Hope

Hope. On the mountaintop, she is amazingly easy to gaze upon. She is much more elusive in the valley, where I find myself questioning whether she ever existed. I suppose I can lay aside my shame to admit that I’m travelling that valley. The details about my circumstances don’t matter. While I don’t know what this whole string of struggles is about, I do know trust is a large factor.

Intellectually, I know that God is good. Abba is righteous. He is powerful. He is the one who creates the sunrise. Job 38:12, NASB He has every right to do what He wants with my life, because I’ve been bought with a great price. Yet, nothing in my life is excluded from His assurance that “God causes all things to work together for good” (from the Greek word meaning useful, beneficial)... for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. I know this applies to me, that He’s saved me & called me according to His purpose. I do love Abba, and I do want to live as He calls me to.  Romans 8:27-30, NASB

So, back and forth I battle. How discouraging! For He has saved me; I owe Him everything, yet my stubborn flesh wrestles my own precious Abba who gave His own Son for me! Yet hope is found in this: His Spirit prays for me in my weakness, and Abba knows what is best.

So, may He do in my life as He wants. For He alone knows what tools best mold me into the image of Jesus. He is greater and I must become less. His wisdom is beyond comprehension. I am nothing apart from Jesus, and can do nothing apart from Him.

So, even if the struggle never is resolved, I must continue to learn what it means to

•          Abide in Jesus
•          Carry my cross, denying myself, following Jesus
•          Trust that Abba knows best, cares the most, and is continually working toward the end goal of bringing me into the full image of my Savior, Christ Jesus.

Abba, thank you for saving me, for your endless kind benefits, for assurances that you are at work in my life. I really don’t like that I still wrestle with you. I want to persevere (like the great cloud of witnesses who also struggled), even though I feel weary and scared, of what you might be preparing me for. In the end, I know that I must look forward, to Jesus alone. All the answers are in Him. May you have your way in me, as I learn what it means to be made in the image of Christ Jesus. In His name…