Shelley Johnson

This Hope: Our Endurance

When news of another friend’s loss reaches me, my heart lurches. It aches for the person who now lives without their loved one, who must abandon dreams and change life plans. Then I wonder to God, “How will they ever get through such grief? …How would I?”

It makes me think of a story Beth Moore told years ago about a friend who lost a child. Beth took the same questions to God, asking how do we endure such loss? And God reminded her of the manna that fell each morning for forty years in the wilderness. God sent the Israelites all the manna they would need each day – and grace works the same way. In seasons when we are plodding through pain, God supplies extra grace – enough grace to endure. Enough grace to hope for a day when such anguish no longer exists.

Sometimes, knowing that our suffering matters¹ does not seem like enough to push us through, to give us what we need to keep hoping and enduring. And that’s when we have to accept the truth – we cannot produce the will to persevere. Paul David Tripp says our “hope of enduring is not to be found in our character or strength.” Rather, we have to look beyond ourselves to the One who always endures.² God never grows weak; He is always strong (Isaiah 40:28). He never gives up; He always perseveres (Psalm 62:5-6). In other words, the “God of Endurance” is our source of hope (Romans 5:5 CEB, 5:13 NLT)! And He has given us two valuable assets to help us hang-on in the midst of our misery – the Scriptures and the Spirit (Romans 15:4,13).

Scriptures of Encouragement

In his first letter, Peter talks a lot about suffering because the audience he wrote to suffered greatly under Nero’s persecution in Rome. He set out to encourage the distressed followers of Christ who had begun to think God had abandoned them.³ And isn’t that what suffering tempts us to do? Doubt. God’s. Presence.

Throughout his letter, Peter’s words are timeless, encouraging everyone to endure the brokenness of the world. But he also speaks truth over our tendency to think we’re alone in our struggles – to believe that no one could ever feel as we do:

“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.”
1 Peter 4:12 NIV (the 1984 version)

The Good News Translation really pegs it, “as though something unusual were happening to you.”

It’s one thing to say that suffering is universal; it’s another thing altogether to remember that truth when we are in the middle of the mess. But what Peter wants all believers to grab hold of is that these hard times – the pain, the grief, the exhaustion – they’re not unique to any of us. They really are to be expected – especially by believers. And, that is meant to be encouraging.

Like the time we took one of our sons for counseling during his turbulent middle school years. I was just sure we had a unique situation that would be unsolvable, not overcomable – and those fears caused me great distress. As though she knew what I was thinking, the counselor pulled me aside after one session and said, “He’s a normal teenage boy. You will get through this.”

Her words poured such relief into my mom-heart. There was hope in knowing we weren’t experiencing anything new. It helped me endure those years with faith that God would continue to equip us with people like this counselor and encourage us with the truth that our struggles are not singular.

Another thing Peter’s letter accomplishes is reframing the trials of this young church.

First, he promised the trials would not last forever (1 Peter 1:6). Then, he wanted them to know these ordeals would not leave them empty and faithless; rather, they would actually show their faith as genuine (1 Peter 1:7a). In other words God would use the troubles to test and, ultimately, strengthen their faith. Finally, he gave them the promise that there would be rewards for such endurance:

“When your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.”
1 Peter 1:7b

Like Peter’s letter, all of Scripture is filled with stories and promises, which are included within its pages for the purpose of encouraging God’s people! We can scour the Old Testament to find suffering in abundance. The Israelites’ suffering as slaves in Egypt and Moses’ struggle to get them to the Promised Land show us that with God we can make it (Exodus). The way Job endures his great pain and grief can encourage us to trust God in the same way (Job). Jeremiah is but one prophet called to persevere through great persecution, and he is one who suffered inwardly, as well, as he watched God’s people choose faithlessness over and over. Yet his faith only grew stronger (Jeremiah). The Israelites suffered even as they were allowed to return to Jerusalem after seventy years of exile, but they overcame the obstacles by believing in God’s Word (Ezra/Nehemiah).

And, of course, the New Testament’s four Gospels chronicle the struggles of Jesus and His disciples. From rejection to betrayal to grief, these faithful followers were not immune to suffering. Quite the contrary, Jesus actually tells them to expect trouble – not only because the world is full of it but because they follow Him (John 16:33). However, His very next words, “I have overcome the world,” impart the hope we all need to keep plugging away.

Jesus, our hope, will get us through. In His Word we find promises that help us persevere.

Spirit of Help and Hope

On the night of His arrest, Jesus breaks all kinds of news to His disciples as they share the Last Supper – He’ll be “going away” but “will be back soon” (14:28); “the prince of this world is coming” but “he has no hold over” Jesus (14:30). Underlying all of this is the news that when He is gone, the Father will send the Holy Spirit (14:16-17,25-26).

Jesus knows that His followers will need someone to continue to speak truth over them and to advocate for them (14:16-17,26). Four times in this one speech (14:16,26; 15:26; 16:7), Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Helper, the paraklétos – the one to come alongside to advocate and intercede, to comfort and console.

In other words, the Holy Spirit has been given to us – to each and every follower of Christ – as our Helper, the One to come alongside us and continue the work Jesus began.

Friends, when we make the decision to follow Jesus, we are brought into communion with Him – with the Holy Trinity. And it is in that very place of belonging where we find the strength to endure whatever life throws at us. We are never alone!

