Have you ever noticed how despair boxes us in? When we’re struggling with emotions of despondency, our focus narrows until all we see is the problem, the person, the same old pattern over and over again. The sense of being trapped, of feeling unable to change or break free, pushes us toward panic or hopeless resignation.
With such a limited perspective, our perception of life is also confined to what we see and feel. When we can’t see past our circumstances, we start believing ‘this’ is all there is to my life; ‘this’ is how my life will always be.
But that’s not what God wants for us. He wants us to see the way He does. And to do that we must look up and fix our eyes on Him because He sees the whole thing. Our lives. Our feelings. Our present moment. All of history. He knows the beginning to the end. And He knows how much He can do for us and with us and through us if we’ll just shift our focus, if we’ll embrace the grace He extends to us.
The Space of God’s Grace
Whether we’re claustrophobic or not, tight spaces make most of us feel uncomfortable. There was the time my husband and I unexpectedly got caught in a mob of people, and we felt our world closing-in on every side, literally shoulder-to-shoulder. I was pretty sure if I picked up my feet, I wouldn’t fall – we were that packed in. My heart pounded with panic, wondering how we’d ever get out of the endless sea of faces.
Then we saw her. A young mom with her baby wrapped in her protective arms, trapped in the same madness of humanity. As one, Larry and I made our way toward her, moved by our own parental instincts to get that baby out of danger. Miraculously, the three of us – Momma, my hubby, and me, kept Baby sheltered in the middle of us while we hollered and pushed our way through the crowd, inching our way toward the edge – until we made it!
What had seemed like a hopeless situation was suddenly overcomeable because my line of sight shifted from myself and from what I perceived.
That experience has stuck with me for thirty years and continues to reveal layers of lessons. Most recently it has become a model for what to do when my circumstances cause me to feel hopelessly trapped: look beyond myself. Look to God (Hebrews 12:2), the One who sees us (Genesis 16:13). The One who sees the world and all who are in it differently than we do (Psalm 33:13-15). The One who wants us to believe that what seems impossible is possible for Him (Matthew 19:26).
By shifting our eyes onto our Good Shepherd, our point of view changes – and the dark valley that we’ve been walking through suddenly seems to be a righteous path because we realize He is with us (Psalm 23:2-4).
By moving our line of vision onto the Father who wants to do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,” we are able to move out of our box, toward Him (Ephesians 3:20). And as we do, we “find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand – out in the WIDE OPEN SPACES of God’s grace and glory” (Romans 5:2 MSG, my emphasis).
Living Hope
It dawns on me that as we walk toward those wide open spaces of God’s grace, our hope is alive! This is no dead faith that we’re talking about. Our Jesus, He lives! As such, He becomes our hope for this life on earth – this life with Him. It’s a new life that we’ve been birthed into, a life held up and given purpose by our living hope (1 Peter 1:3).
A Pharisee named Nicodemus once came to Jesus under the cover of night in order to talk with Him, to ask questions of this One sent by God (John 3:1-2). Here’s a priest appointed by men to lead people toward God who had been living in a box created by thousands of years of tradition and rules. But with Jesus, his sight was beginning to shift
Before Nicodemus could ask his first question, Jesus spoke an important truth over this holy man: “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” (v.3).
Not yet fully focused on Jesus as Messiah, Nicodemus didn’t grasp Jesus’ meaning. “How can someone be born when they are old?” (v.4). Elaborating, Jesus differentiates between human birth and the way “the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life” (v.6 NLT).
Jesus wants us all to see beyond the world, the tangible, the grasp-able. Rather, He desires us to understand that by His grace, we are meant to be shaped deep within us, “formed by something [we] can’t see and touch—the Spirit—and become a living spirit” (v.6 MSG). Such a birth into the newness of Spirit gives us eyes to see as Jesus does. Moving through this world with a grace-given living hope is our means of breaking out of old molds, ruts, and ways of thinking that urge us to give up.
This living hope sources our sustaining power and launches us into the life Jesus longs for us!
Eternal Hope
There’s another level of hope that dwells in us as a future promise, yet its ability to carry us through this life is no less powerful. It’s a hope that helps us see beyond this material world, to a place and time in which we have put all our faith.
There’s a Greek word for ‘hope’, elpis, that connotes a deep sense of active waiting. It’s the ‘hope’ of faith for what’s to come – for things not yet seen (Hebrews 11:1). So, it’s not a hope that sits idly by. Rather, it’s a hope for the future that motivates us toward preparation, action, discipline – so that we are ready for all Christ has for us, including all the grace He’s bringing with Him when He returns (1 Peter 1:13).
Paul explains that if, as humans, we already have something, we don’t have a need to hope for it (Romans 8:24). For instance, if I possess the purse I’ve always wanted, I don’t keep hoping for it for my next birthday. This same logic works for our future lives with Jesus – those days in eternity when our bodies are made whole and things like pain and tears no longer exist. We don’t yet have that life. So we hope for it; we wait patiently, actively, and confidently for it.
But then there are days and weeks, seasons and entire lifetimes that drag on – packed full of hurts and horrors, disappointments and disasters. And in those moments it might seem a bit fanciful or even excessively optimistic to believe that putting our hope in a painless, fearless future could have any impact on us now.
And yet, that’s the hope of Christ.
A hope for life with Him now and then.
A hope that doesn’t quit.
