Category: Blog

Hope Comes Through Change

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26

The story of Lazarus from John 11 is a picture of Jesus’ power over the grave. Death, suffering, sickness, sorrow, and unbelief all die their own deaths in the face of a story like this one. Perhaps you know the story of Lazarus. He was from Bethany and lived with his two sisters. After falling sick, Lazarus dies. Word reached Jesus that his friend is gone. Jesus arrives in Bethany after Lazarus’ body has been placed in a tomb. Mary and Martha, the sisters of the dead man, meet Jesus on the road. Jesus asks in verse 26 if they believe in him as the resurrection and the life. Each in their own way assure him that they do.

Deeply moved and in tears, Jesus approaches the tomb holding his friend, issues a command to remove the stone blocking the entrance, prays, and tells Lazarus to come out.

Lazarus comes out.

In the days following, what was life like for Lazarus? The Bible records no spoken words belonging to Lazarus. We wonder if Lazarus was a common man living an ordinary life. We don’t know much about him except that he had a family that included two sisters. He appears in the gospel story, not because of any shining qualities in his personality nor because of any legendary achievement, but only because of the amazing miracle that happened to him.

Later in the narratives, we find Lazarus again. This time, he is in attendance at a dinner where Jesus and his disciples are also present. He is recognized as, “Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead.”

Everyone has a first name. We all go by the names our parents gave us or nicknames we have earned over time. We also have a last name; a surname to identify us as belonging to a certain family, or holding a particular history, or originating from a specific location. Lazarus kept his first name, but Jesus defined his last name. For Lazarus, identity, history, and origin began with Jesus. Now Lazarus’ full name reads, “Lazarus Whom Jesus Raised From the Dead.”

He was still a common person living an ordinary life, but he had an uncommon, extraordinary witness to the power of God. Everything he had been given, all that he was able to accomplish, each relationship he valued was only because of the miracle Jesus worked in his life.

John 11:26 ends with the words, “Do you believe this?” Jesus is asking the sisters if they believe in him as the only one who holds the power over death and suffering.

Jesus asks each one of us, “Do you believe this?” Can you stand with Martha and say, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world” (verse 27). Because of this answer, Martha was about to witness the power of God. She, too, qualified for a famous last name. Maybe hers would read something like, “Martha Who Saw Death Defeated.”

How about you? Have you witnessed the power of God in your life? Is there a time when Jesus spoke and redefined your identity, your history, and your origin? Maybe you can stand with both Lazarus and Martha to say that you are someone Who Jesus Set Free. Or you are someone Who Overcame Addiction. Or you are someone Who Jesus Healed, Jesus Turned Your Mourning to Dancing, or Jesus Lifted Your Life From a Horrible Pit.

Lazarus entered the grave, but he didn’t stay here. Whatever miracle(s) Jesus has worked in your life makes this true for you as well. You don’t stay in bondage. You don’t stay addicted, sick, mourning, or trapped in the pit. Lazarus Whom Jesus Raised From the Dead overcame suffering, sickness, and sorrow. He gets to enjoy a life redefined by Jesus’ resurrection power. So do we. Forever.

So Saul clothed David with his armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head; he also clothed him with a coat of mail. David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them.” So David took them off. I Samuel 17:38-39

This spring, I took a class on a topic of interest to me. With great anticipation, I registered, listened to the lectures, and did the homework. This class was promoted as having all the best and most up-to-date information, and it did. The presenters were endorsed as experts in their field. And they were. I was learning from the best.

And yet, as the class progressed from one week to the next, I hated it. The more I learned about this particular subject, the more I discovered how ill-suited it was for me. Something I thought would empower and energize only grew cumbersome and weighed me down.

As I was telling the Lord about my disappointment, the story of David came to mind. He, too, had come under pressure to change into something he wasn’t.

The day Goliath came on the scene, the Israelite army quaked with intimidation. David happened to be on the battlefront visiting his brothers when he saw Goliath and heard his sneers.

David’s confidence in the Lord eventually gained him an audience with the king. David offered to fight the giant himself, but King Saul was skeptical. “You are not able to go aginst this Philistine to fight with him, for you are young, but he is a man of war from his youth.”

