Week
2 Abide and Adhere
Day 8
All Our Hope Is in You
I pray…that He
would, by whatever means, make the multitudes of His dear children who are
still living divided lives, to see how He claims them wholly for Himself, and
how the wholehearted surrender to abide in Him alone brings the joy unspeakable
and full of glory.[i]
Andrew Murray
W
|
hen we finally begin to do things right, it may seem that everything goes wrong. This may be due to
the devil’s hatred of any freedom bid, but the Lord is the sovereign authority
over all roadblocks in our path, some quite depressing or frightening. It is
difficult not to cry out “Why?”
Perhaps God allows frustrating
setbacks because He does not want us living, as Andrew Murray says, divided
lives.[ii]
Our heavenly Father wants our hopes set fully on His cleansing grace, not even
partially upon some earth-bound future in which we pray to finally have our
kingdoms come according our own specifications. God has sculpted our future
with Him according to His blueprint and not ours, and the small doses of
suffering we face as we turn from sin and set our hearts on obedience challenge
our motives. Have we placed our hope fully in Him? Do we trust the Lord’s
sovereign purposes even when our efforts to obey do not seem to be rewarded?
Our Lord has so much love and
compassion for us. He hasn’t left us without comfort and help; it’s just that
He knows we can’t find lasting happiness apart from Him. We are allowed moments
of transient joy that are a foretaste of Heaven, brief seasons of time when we
bask in the light of ecstasy that has it source off-world, but for now we can’t
keep these pleasures as our own. We are homesick, and we misinterpret this
feeling as being due to some failing or lack in our current circumstances.
We may blame God, but we are even
more likely to blame our loved ones for letting us down: if they would just
make our happiness a priority, then we could have what we wanted and things
would be like they ought to be. This thinking is earthbound and thwarts the
flow of love for these precious others God has entrusted to our care.
God asks us to place our hopes for
the future upon Heaven and not the earth. One of the biggest deterrents to
obeying this request is the erroneous thought that we can attain some earthly place
of peace and happiness through our own hard work and determination.
Earth is where we live for now, but
Heaven is our home.
Pray: Lord, please show me the
places I would keep for myself and the dreams I’ve nurtured that don’t include
You. Forgive me for my desire for things of this earth, and change me so that
my heart is completely Yours. When I look at You I know that there is no better
Comforter or beloved friend, no god more powerful than the one true God. You
are the Almighty, the Eternal, and I worship You. Amen.
~~
…
be
sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at
the revelation of Jesus Christ…
1 Peter 1:13 NKJV
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