Welcome to day 2 of our week of Hope! On day one we rejoiced in the hope that our salvation is 100% done by Jesus and that it does NOT depend on our efforts, but on the gift of the cross. Today our hope continues on in how we rest in His hope in everyday life…
2. We have hope because He is with us while we wait in the brokenness.
This life is full of joy, but it’s also full of loss and worry, doubt and insecurity. This place is unstable and unpredictable. It leaves us grasping for control, left out of breath and weary if we go it alone.
But, as we wait under the trustworthy hand of our Father, we find our hope again in His good will and purpose for our lives and for our struggles. We know that He is the God who can make something out of seemingly nothing. So we give Him our nothingness and He produces our faith into something good.
We give Him our nothingness and He produces our faith into something good. -Andrea Chatelain
Paul writes, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed” (Romans 8:18-19 NIV).
He goes on to write that we wait in this place with God patiently because hope is found in that waiting. It is not found in the seeing. That He can work it out for our good.
I remember this with infertility and miscarriage. At first feeling so hopeless because I couldn’t see the end of the struggle. I was focused on what I could foresee, not what God was doing in the waiting. Looking back, I can see what He was building in that time. Helping me build a spirit of trust and faith and hope in Him instead of this life. And now, I wouldn’t give those months of waiting and walking with Jesus for anything.
3. We have hope because we are His children and He loves us.
This one took me a long time to accept. Sometimes unconditional love is a hard thing to understand in a world that is built on conditions. Like somehow He loves me but His love isn’t really enough for all the stains and sin that I’ve wracked up over the years. But I have hope because God’s love for His children (you and me) is nothing like the way we try to love each other in our earthly ways.
I have hope because God’s love for His children (you and me) is nothing like the way we try to love each other in our earthly ways. – Andrea Chatelain
There is never a hint of sarcasm or moodiness. He is never just done or can’t take it anymore.
“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those who God has chosen? (Romans 8:32-33 NIV).
That just blows my mind. How can we give up the hope of our salvation so quickly because we can’t imagine that God’s love could be enough to cover up our sin? It’s more than enough. And we can put our hope firmly on that.
I want to end with this.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?…No in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8: emphasis mine).
We are more than conquerors of this life as we do this life with Jesus. As we let Him lead us through times of grief, sorrow, growth, change, or anything else under the sun…we can walk in Hope because we are walking with Hope’s only true source. Jesus.
Keep walking.
Andrea Chatelain 