The giving of the Spirit was a calculated decision, part of the plan, and is the gift of having Jesus with us every single day. And therein lies our hope – which is why Paul would include a prayer about the power of the Holy Spirit in the conclusion of his passage on persevering through trials:

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 5:13 NIV

The Spirit who is our helper is also our hope!

So, as you go about your day – your life – remember Jesus is always, always, always with you because the Spirit is in you.

With the Spirit, you always have a helper.
With the Scriptures, you always have encouragement.
With the pair, you always have what you need to endure the trials that lay like a heavy burden on your shoulders.

You don’t have to feel the added pressure of coming up with the strength and resolve to “just keep swimming.”⁴ Instead, you can bear your soul to the One who has come alongside you and trust in the fact that His grace will always be enough. Then, the God of Endurance will be your source of hope.

Friend, because of Jesus, this hope is our endurance. You are going to make it!

Heavenly Father, our God of Endurance, You never grow tired. Your resolve never waivers. Your strength never fails. And You offer ALL of this to us. You give us rest; You align our wills with yours; and You empower us to endure. So, on this day, we choose to put our hope in You, and we thank You that You renew our strength. Lord Jesus, we are so grateful for the words that You spoke over your disciples on that last night, leaving them as an offering for us today. We desire to be encouraged by your Word, so we ask that You would lead us to the just right passages at the just right moments. And we vow to take those words as truth, clinging to them as lifelines. Holy Spirit, our Helper, thank You for coming alongside us on this journey of persevering and enduring all the trials this life gives. Our faith grows as we put our trust in the fact that You are always with us ready to help us at any moment, at any time. We claim Paul’s prayer as our own, asking that, as our Source of Hope and by your power, You would fill us with peace and joy each time we trust You so that we will overflow with hope! In Jesus’ name, amen.
(inspired by Romans 15:5,13; Isaiah 40:28,31; Matthew 11:28; Luke 22:42; 2 Peter 1:3; Psalm 119:160; John 14:16,26; Romans 15:13)

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 – a reference to last week’s blog post
2 – taken from the January 12th devotion in Paul David Tripp’s book, New Morning Mercies^ (many thanks to my friend, Susan, for sharing!)
3 – Women of Faith Study Bible, p.2021
4 – Dory quote from Finding Nemo (hahaha)
Did you see my Bonus Post? A few days ago, I wrote an extra, unplanned post about a type of prayer called a lament. If you’re not familiar with lament, read on — because this kind of prayer becomes a vehicle for speaking our truest thoughts and feelings to God with hope. We can get as honest as we want with the God we worship because He’s big enough to handle it and good enough to allow our honesty to shape us for the better.
For the curious — here’s an article that further unpacks how the Holy Spirit encourages us, including a great story that illustrates the “coming alongside” idea of paraklétos.
Taken from the Bible Study Tools website, here is list of verses to turn to in hard times:
- Psalm 9:9 – “The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.”
- Philippians 4:19 – “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”
- Psalm 32:7-8 – God is a hiding place. He provides the shelter no one else can.
- 1 Peter 5:7 – God asks us to give Him everything about which we are anxious, because He cares for us.
- Romans 8:18 – We can get through anything here in this life because we have glory ahead of us.
- 1 Peter 1:6-7 – Our faith is tested so we can grow in Christ and praise Him all the more as He is revealed.
- Joshua 1:9 – God is always with us, so we are to be strong and courageous.
- Philippians 4:19 – God will meet all our needs (remember, He is talking needs, not wants).
- Romans 8:28 – A very familiar verse to many about how God makes everything work for good for those He has called and who love Him.
- 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 – This passage was written by Paul, who, as we saw, went through some serious hard times. And through it all he kept his faith. In it he says, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
Our “This Hope” playlist holds so many great songs that are packed with all the truths in this series. When we are in hard seasons, we need encouragement to endure — and songs like these (because they’re saturated with Scripture and inspired by the Spirit) can go a long way to lifting our spirits, readjusting our eyes onto Jesus, and singing the Word over us when we can’t read it for ourselves.

Rhythms we can incorporate into our daily lives to aid us in our dwelling with God, living for Him, and putting our hope in Him:

This spring we’re leaning into the rhythm of meditation. Unlike eastern meditation that seeks to empty the mind and self of everything, Christian meditation desires to fill our minds and beings with Christ. SO — each day, to the best of our abilities, let’s meditate on God’s Word, or as my friend JD Walt says, “ruminate on the Word just as a cow ruminates on his cud.” In other words, don’t rush. Read. Pause. Listen. Reread. Pause. Receive. Give space for the Spirit to reveal and enlighten.
- This week, we can meditate (or ruminate) on Romans 15:13. One verse SO FULL of all the things we long for — joy, peace, trust, and hope!!! Truly, take your time. Come back to it again and again. Sometimes it can be fun to read a verse in multiple translations; however, this verse must be pretty straight forward — they’re all nearly the same. But, here are a few that incorporate a little variety:
  - Aramaic Bible in Plain English — But The God of hope shall fill you with all joy and peace by faith, that you shall superabound in his hope by the power of The Spirit of Holiness.
  - Weymouth New Testament — May God, the giver of hope, fill you with continual joy and peace because you trust in Him–so that you may have abundant hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
  - Good News Translation — May God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace by means of your faith in him, so that your hope will continue to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Finally, as a community, let us not neglect sharing God’s hope with others! Share your God-stories with people around you. Share this site. Share God’s Word. Shine His light of His hope into the world!