David convinced the king to let him go, so Saul clothed David with his armor and put a bronze helmet on is head. He also clothed David with a coat of mail. David fastened on the sword and tried to walk, but took the military gear off because he wasn’t used to them.

What did David do instead? He gathered up stones for his sling and went out to meet the giant just like he would have a lion or a bear.

Have you ever been in a situation where the role you’re expected to assume doesn’t quite fit, or the project you’re asked to take on is heavy or uncomfortable? This was David’s dilemma when the king gave him the armor to wear.

Yes, the king was right in saying David was unable to fight due to his young age. David lacked the experience of war that his opponent possessed.

His chances of success were slim, but they’d become non-existent if he had to face the giant wearing the restrictive armor.

David knew this, so he took everything off and gave it back to the king. Even the sword. The Bible makes a point of noting that David met the giant with no weapon in his hand.

He rejected the king’s armor and returned to his own set of proven, reliable skills. David met the giant as the simple, humble shepherd boy that he was, and not as the showy, prestigious mascot in the armor, pretending to be something he was not.

This shepherd boy was young. True. He’d never been a military hero, and had never fought in a war. David didn’t need any of those things because he only had to rely on the Lord. This was the same Lord who had delivered him from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear. He would also deliver David from the hand of the Philistine (I Samuel 17:37).

When faced with the choice to follow the king’s way of approaching a battle, David went the risky, uncertain way of trusting his own abilities. They’d been given to him from the Lord. God wouldn’t let him fail.

Whatever happened, David could rest in the protection God provided and the strength that God had been growing in him all those years in the wilderness tending vulnerable sheep.

The giants in our lives aren’t conquered in a borrowed identity. They are brought down through a belief in ourselves, through awareness of how God has been shaping us, and a willingness to go the direction that He chooses.

When we relate to the Lord in this way, the final outcome means deliverance for so many others than just ourselves. In David’s story, his trust in God meant the deliverance of an entire nation. One young man’s bravery changed the lives of thousands.

This can be true for us too. Where in your life are you facing a giant? Maybe you are facing more than one at this moment. Are you under the pressure to be something you’re not in order to gain a victory? Can you take the risk of believing in yourself and trusting the work God has done in your life?

The bravery to follow David’s example as our simple, humble selves has far-reaching rewards. Take the risk to believe in God, and to trust how he has worked in your life. He will deliver, and He will come through for you.

Part I, Our attitude toward life’s problems

Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.

Trust in the Lord, and do good, dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.

Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret, it only causes harm. Psalm 37:1-8

Problems in life are a given. No one is going to get away from them. According to Psalm 37, the troubles that we may encounter in our walk with God include fretting, or worry (verse 1), envy (verse 2), mistrust, as implied in verses 3 and 5, impatience, as implied in verse 7, and anger and wrath combined with worry (verse 8).

It seems to me like the psalmist put these temptations at the beginning as if to say, “I’m bringing these to your attention so that you can watch for them and make good choices that will keep you from falling into them.”

If we know how to live our lives free from the power of worry, envy, or anger, we are well prepared to see justice and to receive a rich inheritance from the Lord. This doesn’t mean that we won’t ever feel them, but it does mean that we can live free from their power.

Psalm 37 uses the word inheritance and gives it the meaning of obtaining covenant privileges and the salvation of God.

The Israelites, who were the original audience, were in a covenant relationship with God. He’d made commitments to them of certain things he was going to do for them. Giving them land was one of those promises.

What does the concept of inheritance mean for us?

It’s about security, and it’s a security that isn’t rooted in the circumstances of life. Misfortune and scarcity may come, but they can’t steal the inheritance away. Throughout the psalm, clues are given to what kind of an inheritance this is.

Verse 4 mentions the desires of our hearts. Verse 5 says that when we commit our way to God, he will bring it to pass. Verse 6 mentions righteousness and justice. Verse 11 talks of peace. Verse 18 says that this inheritance is forever, without end. Verse 39 promises strength from God.

Who is the one who gets to inherit this “land of riches?”

Verse 9 in the New King James Version of the Bible that I quoted above uses the word wait. The NIV uses the word hope. Those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.

