Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
“What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead.”
Hebrews 11:1 (TLB)
The morning sunshine is still coming, yet as I sit here I can see only darkness outside. Experience tells me, though, that I can believe that the morning light is about to break over the horizon.
How about you, do you believe that?
I didn’t see a lot of that “belief” the other day, as I ran some errands in town which Lynda had asked me to do. As I drove around and wandered through stores and the mall, it became eerily apparent to me that I seemed to see fewer smiles and heard less laughter among those I walked by or met on that journey than I had remembered from times in the recent past.
It was a bit like sitting in the darkness this morning.
Perhaps it was because the folks I saw were having a hard time believing that things would get better with the economy anytime soon. Many of them were without work. Soon-to-be college graduates who had worked so hard to graduate, like the young lady I spoke with, realized that the jobs that used to be there for new graduates were no longer readily available. The political landscape remains uncertain between two clearly different platforms.
Folks once settling in for retirement were now having to scale back the vision they had for the way that looked, or in some cases are postponing the date while they try to earn some of what was lost in their retirement accounts. Others are trying to figure out how they will pay for college for their children—which is just around the corner. While still others wondered where the money would come from for the family’s next meal.
We’re in the midst of a time where we may find it hard to believe that the sunshine really will come up over the horizon. We’re in the midst of a time where hope—the feeling that what is desired will actually happen—is on the wane.
I don’t know what you’re going through. Maybe it’s some of the same things those folks I saw the other day are going through. Maybe that feeling of hope you have had in the past is beginning to wane a bit today and for all your tomorrows.
If that’s the case in your life, think about this with me for a moment. In the midst of all of all storms we’re going through, it has never been clearer that what we believe in is of paramount importance.
Do we believe in the things that are subject to the winds and whims of whatever is going on around us, or do we believe in something more long-lasting? Do we believe in the things of the world, or the things of a more eternal nature? Does our hope reside in the wild swings of the stock market or whether we’ll get the next promotion, or start a successful business, or does it reside in something constant and never-changing?
Does our hope reside in the Hope of the One Who has control of eternity, or does it reside in something else? Does our hope believe that through all that is going on in the world around us, God has not left us, still reigns, still knows us, cares for us and hears our every word?
Or is our hope in something or someone else?
What do you believe in? Where do you put your hope?
Believe in the God Who created you and cares for you. Put your hope in the God Who is always there, has never left you, never will, and will always show you the way.
Believe that the morning sunshine really will come over the horizon—today, tomorrow and for all eternity.
Why? Because with Him—it will!
In His Name—Scott
Copyright 2016. Scott L. Whitaker. All rights reserved.
