19 January 2022

Staying positive in the midst of hardship. My husband Bruce has been sharing for a few weeks now on committing your plans to the Lord, especially as this is the start of a new year. Only problem is, in talking to many about the start of 2022 and what we have had to endure the last few years with the Covid virus, “What can you plan?”

If we plan a holiday, it often gets cancelled due to a change in the flights available or travel permits cancelled. If we plan a party, an engagement or a wedding it often gets cancelled because we are in Lockdown or there are limited numbers. If we plan for the children to go back to school, things change and they cancel the plans and remote learning from home occurs. There has been so much turmoil with loss of jobs, loss of businesses, those struggling with illnesses, grieving over the loss of loved ones and then to top it off fires, floods, famine, devastation with climate change that is so unpredictable. It just appears to be hopeless. What to plan for?

The rules change so quickly depending upon what the virus is doing, how contagious and deadly it is. One thing that we are all wanting is something to give us hope. We hope that things will get better. We hope for healing. We hope for answers. We hope that God will come and save, come and protect, come and eradicate the virus. Humanity has gone through many turbulent times on this earth, but we Christians in every circumstance should put our hope in Christ. There was approximately 500 years between the prophet Malachi and the prophet John the Baptist. How long did the Jews have to wait for the Messiah to come?

Many are still waiting, for they don’t believe Jesus is the Messiah.

Did the Jews wait with hopelessness in their spirits? No. They kept reminding themselves and all their people that God promised them the Messiah. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was who God sent to save us all. This Redeemer. Our Saviour is who we put our hope in.

When we have faith in Christ, we have a hope for things eternal, for things that will last, that will never decay and waste away. A Christian’s hope is not an escape or wishful thinking. It is truth realised. Truth personified in Jesus Christ. This eternal hope can give us a renewed vigour and strength. This hope not yet seen, convicts us to trust and believe in the God who rescues, the God who saves, the God who loves. We increase our Faith by believing.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1 NRSV

And we must remember to abound in hope like in Romans:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13 NRSV

So do you know what will differentiate us from others? That we put our Hope in Our God and we give Him our plans. We use the wisdom from the Holy Spirit and still plan for good, plan to spread love, plan to grow and develop, to be fruitful. And TRUST and HOPE in Our Blessed Saviour.

Charles Spurgeon, a great pastor and follower of Christ once wrote “without Christ there is no hope.” And Martin Luther wrote “everything that is done in the world is done by hope.” Oh, how true. The future can be a scary thing with so many uncertainties! But in Christ, with Christ we have hope in this life and the next. The future can be entrusted to God and He will get us through.

May these jottings from my journal inspire you to believe in and fall in love with Christ- the hope of the world, as stated in Jeremiah 17:7, ‘Blessed is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord!’

Love

Rosemary

Every week groups of ladies meet together to chat about the things I raise in my weekly blog post and to chat about life in general. We call these ‘Heart Connect’ groups. If you would like more information please click HERE.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Are you putting your hope in God?

Are you trusting Him with your plans? What can you do to commit your plans to God this year?