Four more verses give us further clues to who the heirs are. Verse 11 says that the meek will inherit the earth. Verse 22 says that those blessed by God will inherit. Verse 29 says the righteous will inherit, and verse 34 says that if you hope in, or wait on, the Lord and keep his way, he will exalt you to inherit the land.

Our attitudes toward problems matter. Another psalm that also compares the tragedy of the wicked with the blessing of trusting God is Psalm 73. Verse 23 in that psalm shows the author saying to God, “I am continually with you. You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward, receive me into glory.”

We have God always with us. He holds us by the hand. He guides us, counsels us, and receives us into glory.

Our attitudes toward problems matter because we have to remember that God is always with us, counseling, guiding, and ready to receive us in glory.

We have to frame up our problems in light of this.  And then instead of envying or comparing, worrying or getting angry, we have to hope. If we want to inherit that land of desire, of righteousness and justice, of peace and strength, we have to wait on God.

Don’t try to live your life on your own. It may work for you for a while. You might get rich, have all kinds of friends, and live in an assumed safety. But the cost of amassing it all without God is too high to pay.

Your hope in him will save you, and it will promise you an inheritance that is more beautiful and satisfying than you could ever imagine.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. I John 4:7, 12

The topic of relationships is still on my mind because of the time I’ve spent studying I John 4. There is so much rich, deep, and timeless theology in this chapter that one brief devotional couldn’t possibly do it justice. I encourage you to take a look at I John 4 on your own beyond what I say in this devotional. Sit in it. Think about what you read, and then pray over the emotions it makes you feel.

John wants us to wrestle a bit, I believe, because he wants us to fully trust God’s authentic, faithful, and constant love. It is the energy on which our lives and relationships thrive.

A theologian by the name of C.H. Dodd has commented that love is triangular. It flows from God to us, through us to others, and then returns to God. This aligns with the point John is making when he says that if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Earlier, in verse 8, he gives us a reliable test to use on our hearts. Anyone who doesn’t love doesn’t know God. This relates directly to the statement he makes about abiding in God in verse 12.

If we say we love God, then our lives will hold love like a pool holds water. This love will then naturally spill out onto others. If we say we love people, then our relationships will act as a window into our attitudes toward God. John is saying that one doesn’t exist without the other. If we love God, we’ll share his love with others. And if we love others, we do it out of the reservoir our relationship with God has created within us.

These are two sides to the triangle. The third one is about returning love to God. When we live in Christian community giving, serving, and showing compassion, then love is returned to God. This may be what John means when he says that God’s love is made complete in us. He extends love to us. We give it to others. Together we give it back to God.

It’s the shape of perfect love.

Loving in community has an additional aspect. When we love, God is seen. He is invisible until his family of sons and daughters love each other. When we let his love flow through us, and we serve one another in sacrificial ways, God is seen. This is where he lives. This is how the outside world recognizes him. His presence moves and dances in the actions of a loving Christian community.

How do we grow this capacity to love in our hearts? John suggests that we must stay connected to God. Find ways to consistently listen to his word, to study it, or to read it for yourself.

Be born of God by accepting Jesus Christ into your heart as your Lord and Savior. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the son of God, God lives in them and they in God (verse 15).

Practice loving others. We won’t get it right every time. People will find ways, sometimes unintentional ones, to insult us or offend us. But we must forgive and keep moving forward. Our goal is to make God visible and to continue expressing our love to him.

This verse from the hymn, “The Love of God” gives me such great comfort to know how endless and yet how strong is God’s love.

Could we with ink the ocean fill

And were the sky of parchment made

Were every stalk on earth a quill

And every man a scribe by trade.

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry.

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Though stretched from sky to sky.

The love of God, how rich and pure

How measureless and strong.

It shall forevermore endure

The saints and angels’ song.

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

This last phrase of verse 12 was on the cover of the program my husband and I used for our wedding service. The message implied by the author of Ecclesiastes is that one person cannot tackle the challenges of life alone. We need a support, a team that journeys with us, working alongside us, assisting us as we accomplish the work God created in advance for us to do.

