Hope for Future Rejoicing

We readily identify with the straining of the heart betwixt in many variations of the hellish place, because we’ve been to such destinations where the rocky hard ground of life seemed impenetrable to warrant the satisfaction of our gathering desires.

The psalmist implores his Lord:

 “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,

so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”

~Psalm 90:14 (NRSV)

Taken out of its context we may read this verse in a dreamy wonderland realm of mind. The rest of the psalmist’s offering is stunningly real. The poignancy of the plea is ever more real in considering the faith it takes to abide in God when all else in life contends vociferously against that faith. When we’re given to thoughts of withdrawal from our vital spirituality, and have since vacated our interest, we’ve given up our hope that future rejoicing in God is possible; even desirable.

Somehow we mustn’t let that occur.

Holding On For The Bright Morning

When life is scant and horrible, and every thought within us is bent in bitterness, which is compounded by feelings inexplicable, we easily lose sight of the brightening morning—the spiritual circumstance of one person’s revival: ours. And such revival brings itself out of nothing; nothing but a search that has clung tightly to the hope that such a morning would deservedly be revealed.

Hope is weird in that it presents as viable when there is no foreseeable reason to hope. Faith, as it happens, is the vehicle to propel hope; to believe in a thing, state, or circumstance, which in other situations, would be impossible to believe in. But believe we, personally, must. There is no benefit in not believing. We only stand a chance by our belief.

But many still give up. They give up prematurely. They give up because vision has failed them, or because the road is too tough. But they give up not knowing how close they are to the revelation of God’s victory. Imagine giving up within sight of an encroaching dawn. We must hold on just a moment longer.

Broadening The Mind Past The Travail

As we hold our hope aloft we notice our perspectives are necessarily broadened. They have to be. We cannot believe in our hope and simultaneously entertain the hellishness of it all. We must choose one or the other, and that choice is free. There is only one sensible choice. It seems the tough one. It’s actually no harder.

The act of mentally pushing past the present struggles is aided never more than by broadening these perspectives that we choose to focus on.

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Hope never occurs when we have no need of it; when faith is not required.

Faith and hope require a problem. And because life presents ample problems, faith and hope are indispensable gifts. Hope for future rejoicing is laden with faith enough to hope and not give up.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.