Featured Photo by Jaco Pretorius on Unsplash. Bits and Pieces photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova on Unsplash.
^ Affiliate link, with which I may earn a bit.

BONUS POST: Lament

Welcome to a bonus post! As we wrestle with hope’s role in our suffering, we need to consider how to express our truest feelings to God when we’re at our lowest.

For the vast majority of us, when we hurt, we resist – we hold back on naming what we feel for fear of the pain swallowing us whole. We live in a culture that only wants to see our best – our best smiles, our best creations, our best lives, so for too long we’ve lived under the illusion that if we fake it, we’ll make it. But the truth is we ALL suffer. And, as science and psychology will tell us, if we name and own how we feel, the grip of pain will lessen.¹ Believe it or not, Scripture has been telling us this all along –

Job doesn’t try to hide behind his grief when all has been lost. Instead, he speaks honestly, “Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? For sighing has become my daily food; my groans pour out like water. What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil” (Job 3:23-26 NIV).

David models for us throughout the Psalms how to speak what we feel: “Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint; heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long?” (Psalm 6:2-4 NIV).

Discouraged prophets like Jeremiah and Habakkuk pepper God with their questions and appeals: “Why is my pain continuous, my wound incurable?” (Jeremiah 15:18); “How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save?” (Habakkuk 1:2 NIV}.

In the New Testament, afflicted people consistently cry out to Jesus for help – like Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, who shouts out, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” (Mark 10:47).

In His overwhelm, Jesus calls out to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane as His sweat turns to blood, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me” (Luke 22:41-44). Agonizing on the cross, Jesus wails the words of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

On each occasion, these men do not hide their true feelings, hedge their questions, or act like all is well. Rather, they get honest – with themselves and with God. And, to a person they find help and strength in the One they cry out to. But, it always starts with naming emotions and owning the reality of their suffering.

Songs of Hope

There’s actually a name for prayers that sob, scream, and shout to God with gut-wrenching honesty – laments. Not all meltdowns are laments. And neither are all prayers. JD Walt helps us understand that for a prayer to qualify as a lament, it has to be “framed in the larger context of hope” because, by definition, a “lament is human sadness and longing lifted to God. Absent the presence of God and ultimate hope, we cannot lament; we can only despair.”²

I’d love for us to sit with that a minute: Without God and hope, we only despair. It makes me wonder how many of our prayers are really statements of despair, spoken as though we’ve given up on the situation – with no real hope for things to change. So how do we make the shift in our hearts and minds? How do we learn to lament?

First, it helps to know that laments are songs of hope that pour out from an open heart, searching for the Father’s help. This prayerful response becomes the hinge for hope which is why the lament is a needed part of every believer’s rhythms and routines. And why Timothy Tennent describes the followers of Jesus as “people of hope” who can “look to the future and know with confidence that God is in control and he will someday set all things right.”³

While we may not be familiar with the use of laments, God provides some great templates for us. Over one-third of the Psalms are laments!⁴ We’ve been given easy access to a library of laments to pour over, not only giving us permission to put this into practice but providing words for us to use.

As we begin to familiarize ourselves with this unique form of prayer, we will notice that most laments contain four elements, in which the author of the lament:⁵

Directs her complaint to God: “O Lord, how many are my foes!” (Psalm 3).
Describes her suffering, “My tears have been my food, day and night” (Psalm 42).
Depends on God to come to her aid: “Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself!” (Psalm 44).
Dwells on God’s faithfulness and goodness: “But I have trusted in your steadfast love” (Psalm 13).

Biblical laments demonstrate that the order of these elements does not matter, nor does equal representation. What I have always loved about these special Psalms is that no matter how dire the situation, the writer always comes back to faith, to hope.

Hope Is a Song

As with any other unfamiliar skill on the planet, the only way we’ll get better at tapping into our emotions and asking God for help with hope is to practice! Let’s use Psalm 13 to speak aloud our very own anguish. You can simply read the words and make them your prayer, or you can take what’s given and modify the words to fit your specific situation:

1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
    How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
    my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,
    for he has been good to me.
Psalm 13 NIV

Sometimes it helps to use various translations or even a paraphrase to get the heart of what is being said. Psalm 13 in The Message is a great one to try.

The Psalms are rich,⁶ and they have much to teach us about this practice of lament, so they can be our song book. But they can also be a springboard, launching us into our own laments.

Remember, a lament isn’t just grumbling – it’s describing our pain/suffering directly to God in hope so that we depend on Him and dwell on His faithfulness and goodness (our reason for hope). So, as you work your way through the laments found in the Psalms, make it a habit to see how each psalmist weaves these elements throughout their prayer so that you can do the same in yours.

Friends, suffering is inescapable, but we have a Savior who makes Himself available to us. He wants to hear us. He longs to heal us. He desires to be our hope. So, cry out to Him with the holy expectancy that He will!