The author of Ecclesiastes intended the metaphor in verses 9 to 12 as instruction for a healthy and successful life. He starts out stating the benefit of a partnership compared to loneliness. The two people in the relationship work together, while also providing safety and comfort for one another. If one falls, the other will lift him up. If two are out in the elements, exposed and in danger of freezing, they can share the heat between the two of them. But one lonely person, exposed to the danger alone, has no way of generating enough warmth on their own to survive.

The same is true when facing enemies. Verse 10 tells us that one person standing by themselves has a greater chance of defeat, but two people teamed up and unified can withstand hostile forces.

We need companionship. Vital to our lives are the people who stay by our sides, committed and faithful as our friends, our family members, or our spouse.

These people believe in us. They cheer us on and help us place confidence in ourselves when we feel tired, defeated, and ready to give up. They love us for who we are, in our best moments and in our worst. Companionship, security, and comfort are the defining features of these healthy relationships.

As we practice loving in this way, God himself is seen among us. He moves and dances in our actions so that we mirror him to each other.

The author of Ecclesiastes saves the best for last. Building from the loneliness of a single person to the mutual support of two people, he ends with a statement of three. The picture of a cord woven with three strands points to a deeper reality behind the companionship. Who is this third strand? It is God himself. He lifts both partners up. He is their comfort and security. His commitment to both of them under girds their faithfulness to one another.

A cord of three strands is not easily broken. God-honoring relationships are durable. They stand through peril and uncertainty. Why? Not because the people involved in these relationships are so powerful and wise, but because God is strong. And he is love. His holy love is the strongest force in the world. Absolutely nothing can overcome it.

When we live in this love, we have much to give. It strengthens us from the inside out. In our professional relationships, with our families, or in our marriages, we can offer companionship as we dispense comfort and security to everyone around us. God’s faithfulness and his love are behind it, and when we offer him to others, he becomes visible as the strongest strand holding all the others together.

Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For, in just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay. Hebrews 10:35-37

What do you think of when you hear the word “perseverance?” For me, it’s that poor little train in the children’s story, The Little Engine That Could. Whenever a grade-school teacher read that story to me, I felt so sorry for that little train. “I think I can … I think I can …” she would puff as she climbed steep hills. She seemed to me to be taking such huge risks against insurmountable obstacles.

“Would someone just help her already?” I wanted to scream at my teachers. “Please, make her journey easier, or at least tell her to drive her train on flat ground. Who said she had to go up and down mountains anyway?”

Sadly, you can see I had little patience with this book as a child.

But it really does make a great point, and it’s similar to the one in Hebrews 10. Verse 35 tells us not to throw away our confidence. We have to keep trying, keep standing, keep searching, and keep believing. The truth is, we are in a battle. The things that matter most don’t come easy, and they take a long time to develop. Whether it’s character, relationships, or faith, we must prepare to stay in for the long haul.

God knows all about the challenges and setbacks. He sees everything and he understands.

We don’t struggle for nothing. Verse 35 goes on to tell us that our confidence will be richly rewarded. If we persist in living out God’s will for our lives, we will receive what God has promised.

The concept of a reward implies payment, like a worker who draws a wage. Jesus promised rewards to his disciples for doing his work of evangelism on earth.

What is the reward God has in mind for those who persevere? Is Hebrews talking about financial gain?

The promises God has made far exceed material possessions or financial security. The reward of God is our salvation, purchased for us through the blood of Jesus Christ. Rewards also come as blessings that are showered on us at any time and in any way God chooses.

These are wonderful and entirely true, but when we face a hardship or are mired in struggle, it’s not always so helpful to comfort ourselves with the broad theological concepts that encompass our entire lives. We need help now. We want that word that will tell us yes, we will make it up that mountain. We are desperate to know God is present and aware, and that he won’t leave us.

This is perhaps what these verses from Hebrews 10 is pointing to. God rewards us with more of himself. We can take it in at any time on any day. In those moments when we feel like we only move forward by inches, even the slightest progress offers more of God’s presence to us. This is because as we persevere farther and farther through our challenges, God is moving deeper and deeper into us.

It works both ways. As we are conquering territory on the outside, God is claiming more and more territory in our hearts on the inside.

