Delayed hope makes the heart sick …
Proverbs 13:12a Holman Christian Standard Bible
Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness. Desmond Tutu
I have lost all hope of ever having any peace.
I’ve forgotten what good times are like.
So I say, “My glory has faded away.
My hope in the Lord is gone.”
I remember how I suffered and wandered.
I remember how bitter my life was.
I remember it very well.
My spirit is very sad deep down inside me.
It is almost as though Jeremiah is living in 2020. All year it’s been one thing after another, every day something new and discouraging. Hope seems a luxury completely out of reach. That may be truth, but it is not all the truth.
But here is something else I remember.
And it gives me hope.
The Lord loves us very much.
So we haven’t been completely destroyed.
His loving concern never fails.
His great love is new every morning.
Lord, how faithful you are!
If we believe nothing else, let’s believe this. God has not abandoned us. He is still in control of everything that touches us. Take a deep breath, because this is true. Always.
I say to myself, “The Lord is everything I will ever need.
So I will put my hope in him.”
The Lord is good to those who put their hope in him.
He is good to those who look to him.
Lamentations 3:17-25 New International Reader’s Version
Jesus doesn’t give an explanation for the pain and sorrow of the world.
He comes where the pain is most acute and takes it upon himself.
Jesus doesn’t explain why there is suffering, illness,
and death in the world. He brings healing and hope.
He doesn’t allow the problem of evil to be the subject of a seminar.
He allows evil to do its worst to him.
He exhausts it, drains its power, and emerges with new life.
N. T. Wright
When the sun takes it’s final breath just before the last rays of hope
drop below the horizon, let all the twinkling stars in Heaven remind you that the light of hope never left your side.
Robert Clancy