“Hope is a song sung when everything else says you shouldn’t be singing. Hope is joy. Hope is a testimony that says ‘even if it doesn’t come true, I will live like it might.’ Hope is what helps us survive. Hope is little light.”
Pádraig Ó Tuama, In The Shelter page 178

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 – “Science Behind Why Naming Our Feelings Makes Us Happier” article
2 – JD Walt, Feb 25, Soundtrack
3 – May 28, Timothy Tennent, Asbury Seminary’s president,
4 – Here’s a list of the laments in Psalms – it’s a compilation from several lists and not perfect nor complete, but it is a great start. I’ve done my best to split up the individual laments from the communal/corporate laments:
The psalms of “individual complaint” are: Psalm 3–7, 10, 13, 17, 22, 25-28, 31, 32, 38, 39, 42, 43, 51, 54-57, 59, 61, 63, 64, 69–71, 77, 86, 88, 94, 102, 109, 120, 130, and 140-43.
The psalms of “communal complaint” are: 12, 44, 60, 74, 79, 80, 83, 85, and 89-90.
5 – “The Art of Lament” article by Gospel Coalition
6 – I think you’ll be amazed at how specific some of the Psalms are – some are about illness (Psalm 6), slander (Psalm 35), deception (Psalm 55–especially v.21), doubt (Psalm 71), stress (Psalm 102–especially vv.1-12), grief (Psalms 13, 77), discouragement (Psalm 143), when life beats us up (Psalms 88), when we feel abandoned (Psalm 38), when we’re tempted toward comparison (Psalm 73).
Our “This Hope” playlist has some good laments.
- Not on our playlist, but Cory Asbury’s song “Unraveling” is an example of a modern lament.

Rhythms we can incorporate into our daily lives to aid us in our dwelling with God, living for Him, and putting our hope in Him:

Remember this week we are meditating (or ruminating) on Romans 5:1-11 CSB. But, if one of the laments is capturing the words of your soul, please go with it!
Finally, as a community, let us not neglect sharing God’s hope with others! Share your God-stories with people around you. Share this site. Share God’s Word. Shine His light into the world!

Featured Photo by Mohd Zuber saifi on Unsplash. Bits and Pieces photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova on Unsplash.
^ Affiliate link, with which I may earn a bit.

This Hope: Suffering Matters

Despite the naive assumption of my twenty-something self – when I believed I could pray, work, or obey enough to avoid the hard paths – suffering is universal. There’s not one thing we can do to evade it. But I have certainly given it my best shot. 😉

During Lent, I took part in a study called In the Wild by Dan Wilt.¹ Slowly, day by day, line by line, Dan walked us through the three temptations of Christ during His forty days in the wilderness (Luke 4:5-8). Simultaneously, I re-watched The Chosen and completed a months-long study of Exodus. Immersed and saturated in such a way, this Lent I felt Jesus’ suffering like never before – maybe because of my new awareness that His painful struggles began long before the cross (like the betrayal of friends, rejection of His hometown, or animosity from His own people).

Dan points out that during the second temptation of Christ, Satan takes Jesus up to the highest point in Jerusalem and shows Him the kingdoms of the world, offering to give Him all their authority and splendor (Luke 4:6). But beyond power and influence, a more appealing offer underlying this temptation is to skip the suffering that is to come.¹

(Skip the suffering? Um, yes please.)

Yet in full knowledge of the cross and the suffering required of Him, Jesus quickly and adamantly declines, choosing to remain faithful to His Father in heaven (v.8) – and to the strategy they had laid out to redeem the world back to God.

Suffering was always part of God’s “Great Rescue Plan.”² It always included torture and death on a cross. That’s why Isaiah called Messiah the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53). In other words, Jesus knew. At some point in his human life, the Rescue Plan settled into His mind with clarity. Every word He spoke, every miracle He performed, and every challenge He posed led to the cross – intentionally.

I’ve sat in this truth for a few weeks now, and one of the outflows of such soaking is the humble acceptance that if Christ came to suffer, who am I to try to avoid it?

Even bigger is my realization that Jesus’ pain – of heart, mind, spirit, and body – had purpose.

Friend, I know you suffer. You might be tempted to deny it or compare it or despair in it, but there are truths, like lifelines, that each of us can grab hold of. Even though hardship is part of life in this broken world, God will always remain with us in our suffering, and our pain will always have purpose.

Promise of Presence

Years ago, dark days of betrayal and the grief of lost love tempted me toward despair. The lies of the enemy tortured me with ideas like: “this will never get better;” “you’ll never be loved again;” or “this is what you get.” I remember lying on my bed, giving in to the darkness. And for the first time in my life I realized how people could be tempted to take their own lives. Jolted back into reality, I reached for my dusty Bible.

And as I opened it, a scrap of paper with “Isaiah 41:10” penned on it fluttered to the floor, so I turned to that page and read that God strengthens, helps, and holds me in His victorious right hand. That day I’d been desperate, but the ache turned me back to the God of my younger days. That piece of paper with the perfect passage became my beacon of hope.

Isaiah’s words held promise. They didn’t fix the situation or even mend my heart in the moment. But, they gave me hope that my crappy circumstances would one day get better, and that I could get through it all because God would go with me.

Since the days of Moses and Joshua, God has been promising to never leave us, to never forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6). Jesus reiterates the same pledge, “I am with you always, till the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

So, as we surrender to the anguish that comes with suffering, we can allow our faith in our Father’s presence to set aflame our hope. We are not alone! We are seen, and our Lord has compassion because, as the word means, He suffers with us.