A hope that looks so far beyond the current box we’re living in that heaven comes into view.
A hope for eternal life that is inherited by grace (Titus 3:7 CEB).
A hope that bolsters us with an eagerness for all that God has for us in the next life, the next body (Romans 8:23).
And that hope fuels all that we are and everything that we do in the here and now.
My friend, I don’t know what has you feeling trapped right now or even what fear has you believing, but I can tell you that it makes so much difference in our lives today if we will lift our hearts to God, set our minds on Heaven, and fix our eyes on Jesus.1 Getting a different perspective won’t only change the way we see but how we feel and how we respond.
But here’s the deal – we need God’s grace in order to make that true shift, to truly break out of all that boxes us in. Staring at our Savior is a first step. Then we call out to Him, ask for His help, reach for His grace, and be willing to receive everything He has for us. Giving God’s grace space to do its work in us, day-in and day-out, leads us out of the tight, dark valley-places and into the wide open spaces of hope!
May we look beyond ourselves and fix our eyes on Jesus.
May we put all our hope on the God of all Grace because with Him everything is possible.
May we embrace the hope that comes with the newness of spiritual living.
May the eyes of our hearts look to Heaven, believing that all the promises are real.
And may the hope of what is to come spur us onward in this world as we become a people of living hope!
Father God, we are soaking in something really significant right now. Help us to pause and ponder it. Help us take-in what You are saying to us or wanting to do in us. We are realizing how easy it is for us to focus so long on our circumstances, or on ourselves, that we lose sight of You. So we speak the truth now — your grace has more power and purpose than we’ve ever realized, enabling us to shift our focus back onto You. We call out to You and take hold of the grace You have for us. Lord Jesus, we fix our eyes on You! We believe that with our focus on You, all things are possible. Thank You for holy conversations, like the one You had with Nicodemus; help us to fully embrace this new life You died for us to have. Holy Spirit, we look to You to lead us into this spiritual rebirth. Fill us with God’s grace so that we will look toward heaven and find the power we need to keep moving forward in faith with living hope, to keep believing the promises of God, and to keep trusting the holy work of grace. And we trust that Spirit-fueled faith leads us into the wide open spaces of grace we’ve been longing for! In Jesus’ name, amen.
(inspired by Ephesians 3:20; Hebrews 12:2; John 3:1-6; Matthew 19:26; 1 Peter 1:3; Romans 8:23, 5:2)
Resources: I love sharing with you the books, podcasts, articles, and anything else that has inspired, encouraged, or taught me. These are humble offerings with no expectations.
- 1 – JD Walt opens each daily devotion on the Wake Up Call with a prayer of consecration that I have borrowed and modified for our purposes. Saying this prayer daily for the last couple of years seems like a small thing – and it is – but the repetition and earnestness of this practice has given these words of truth space to do a work in me. It’s a testimony of what God’s grace can do when we embrace it.
- Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
- Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
- Last week we broached the topic of theology — the understanding of who God is. And I have to say that there are some songs and hymns that simply pour out the truth of God’s nature so beautifully and solidly that we feel it to our souls. “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less” is one of those hymns. I love the original hymn. I love the modern versions of it, like Hillsong’s “Cornerstone.” So this week I hunted down a version that is totally the hymn but with a powerful, added goody that sounds an awful lot like Isaiah 41:10 — and I’ve added it (“My Hope Is Built”) to our playlist, Embracing Grace. Here are the lyrics of the entire hymn — notice how MUCH the lyrics embody all that God is and so much of where He led us today.
- My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand:
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil. [Refrain]
His oath, his covenant, his blood,
support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay. [Refrain]
When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found:
dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne. [Refrain]
- My hope is built on nothing less
- Each Wednesday I upload a “Teacup” teaching video that carries on the topic here. You can find all the videos on my Facebook Author Page, Instagram, and YouTube.
- Many of you have found me on Substack. Thank you so much! And, if you’d like to listen to (rather than read) these weekly posts, you can do so on Substack, as well. It’s easy to see and use the audio bar across the top of each post. While you’re on Substack, check out the ministry I’m blessed to be part of, the Devoted Collective.
- My monthly newsletter, The Abiding Life, goes to email inboxes the first week of each month to those who have subscribed on my website. I also post them on Substack. My most recent edition can be found there, and you can subscribe for future newsletters on Substack, here.
Rhythms: As my newsletter’s title infers, we seek to develop an abiding life in this space — a place where we can get informed but also be transformed as we learn to abide in God’s presence throughout our days. I like to think that developing rhythms is one way to aid us in our desire to become more Christlike. There’s nowhere better to know Christ than in His Word, so throughout this series, we’ll grab hold of one passage each week and embrace the rhythm of starting our day with God and His Word every morning.
- This week our passage is Romans 5:2 in The Message. I squeaked aloud with glee when I read this verse in The Message paraphrase. It so captures the joy and awe of putting our hope in God and finding ourselves, after having followed Him through all dark and depressing, in those wide open spaces of His grace! WOOHOO!!!!!!
“We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.” –Romans 5:2 MSG - We’re all called to share the truths about the work of Jesus. One way you can do that is by sharing this site and telling others your own stories of faith experiences. Believe it or not, we worship God each time we share our stories of faith! We use our whole selves to tell about our holy God!!
Featured Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash. “All the Bits and Pieces” Photo by Arjun Kapoor on Unsplash.
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