While preparing my heart for the laparoscopy (from which I really did not expect good results), I listened to a message by Janis Shank entitled "Hope Is a Verb: Biblical Hope" (HT GirlTalk). I highly recommend this outstanding message on the life of Sarah, which offers weapons to battle fear and wisdom to refocus our hope on God's purposes. Janis also littered the message with high-impact quotes. Here are a few favorites:
"To hope means to look forward expectantly for God's future activity. The ground of hope is God's past activity in Jesus Christ, who points the way to God's purposes for his creation." New Dictionary of Theology
"In the case of every child of God, calamity never comes alone; it invariably brings Jesus with it." Octavius Winslow
"Has your wishful hope been converted at the foot of the cross to true hope?" Elisabeth Elliot
My laparoscopy brought Jesus with it. It also brought good news, so that my temptation to fear has been replaced with a temptation to rely on the wishful hope of getting pregnant soon. I want that wish to become reality, but I want to keep my true hope grounded in God's past activity in Jesus Christ.
1 comment:
I love what you said about keeping your true hope grounded in God's past activity through Jesus. My friend Jen, she of SHG hand-holding fame, occasionally reminds me to build altars. Whenever anything important happened in the the Old Testament, the Israelites stopped and built and altar and they named it after the event that happened so that they would always remember what the Lord did. In the same way, I can journal events of the Lord's faithfulness to me so I can go back and see that yes, He's provided and okay, deep breath, He's got this one too. Even if I don't see how I'm getting out of this whole and intact. So when I don't feel hope, I can look at my past altar, see God's faithfulness and then run like crazy to the foot of the cross yelling "Daddy! Help!"
It took me a long time to realize that Sarge's brain injury was preparation for our infertility. We built lots of altars during that journey and I've needed them all.
You probably know all this already. I'm going to stop rambling and give your comments section back to you.
~Flicka
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