Promise of Purpose

Jesus knows suffering. He chose it. And, the writer of Hebrews would say He endured it because of the joy that would come after it – the joy of defeating sin and death, the joy of redeeming us back to Himself (12:2). In other words, each time He was tempted to give in to the dread of dying the shameful, excruciating death of the cross or to call down those legions of angels to rescue Him (Matthew 26:53), He trusted the plan. He believed that the purpose would be worth it.

Jesus models for us what it looks like to allow hope for future good to sustain us through our suffering. Paul elaborates, saying that it’s God’s grace poured out on us that allows us to put full hope in a future we cannot see, which is why we can…

“…boast in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
Romans 5:2-5 CSB

Paul’s train of thoughtstarts and ends with hope:³

Paul builds this incredible case that God’s grace gives us hope so that when the trials of life happen, we can endure. Because of Jesus’ suffering and death, we can confidently boast, even rejoice, in our trust of God in the midst of great pain. And as we patiently persevere, our character grows and deepens and strengthens which, in turn, only fuels more hope for better days.⁴

This “chain” serves as support for Paul’s assertion that “this hope will not disappoint us” (5:5).³ Our hope is unshakable because God’s grace grants it and His love sources it.

Hope keeps us afloat. When despair threatens to drown us, we can fix our eyes on our Savior who not only knows our pain but has promised we have a future with Him that will be worth it (Romans 8:18) – as He’s proven by His own choice to endure great affliction.

But hope also gives us staying power because we can trust the purpose that will result from it – like the shaping of our character. And the sharing of the hope we’ve found in Christ with others. It’s why Paul tells us to remember that God “comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others” (2 Corinthians 1:4 NLT).

On a recent Instagram reel, Jennie Allen challenged listeners to consider Romans 8:28 in a similar way, suggesting “the good” that God is working out isn’t just for our personal good but also for the good of others.⁵ After all, we’ve been “called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28b, emphasis mine).

This Hope

During Advent, I listened to Annie F. Downs’ podcast as she led her listeners through each week’s focus. Knowing that “hope” was to be my Word of the Year, I listened intently that first week as she unpacked the Romans 5:3-5 passage. Reading in the CSB translation, she kept emphasizing “this hope,” explaining this hope doesn’t disappoint because it’s anchored in Christ.

And like Paul, Annie exhorts us to believe with faith that this hope won’t disappoint because our suffering matters!⁶ It shapes us. It strengthens us. It equips us to go into the world and share the love and healing Christ has given us.

So as we absorb all these truths, we can choose to allow them to do a holy work in us so that the moment suffering starts, we can pick up the tools we’ve been given:

First, we look to God and tell Him how we hurt, getting honest with all our thoughts and feelings.
Then, we look to the promise of Isaiah 41:10 and ask God to be our help.
And to help us persevere, we ask, “What does it look like not to quit here, Lord?”^{6 & 7}

These practical steps equip us to name what hurts so that we can move through the pain, leaning on God’s wisdom and power. We can do this because we believe our suffering has significance – to God because He cares, to us because of what it can work out, and to the people we’ll meet who struggle and need our witness, our story, our comfort.

And in all of it – at every stage, in every season, and through every storm – this hope will be what sustains us. This hope will build in us a faith that will carry us into better days and into a future of promise where pain will no longer exist. Let’s grab the lifelines handed to us by the One who knows what it is to agonize. Let’s trust His promises and believe that our suffering matters.

Father God, it’s incredible to imagine that You have been at work for all these millennia pulling off the Great Rescue Plan, redeeming the lost and the sinful back into your presence. It’s also humbling to realize the great pain You caused yourself and your Son by implementing such a rescue. Thank You for your grace that has been poured into us with power and for your love that has been given to us for purpose. Lord Jesus, knowing that You chose to suffer for us shows us what it is to endure and to trust. Knowing that You suffer with us encourages us to keep persevering with a hope that won’t disappoint. Knowing that You will work out all things for the good of those who love you, for those who are called to your purpose builds our faith. Knowing that this suffering matters increases our hope for better days. Holy Spirit, how grateful we are that You are with us always – that we never have to struggle in our own strength. We come to You now to speak aloud the suffering that threatens to strangle us. We confess our fear and our fury, our despair and our discouragement. We ask that You would help us endure all that weighs us down and causes such pain. We ask that You would help us to keep our eyes on Jesus so that we live in the hope that He will never leave us and that in Him our suffering will have purpose. In His name, amen.
(inspired by Epic of Eden; Galatians 3:13-14; Ephesians 1:7-8; John 3:16; Titus 2:11-14; Romans 5:3-5,8; 1 Peter 4:1-13 NLT; Romans 8:28; Hebrews 12:2; Isaiah 41:10)

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 – Dan Wilt, Into the Wild, as read/heard on Seedbed’s Wake Up Call, March 31, 2023
2 – “Great Rescue Plan” is coined by Dr. Sandra Richter in Epic of Eden,^ see p.130
3 – The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary, p.1240
4 – Harper’s Bible Commentary, p.1144
5 – Jennie Allen’s Instagram reel
6 – Annie F. Downs’ “Hope” podcast
7 – more on this idea of “not giving up” next week!
In our new “This Hope” playlist, the song “Weep With Me” by Rend Collective can be a great prayer as we call out to God with our pain…and hope.

