“We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.” Psalms 33:20-22 (NIV)
When things are at their darkest and we do not see any way out it is easy to lose hope, Amen? Indeed, Scripture tells us in Proverbs 13:12: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” Yet, believers in sweet Jesus do have a great hope. We will never find comfort or assurance by looking within or around rather up. It is only by fixing our eyes on Him, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. Jesus is the Hope of the world.
Satan seeks to get our eyes fixed on self – either in condemnation or exaltation - both getting us nowhere fast. But the Holy Spirit turns our eyes off self and on to the Master of our souls. Therefore, we are not to be fixated on our hands with which we are grasping Christ, rather on Christ alone, or on our hopes and dreams rather than on the Source of all our hopes and dreams, or on our faith but on the Author and Perfecter of our faith. It is what Jesus is and not what we are that gives rest and life to the human soul. He is to be our sufficiency and strength as He is our Source of Living Water which truly satisfies every yearning.
When our eyes are set on our circumstances, the deep roots of fear and perhaps feeling forgotten hinder our hopes and often paralyzes us, robbing us of much peace. In our love for Jesus – fixing our eyes on His life and His merits and what He has done for us – difficulties do not drag us down into the depths of despair. We discover that sacrifices and selflessness do not promote suffering rather fullness of satisfaction. He turns everything on its head – we give to get, we die to live, and it is in so doing that we take hold of the life that is truly life. He is to be our all-consuming passion. Everything else is but a paste gem at best. It is heaven given power and peace that is unearthly in its nature and which allows us to rise above the circumstances that are not of our own choosing - just as an eagle soar above the storm clouds. Christ is to be our all in all. That is, He is to be the master passion of the believer’s soul and our greatest hope. God can not only transform our circumstances but He can also transform us through our circumstance, the latter being the greater miracle.
“We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.” Psalms 33:20-22 (NIV)