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Daily Scripture
 
"Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord."

Psalm 31:24

ROAD TO HOPE

March 22, 2008

On the Road to Hope

A lot can happen in a year. It was a year ago on our anniversary we that Christine was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Looking into scripture gives no indication that God wants to make our lives easier. In fact , it almost seems the opposite. Examples like Daniel and Joseph pop into mind. Men who clearly walked with God, yet faced some of the worst trials. What does this mean for us ? Is there something deeper that God wants us to know ? Yes there is . In fact the only way to know God is to experience life with Him through the trials of life. Trials with God can produce something greater and stronger that surpasses the circumstances of life…. Hope. Hope is the end product that is produced in a person who walks with God in trials. We spend our entire lives trying to avoid hardship and pain. When adversity strikes we fear, and faint and fight. Sometimes we even fold. Lets look at what God says,

By whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit which is given to us. Rom. 5:2-5

Hope is born out of a strengthened relationship with God after you have faced the trials of life together with Him. I believe that you when you face your greatest fears and watch as God pulls you through them time and time again you end up with the this conclusion found in the Old Testament:

"My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (Psa_73:26)

I believe God’s Spirit sheds a knowledge of the depth of His love for us in our heart of hearts that we can only understand as we face each trial together with God. God becomes the strength of our hearts and his grace is made known to us in real time.


God is our Hope

It is much like hiking up a mountain with a friend and time and time again he pulls you up and encourages you to keep going until you reach the top and everything around you comes into perspective and you gain a clarity that you couldn’t see up until then and an understanding that you would have never have made it on your own.
The journey that seemed so hard in the beginning becomes the greatest joy of your heart. When something that seemed so impossible taking you to your ropes end and yet that very thing becomes possible through God's strength, you come to a heart understanding where true strength lies. It lies in God.


Hope is a process

God's desire is to conform us into the image of His Son. He wants to bring us to spiritual maturity, strengthen us, establish us and settle us for what is ahead. Each trial draws us closer and closer in confidence toward God. It grows grace in our hearts to handle the hardest of situations. Much like exercise produces physical endurance to handle the long road, so do trials in the spiritual realm. Trials produce hope to persevere even the greatest of trials so when the heat is on we can finish the task that is set before us. Jesus is our greatest example of this truth, when the trials became unbearable and the sweat turned to blood, he turned in confidence to his father and said " not my will but yours be done."
Jesus did no run from the trial, he faced it straight on with the assurance of God’s promises.

One year ago my wife was pronounced with a very aggressive type of cancer which threatened to take her life. Today she is still alive and changed.