Rhythms we can incorporate into our daily lives to aid us in our dwelling with God, living for Him, and putting our hope in Him:

In our journey to become more Christ-like, to deepen our knowing of Him and strengthen our faith in Him, we incorporate rhythms in our lives — not to box us into legalistic have-to’s but to develop within ourselves a delight in being with Him. This spring, I’d love for us to lean into the rhythm of meditation. Unlike eastern meditation that seeks to empty the mind and self of everything, Christian meditation desires to fill our minds and beings with Christ. SO — each day, to the best of our abilities, let’s meditate on God’s Word. Each week I’ll suggest a chapter or passage of Scripture that we can settle into, or as my friend JD Walt says, “ruminate on the Word just as a cow ruminates on his cud.” In other words, don’t rush. Read. Pause. Listen. Reread. Pause. Receive. Give space for the Spirit to reveal and enlighten.
- This week, we can meditate (or ruminate) on Romans 5:1-11 CSB. Take your time, giving the Spirit space to speak, prompt, and lead. Read less for information and more for inspiration — to the point of looking for what you can discover about who God is (rather than what He can do for you). And if the Spirit leads you to pause on one verse, stay there! Freedom in the Spirit!!
Finally, as a community, let us not neglect sharing God’s hope with others! Share your God-stories with people around you. Share this site. Share God’s Word. Shine His light into the world!

Featured Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash. Bits and Pieces photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova on Unsplash.
^ Affiliate link, with which I may earn a bit.

This Hope: Resurrection Life

Stepping into the huge sanctuary, I saw beyond the crowd to the stage, draped in vines and flowers as if a garden. Then, eyes wide with wonder, I saw it – the empty tomb.

Soon Easter songs echoed around me with praises and truths about “Christ risen,” and my heart absorbed every note, every emotion. But the words preached reminded me that the very first Easter morning held no hallelujahs. The disciples still grieved, still struggled with what felt like dashed hope. And, the women headed to the tomb to finish the burial rituals they had barely begun on Friday.

When they saw the empty tomb, it didn’t fill them with awe as it had me – because they didn’t yet grasp its meaning. But the minute Mary heard Jesus say her name, she knew. HE LIVES!

All these 2000+ years later, we celebrate the empty tomb – not from a place of fear or confusion but faith because Christ’s resurrection is everything. Friday’s death was the ultimate sacrifice and atonement, but without Sunday’s resurrection, the cross would’ve been forgotten, Jesus’ story lost forever.

Without the resurrection, there’s no Church, no preaching, no faith (1 Corinthians 15:14). There’s no forgiveness of sins nor any life beyond death (v.17-18). There’s no hope, not in the now nor for eternity (v.19).

But, praise the Lord, we’ve been given a “new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). A living hope because Jesus lives! A living hope because Christ lives in us. And this hope, it’s powered by Christ’s resurrection.

New Life

Something about all the new life that bursts forth each spring has me anticipating this particular season more than any other every year. Winter is hard. It’s darker and colder. It’s brown and lifeless. So when I first spy the green sprouts on trees and the flowers in the fields, my heart soars. For me, spring is a living hope, the tangible evidence of what Jesus’ death and resurrection promise – new life.

The imagery of a thriving, fruitful tree in the summer shedding its leaves in the fall and looking dead throughout winter should bring to mind Jesus’ own life and death. And just when we’re tempted to believe the tree will no longer live, green buds pop out in the spring. New life!

The symbolism of our own baptism embodies the same meaning. As we go under the water, we die to our old selves, to our sin. And as we rise out of the water, washed clean, we are new creatures in Christ (Romans 6:4). New life!

This is resurrection life. It is life made new in Christ. It is life full of power and hope.

Jesus described Himself as the Resurrection and Life (John 11:25). At the time He used this moniker, His friend Lazarus lay dead in a tomb and Lazarus’ sisters were upset that Jesus delayed His arrival. They trusted in His healing power. They even believed in the resurrection to come on the final day (vv. 21-24). But they were about to be introduced to resurrection power in the here and now. The “I Am the Resurrection and Life” spoke a word, and life stepped out of the tomb (vv. 43-44).

Literally, Lazarus was given new life. And when we put our faith in Jesus, we also have new life – yes, for eternity but also for our days on earth – because the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is in us (Romans 8:11). In other words, that power, that Spirit, they give us all we need to live and hope each day. New life!

Surprised by Hope

NT Wright, one of the most brilliant Christian minds of our day, has written a book entitled Surprised by Hope. So, of course, I had to have it. And, I was certainly surprised!

I’m not sure what I expected, but I wasn’t thinking it would be a book about resurrection. Yet, that’s exactly what NT Wright focuses on. I’m beginning to understand why – because if we, as followers of Jesus, don’t have a full and correct understanding of resurrection, we fail to have the full hope of Christ:

If we don’t live a faith rooted in the Word, we’ll confuse “death defeated” for “death redescribed,” where we merge many of the world’s ideas of afterlife – like total annihilation or reincarnation or ghosts – with that of God’s New Heaven and New Earth (chapter 2 of SBH).

If we don’t live out the truth of the resurrection of the dead, our faith becomes an amalgamation of the Platos and Dantes, of Hollywood and postmodernism.

