God blessed me when he compelled my husband to read aloud a chapter from the book, Getting in Touch With God, by Jim Burns. The suffering of the world along with my failure at finding fulfillment on my own found me playing footsies with despair on a daily basis.
My husband read, "If you read today's headlines in the newspaper you can get pretty depressed. But if we keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ we can have hope even in the midst of difficult circumstances."
Tears flowing from a confused mix of emotions poured down my face. Could it really be that there is hope is this man called Jesus? (At this point, I still considered Jesus an enlightened human being, certainly a prophet, perhaps a Yogi, but not literally God in the flesh).
The chapter went on to give four reasons that we can remain hopeful in the midst of confusing circumstances:
1. Jesus will win the final victory.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End" (Rev. 21:6).
2. Jesus sets you free.
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free" (Rom. 8:2).
3. There is no condemnation for those in Christ.
4. God's love transcends human understanding.
"For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 Nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:38-39).
The chapter finished with, "God loves you and wants the best for you. His love will give you hope even in the bleakest of circumstances. There is a light always shining, and the light is the love of God. In Him you can find hope." Could this be? Is it just wishful thinking by people not smart enough or brave enough to face reality?
This was followed by a challenge: "Make a list of reasons why you can be hopeful in a world filled with hopeless happenings."
To be honest, even though I've been blessed so much, I was so entangled with suffering that I found this challenge hard. I looked out the window and saw a beautiful sky with trees and leaves. Whoever made this sky and gives life to the trees must be good and powerful and present. I felt the air filling my lungs and knew that surely the Creator is blessing me with each breath.
While my faith was so tiny, it was slowly growing. This was a mere two months ago, and God has fed my faith daily, so that while I'm still in the beginning of infancy in my faith, I'm no longer prone to despair, and I thank God from the bottom of my heart for that. I'm learning to trust Him.
In my next post I'll talk about how God took me from believing that Jesus was a regular man, to tasting a glimpse of his divine character as the Son of God.
Lord, thank You for guiding me towards your Son, and for being so patient with my doubts, and hesitance to believe.
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