I cannot recall a time in
my lifetime when America was so unrighteous – when lawmakers support wickedness and defy or ignore God. Because of the criminal actions of a few, others are ambushed
and murdered. Families are devastated. Innocent children are caught in the cross-fire. Anarchy reigns unchecked. Thugs make the rules.
Authority is disrespected. Personal property is destroyed and businesses disrupted.
Violence is excused.
History is despised or denied. Statues are
toppled. Monuments are defaced.
These are
scary times in our country.
Logic, reason, common-sense seem absent.
Masks hide the faces of everyone, giving anonymity to criminals.
There are no visible smiles.
People don't speak to each other. (Have you noticed the
silence in the stores these days?)
Alcohol sales and
drug use are up.
Depression, suicide, and murders have increased.
Domestic violence is even more prevalent.
Churches closed while abortion clinics and liquor stores remained
open.
Independence Day gatherings cancelled
yet demonstrations and rallies permitted.
Legislators can’t seem to agree
on anything.
It feels like we are living
in a bad movie – one that surely cannot end well.
It seems hopeless.
It. Feels. Hopeless.
The Apostle Paul lived in difficult hopeless times. Yet he knew abundant comfort coming from God. He wrote of “affliction which came to us in Asia,
that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired
even of life … having the sentence of death within ourselves in order that we
should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.” (2 Corinthians 1:8,
9)
Despite perilous times Paul said they “set their hope” on God! (2
Corinthians 1:10)
In another passage he wrote to Timothy, “We have fixed our hope on
the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.” (2
Timothy 4:10.)
Paul’s hope was so firmly fixed on God that he expressed this
desire for the believers in Rome, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all
joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of
the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)
He, the God of peace (Romans 15:33) brings
joy, peace and hope to our minds and hearts despite troubling and uncertain
times!
When the future seems uncertain,
When we hold our breath ‘waiting for
the other shoe to drop,'
We need supernatural joy and peace and hope.
And we can have it if we decide
to firmly fix our hope completely on Him, the God of hope!
He sees, He knows, He cares, He is coming
again and He will make things right!
Hymnwriter, Edward Mote (1797-1874) expressed it this way:
“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
all other
ground is sinking sand.
When darkness veils his lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace;
in ev'ry high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; all other ground
is sinking sand,
all other ground is sinking sand.
His oath, his covenant, his blood support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way, he then is all my
hope and stay.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; all other ground
is sinking sand,
all other ground is sinking sand.
When he shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in him be found,
dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the
throne.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; all other ground
is sinking sand,
all other ground is sinking sand."
Abounding in hope while standing on the Rock,
Ruth