If we don’t make Jesus’ resurrection the center of all we are, we live by a distorted truth, believing all roads lead to heaven or thinking that heaven is the ultimate destination.¹

Rather, we need to lean deeply into Scripture, as well as Church tradition. Our creeds have it right. But do we truly believe that Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried? That He was resurrected and ascended to heaven in order to one day judge all who live and all who have died? That our bodies will be resurrected and live forever?²

Or do we worry that heaven will be boring? Or assume that we’ll become angels in heaven? Or think that God is a narcissist who just wants to be adored for all eternity? Or believe that there’s a second chance waiting in some version of a purgatory where we learn to get it right?

Neither Scripture nor tradition support any of these. Rather, truth looks like what Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43) – in other words, at death our spirits depart earth and join Jesus in heaven. But that’s not the end.

Because truth also looks like what Jesus taught us to pray – that God’s kingdom will come, that His will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). In the person of Christ, God’s kingdom has been ushered into the world so that God’s will can be made known and carried out. And, after Christ’s return, bodies will be raised from the dead to live on the New Heaven and Earth (1 Thessalonians 4:16; 1 Corinthians 15:42-44,52).

I love how NT Wright describes heaven and the future of its transformation (along with earth’s) – that is, think of heaven in its current state as another dimension that coexists alongside ours. Then on the Last Day, the two dimensions merge. Our bodies raised, the New Heaven and New Earth exist as one beautiful place of perfection and Presence (Revelation 21:1-7).

So, when we embrace the truth of what heaven, death, and resurrection are, we begin to grasp why Christian hope is one for the future AND the present. Friends, we have hope that things in our lives can change because the ultimate Christian hope is a person – One who lived, died, and defeated death by His resurrection. Our hope has already come to life in Jesus! And through Him, we can live in hope for the here and now, as well as for our future life with Him.

This Hope

This truth about Easter – about resurrection’s power and life – lays the foundation for all that is to come in this series. Just as we look for life in the once-dead-looking trees, we can search for Christ in all our sufferings. We can put all our trust in His promises. And we can hang-on to this uniquely Christian hope.

This hope is anchored in the person of Christ. This hope promises God’s presence, protection, provision. This hope flows from the blood shed on the cross. This hope rises like our Savior from the grave, resurrecting life when everything around us and in us is death. This hope puts all bets on the future when Jesus returns and the resurrected believers join Him in the New Heaven and New Earth.

So, let’s step out of the tombs that hold us in death and claim Christ’s resurrection life. Let’s choose to believe in this hope we’ve been given.

Heavenly Father, You are all wisdom. You know all things about all people over all time, and we can only know what You reveal to us. So, we ask for your help as we dig a little deeper into what it means to have a living hope, to live a resurrection life. We know that it’s by your power that You raised Jesus to life, and we’re so grateful that You will raise us to life, as well – both now and for eternity. Lord Jesus, You are our hope in life and death. In You, life springs eternal! We pray that as we stretch our minds to grasp what your resurrection means, we would truly find rest in knowing that YOU LIVE! May we trust that in You our hope is secure. Holy Spirit, the very power You used to raise Jesus to life is IN US, which means we live in the hope of that power, and we trust that it is in us and for us. We believe in the truths of Scripture and join in the tradition of the Church across the millenia. We believe in You, Holy Spirit. We believe in the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
(Inspired by Proverbs 2:6; Matthew 11:27; 1 Peter 1:3; 1 Corinthians 6:14; “Christ Our Hope in Life and Death” by Keith and Kristyn Getty; Romans 1:4; the Apostle’s Creed²)

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 – The current assumption of many Christians, “heaven is the ultimate destination,” is one that NT Wright says is a product of a popular picture of what happens after death and that it is based on a misunderstanding of some chapters in Revelation. First, he explains that the scene with the twenty-four elders in Revelation 4 and 5 is not a picture of the Last Day but one of a present reality. He says, “Heaven, in the Bible, is not a future destiny but the other, hidden dimension of our ordinary life.” He then describes heaven as God’s dimension that runs parallel to ours, and at the last day the two are merged – as seen in Revelation 21 and 22 (the New Heaven and the New Earth). These are lofty yet deep ideas. I have reread chapters 1 and 2 of Surprised by Hope many times, and I’m still wrapping my brain around them. I do believe that NT Wright is challenging some “popular” ideas about end times with some strong arguments that find their roots in Scripture and Church tradition. I do not present myself as an expert on any of this at all. But I find myself nodding my head at what NT Wright points out about our current Christian culture and how much of our “beliefs” are actually merged with the world’s ideas. I hoped to use NT Wright’s teachings as a springboard for us in order to clarify our understanding of resurrection SO THAT we’ll be able to better live from a faith that is rooted in and powered by Christ’s resurrection. And from that, we’ll better live with THIS HOPE.
- I invite you to sink your teeth into NT Wright’s Surprised by Hope^ book — then let me know what you think. True confessions…I haven’t made it past the first two chapters because I keep rereading them. LOL
2 – The Apostle’s Creed: https://www.churchofengland.org/our-faith/what-we-believe/apostles-creed
In our new “This Hope” playlist, I’ve tried to capture with songs many of the truths described in this post — truths that will become themes woven throughout our spring series: resurrection power, hope in suffering, hope in God’s promises. The opening song, “We’ve Got This Hope,” by Ellie Holcomb absolutely nails our themes, and I can’t stop listening to it!