So what is the goal, really? Do we want to push through the problems for the sake of eliminating them and striving for that elusive easy life?

Or, are we pressing on in pursuit of God? Trouble will make us do that. And the secret is, if we’re willing to let God shape us and change us as we persevere, the troubles aren’t really troubles anymore. They become opportunities. Opportunity for sanctification and holiness, change and increasing strength.

In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.

God is here. He’s working in you, working in your circumstances by helping you endure and rise above.

Do you feel as if you are wielding your sword alone, at night where no one sees you through the darkness?

God sees. He is on his way to bring you his perfect assistance at just the right time. Your help is on the way.

What the psalmist says about the city in Psalm 46 can also be said about us:

God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Psalm 46:5

Be of good cheer. In this world we will have trouble, but Christ has overcome the world.

And he will help us overcome too. This is why we must persevere.   

One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” John 5:5-6

Thirty-eight years. Every time I read this passage from the Bible, I am amazed all over again. This man laid by the Pool of Bethesda for thirty-eight years. Day in, day out, he waited for the waters to stir, tried his hardest to get into the pool, and drowned in disappointment. He did this over and over for thirty-eight years.

It would have had to start to wear on him. Can’t you just imagine the levels of discouragement he lived with? He could do nothing for himself. His one chance at wellness depended on perfect timing, but he didn’t have the power to orchestrate a plan for himself. So, he lost out over and over again.

He probably had nieces and nephews younger than the lifetime he’d spent at the pool. They were growing and changing, going to school, learning trades, or getting married while he just laid there. Waiting, trying, and failing.

But then Jesus showed up. If you happen to read this passage in a Bible where the words Jesus spoke are typed in red, then it’s easy to see exactly how much Jesus actually said to this man. Fourteen words. That’s all. After thirty-eight years, fourteen words changed his life.

The power he’d been waiting for finally came. It arrived from a source outside of himself. There was nothing he could have done to call it into being, and there was nothing he could have done to weaken it. God is God. In Christ, he is grace, he is healing, and he is the most supreme eternal power. And in a flash, he wiped out years and years of frustrations, of limitations, and of disappointments.

Do you have a prayer you’ve been praying for a long time? Have you been lying around your own Pool of Bethesda, waiting for the waters to stir, and watching for the gracious power you need?

If so, then I’d like to encourage you by saying that it will come. We seldom know how God will choose to work in our lives, but we can rest confidently in the truth that he will. Keep telling him about your heart’s desire. Don’t give up listening to him and watching for him.

God’s timing is always just right. Our job is to grow more patient, to deepen our character with the willingness to sit still, and to cultivate an ease in our attitudes that welcomes whatever the Lord sends in his own good time.

In Psalms 62:1 (ESV) it is written, “For God alone my soul waits in silence.” That one unanswered prayer that has been such a long time coming is a matter that requires God’s attention alone. He wants to be the one to provide for us, and he wants to do it in his time and in his way, supplying riches for us straight from his storehouse of heavenly treasure.

Keep waiting and keep praying because one day Jesus will suddenly walk onto the scene. In a matter of a few well-chosen words, he will turn the situation upside down.

“I have no one to help me,” the man said to Jesus.

Instead of meeting the one need to cover the short distance to the pool, Jesus erased all limitations by giving him a new life. The man now had the mobility to go wherever he wanted.

Our prayers matter. God listens and he rewards the faith you place in him.

Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you. Nehemiah 9:5, 6.

These verses are the opening lines of a public confession the Israelites made together. Nehemiah left his job as cupbearer to King Artaxerxes so that he could return to his hometown of Jerusalem. After he was appointed governor, the walls were rebuilt. Then the day arrived when Ezra the Priest stood before the citizens and read the Law.

This was the moment these people had been waiting for. Their ancestors had spent generations in exile. Now this group was allowed to return home. Home to their beloved Jerusalem, the center of their religious life and cultural identity as the nation chosen by God.

As Ezra read from the Book of the Law, the precious words carried a deep conviction. Their nation had sinned. The crimes their ancestors had committed against God had led to the loss of their homeland. They didn’t want that to happen again, so they stood together and made a new agreement.

