Where is Your Hope?

Is it in people, your family, your friends? How about your pastor or your church? The only place our hope should be is in Christ. For years I put my hope in people. First it was my parents. They got divorced. Then it was in my grandparents. They passed away. Then it was in my friends, but friends come and go. And lastly it was in my church and my church began to fall apart. 

“Why God? Why?” I cried. The response was simply, “Where is your hope?”  In God, I thought, but if it was then why was I allowing this to destroy me? After my church began to fall apart I lost hope. Well, I hadn’t lost hope; I misplaced it.

I believed God abandoned me. I listened to the voice that said, “First your family and home, then your grandparents, and all those nice friends and now your community. He is just going to strip you down to nothing, take all that you have, and leave you.” I listened to that voice for a while, and then one day I decided to type it out on my computer, and as I read it back to myself I began to cry. 

That is not the voice of Our God. Our God calls us by name. He gave His only begotten son for our lives, that we may live victoriously for Him. No, I was listening to darkness. I repented and I realized my hope was in the wrong place. I cannot control people or circumstances, but I can trust the Lord Our God to keep me and guide me even through difficult times. Whatever the loss or gain I can trust He is there with me. 

It is too easy to put our hope in people and belongings; however, those things will go away and will most definitely disappoint us, but God is everlasting, all knowing, and will never forsake us. We may not always get what we want, or even what we think we need, but He is faithful and just. I don’t always give my children what they want or what they think they need either. “Where is my hope?”  Has led me through to a lesson in trust, obedience, and humility. 

I am learning to lay my relationships at Gods feet. I am learning to ask God for wisdom and direction in these relationships, and I am learning where to put my hope. And God is graciously teaching me to trust in Him and surrender to Him. I challenge you today. “Where is your hope?”