluid around his heart.  I was able to share with her my hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.  That night, she prayed to receive Jesus, now the hope of her salvation.  Then, we prayed for her son’s healing.

 The next morning, she came early, with her baby boy in her arms, to find me before they left for home. The fluid had miraculously disappeared from around the baby’s heart.  How clear it was to the two of us that God had set up that divine appointment.  Our God had done so much!  He had awakened me from my hopelessness, allowing me to share my hope in Christ with a stranger.  He had caused her to have to stay one extra day, in order to get saved and for her baby to be healed. 

Now, I’m here to give you hope.  If you abide in the Lord, and His word abides in you, you will ask and He will give you your requests.  If you delight yourself in Him, He will give you the desires of your heart.  Whatever things are lovely, pure, good, and of good repute – think on these things.  Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  Love hopes all things.  Rejoice in the Lord always.  The enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy – it is he who comes to steal our joy.  Guard your heart!  Make a joyful noise to the Lord.  Serve Him with gladness.  Come before His presence with singing.  Put on the garment of praise, and the spirit of heaviness is gone.