That agreement began with this decree: “All these (the priests, gatekeepers, musicians, temple servants, and all who separated themselves from the neighboring people for the sake of the Law of God) join their fellow Israelites the nobles, and bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God to obey carefully all the commands, regulations, and decrees of the Lord our Lord” (Nehemiah 10:28-29).

This new agreement committed the Israelites to following God’s ways. They reached this point of decision after a thorough confession. That confession began with the verses from Nehemiah 9:5 and 6. In making this confession, the Israelites are repenting of sin. In addition to their repentance, they are acknowledging God’s sovereign work in the history of their nation.

If you go on to read Nehemiah chapter 9, you would find that the rest of the chapter is a recitation of God’s work among them. Here are some examples: In verse 7, they declare that God chose Abram and brought him out of Ur. God saw the suffering of their ancestors in Egypt (v 9), came down to Mount Sinai to speak to them from heaven (verse 13), and showed great compassion to them in the wilderness (verse 19).

This is God’s sovereign work. There was nothing the Israelites could do to change God’s plan for them as his people. He intended for his son Jesus, our Savior, to come from the Jewish ancestry, and that is exactly what happened. Rebellion, sin, and the abandonment of God’s statutes by the Israelites couldn’t destroy the destiny God had designed for them.

God also weaves his sovereign plans throughout our stories. Look back over your life and keep watch for those times when you felt rescued, blessed beyond what you deserve, or used to bring influence and meaning to a difficult situation. These are the intersections in our lives between our human experiences and God’s sovereign plans.

He intends for you to be chosen for a special work. He infuses your life and makes it shine with his glory for his honor. Nothing we can do will alter God’s plans for us. The apostle Paul wrote about this in Romans 8:35 when he asks who shall separate us from the love of Christ. He lists all kinds of terrifying hardships but can’t find one that could separate us from God.

Jesus makes a similar statement when he addressed a group in the temple. “My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30).

God’s power is given to Jesus, and we also have been designated by God as belonging to him. We can find great comfort in this. God intends only our good, and he is revealing his perfect plans for us a little at a time, one day at a time.

Is there a situation that is overwhelming you? Do you feel stuck, or like you are drowning, and you don’t know what to do next because the obstacles are too big and powerful?

Is there a sin you’ve committed and you wonder if you’ve messed up your life too much to get back what you had before?

Maybe you are feeling beyond God’s forgiveness and there’s no way home for you.

Remember the Israelites’ homecoming in Nehemiah 9. This was the moment in time when they caught a glimpse of God’s plan for them. Just because they didn’t know of it before doesn’t mean it hadn’t already existed for a long time. They just needed to see it, to understand it, and to embrace it.

As the confession in Nehemiah 9 reminds us, God alone is the Lord. He made the heavens. He made the earth and everything in it. He made the seas and all that is in them. He gives life to everything.

He gives life to you and to me. He’s chosen you, designed a plan for the life he’s given you, and works in that life for your good.

King David understood this, and it made him burst out in praise and in worship of God.

Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours (I Chronicles 29:10-11).

Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. Psalm 31:5 (NKJV)

This verse stands out to me because the psalmist seems to be giving up the one thing most dear to him—his own spirit. The confession comes from a place of anguish. This person knows that the fears, the emotions, and the hurts rumbling around in his spirit are too much for him to deal with on his own. He needs help from someone wiser and stronger in order to survive the trials he is experiencing.

The psalm’s tone is foreboding. The author is in trouble. He states this in verse 9: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble.” Danger surrounds him and he is trying his best not to panic or cave in to despair.

But he knows of one place of safety, and that is the Lord’s care. He sees God as his rock of refuge (verse 2), a fortress (verse 2), his strength (verse 4), and his deliverer (verses 2 and 15). When the psalmist is overwhelmed with grief and feels his strength failing, he looks to the Lord and trusts in him for the deliverance he needs.

Only when God holds the psalmist’s spirit in his hands does the psalmist feel safe. God keeps him. Recovery and rest can be found there. The psalmist has full confidence in God’s ability to help him and to restore him. God has redeemed him, and God is honest, shielding him from deception while helping him stand with integrity.

The psalmist reveals to us a trustworthy way of caring for all we hold most dear. For him, his spirit is what needed God’s defense, but there are so many things we can lay in God’s hands.

If you feel weary or in danger, then follow the psalmist’s example and lay your spirit in God’s hands. But what about our relationships, our finances, politics, the future, or anything else you hold close to your heart? According to Psalm 31, we can commit any of these into God’s hands. He is our redeemer, and he will care for situations in ways that follow his truth.

This practice has become more important to me over time. Recently, several issues stacked up in my family life that required serious decisions to get made about them. My prayers became “Lord, into your hands I commit my son’s soccer season.”

“Lord, into your hands I commit our remodeling project.”

“Lord, into your hands I commit the direction of our nation.”

“Lord, into your hands I commit this new job opportunity.”

Can you relate to any of those? If you can, than it may mean that you, like me, care about the fate of the people involved or that you desire for all to turn out well.

Most of these situation are still going on, so I haven’t yet reached closure on them, but one thing I’ve discovered as I watch God work is that he provides for us very, very well, and with exquisite timing. His outcomes are so much better than what I could accomplish in my own power and with my limited perspective. It feels good to commit into God’s hands the people and the things I care about.

Psalm 31 has a somber mood until the last two verses. If your trust in God is at a crossroads because you’ve run up against a challenging obstacle, then let these verses help you move to a new level of faith in him.

Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints! For the Lord preserves the faithful, and fully repays the proud person. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord. (Psalm 31: 23-24).

God will keep you. He can hold the things that matter most to you. He preserves you and strengthens your heart. Keep hoping in him.

Hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. Romans 5:5 (NRSV)

This statement about hope from the Apostle Paul comes at the end of a list of qualities suffering produces in a person’s life. Ouch. If you are like me, you don’t want to have to go through the suffering in order to get to the love. But, for better or for worse, this is how God chooses to shape us.

Peter makes a similar list which includes qualities like goodness, self-control, and godliness, ending in the same place Paul does with love. (2 Peter 1:5-8). Why is the path to love such a long road? Why can’t God just give us the love and be done with it?

Peter says we must make every effort to support our faith with goodness, self-control, endurance, and godliness. Through them, we receive God’s promises and escape the corruption that is in the world (2 Peter 1:4). Because we possess these traits as our own, we get to participate in God’s divine nature.

This is the high calling to spiritual growth, and a worthwhile one. The journey to perfected love may last for our entire lives, but God doesn’t leave us trudging along on our own. Hope is our constant friend. As we patiently endure, our character matures. We develop godliness, which creates in us a greater capacity to love.

Hope keeps us looking to the end of our days when we will stand before the Lord and let our lives, our priorities, and our loves speak for us. Hope is the confidence we have in an eternal home waiting for us.

Until we arrive there, hope is also the belief that things will turn out well. We don’t always know how sufferings can work in our favor. Life can sometimes feel hopeless, like we don’t have a good reason to carry on. Everything seems to fall apart, to abandon us, and to ultimately disappoint us.

If we read Romans 5 closely, we notice Paul saying that hope does not disappoint us. Really? So, if this is true, then why do we feel disappointed so much of the time?

I wonder if Paul is suggesting a shift of our affections away from the people or the material goods that should be making us happy, and onto God. If hope doesn’t disappoint and yet we still feel disappointed, then where in our lives are we not looking to him for all that we need?

Love is the ultimate prize, and it is given through the Holy Spirit whom God has already sent to us. Following the Holy Spirit’s leading will shield us from disappointment. This isn’t to say that painful things we must grieve will never happen. Rather, Paul is exhorting us to bounce back. The Holy Spirit is a comforter. God is a redeemer. Christ is our Savior. These persons of the Trinity will help us stand on our own two feet again. And when we do, we will have a greater level of endurance, of patience, of character, of godliness, of love, and of hope.

Hope helps us become different people. We change as we rack up victories. Each one proves to us that God stands behind his word. This assurance colors our sufferings with meaning, moving us to higher levels of power.

Cling to hope as you climb.

Let it anchor you, encourage you, and expand your vision. It won’t disappoint you.