Rhythms we can incorporate into our daily lives to aid us in our dwelling with God, living for Him, and putting our hope in Him:

In our journey to become more Christ-like, to deepen our knowing of Him and strengthen our faith in Him, we incorporate rhythms in our lives — not to box us into legalistic have-to’s but to develop within ourselves a delight in being with Him. This spring, I’d love for us to lean into the rhythm of meditation. Unlike eastern meditation that seeks to empty the mind and self of everything, Christian meditation desires to fill our minds and beings with Christ. SO — each day, to the best of our abilities, let’s meditate on God’s Word. Each week I’ll suggest a chapter or passage of Scripture that we can settle into, or as my friend JD Walt says, “ruminate on the Word just as a cow ruminates on his cud.” In other words, don’t rush. Read. Pause. Listen. Reread. Pause. Receive. Give space for the Spirit to reveal and enlighten.
- This week, we can meditate (or ruminate) on 1 Corinthians 15. It’s a long chapter in which Paul addresses a “popular” idea that there is no resurrection of the dead, so it’s full of resurrection language and teaching. If it’s overwhelming to meditate on the entire chapter, focus on the section containing verses 12-23. Read less for information and more for inspiration. And if the Spirit leads you to pause on one verse, stay there! Freedom in the Spirit!!
Finally, as a community, let us not neglect sharing God’s hope with others! Share your God-stories with people around you. Share this site. Share God’s Word. Shine His light into the world!

Featured Photo by CP on Unsplash. Bits and Pieces photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova on Unsplash.
^ Affiliate link, with which I may earn a bit.

God of Hope: Transcendent and Immanent

It’s morning on the third day. The tomb is empty. And the Eleven (once Twelve) are gathered to hear the bizarre, perplexing stories of Jesus appearing to the women, to Peter, and to the two from Emmaus (Luke 24:33-35).

Confusion reigns where shock and grief still consume – “We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel” (v.21).

As if a ghost, Jesus suddenly appears, proclaiming peace and asking, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?” (v.38). He exhibits His wounds, eats a little fish, and explains, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me” (v.45), then He expands their minds to understand that He, the Messiah, had to suffer and rise from the dead (v.46).

Yet, still they ask, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6, emphasis mine). Despite everything Jesus has said and demonstrated, something in the disciples continues to expect a savior who resembles David more than God – someone who would restore Israel to its former glory and defeat its enemies.

For the men who worked most closely with the Son of God, who loved Him most fiercely, who followed Him despite what He asked of them – these disciples, these apostles, they found it hard to grasp exactly what Jesus was up to.

His ways are higher than their ways (Isaiah 55:9).

Our God transcends all human experience and understanding. The disciples felt the truth of this as they wrestled with Jesus’ teachings and actions – over and over failing to understand (Luke 18:34).

His thoughts are higher than their thoughts (Isaiah 55:9).

Yet Jesus, who walked the earth in order to give His life, first had to descend from the heavens (Ephesians 4:10). He had to leave His throne room in order to usher in God’s kingdom here on earth (Luke 17:20-21). And, when He ascended back to His place of power and authority, He sent His Spirit to dwell in us (Acts 1:8, 2:4).

Our heavenly Lord is transcendent and immanent – both beyond our grasp and beckoning us to be with Him, just as He is within us.

Empty Tomb

The disciples thought they understood the plan – heal and make whole so people would follow Jesus. THEN, He’d set them free.

They thought they knew who they were following – the Messiah, the One from God who wouldn’t die but rise to power.

But then the cross. His death. Along with Jesus’ body, their hopes for all that Messiah would bring were buried. Dead.

So, when the women found an empty tomb on that first Easter morning, Jesus’ ways once again transcended their ability to perceive what it could mean. And it makes me wonder what I miss about the empty tomb – have I heard the story so many times that I fail to grasp its fullness?

The Son of God died and was buried. For three days in utter darkness and the stink of death.

Then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ body – His human yet immortal, flesh and blood body – was resurrected. Brought to life. Living and breathing. Talking and laughing. Eating and teaching.

Resurrected.

Jesus’ death defeated sin. His resurrection conquered death. It left the tomb empty and the stone rolled away so His followers could peer inside and know the truth.

He lives!

So that we can live. Yes, in eternity – always and forever with Him – but also now.

Paul calls this empty-tomb-living the “newness of life:”

For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. …Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. …Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.
Romans 6:4,23; 7:6b NLT

Suddenly and beautifully, a once-lofty idea settles into my soul.

In my own spiritual self, I’ve died – to sin. Jesus’ death brings a glorious power upon me, upon all His followers, to be able to die. to. sin. And, just as He was brought to life, so are we – resurrected into newness of life. New lives, sanctified because of the Spirit in us.

What was once a sin-defined existence is re-defined by resurrection.
What was once a life unworthy is redeemed and readied for holy living.
What was once a tomb of a body is now a temple.

Our Hope

So, when I think about all that makes us tired and torn, weak and weary, I look back into the empty tomb. And remember.

Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary;
they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:31

Not because of the way they live but because of His death. Not because life will always make sense but because He is with us. Not because life will always work out the way we want but because in Him we have a living hope (1 Timothy 4:10).

Our hope – it is in the One who can never die, the One who defeated death.
Our hope – it is as alive as our Savior who walked out of His empty tomb to usher in new life.
Our hope – it is transcendent of our logical ways of thinking yet finds its anchor in truth.
Our hope – it is immanent because it resides within us, because He dwells within us.

Friend, this Easter Day I pray you can look into the empty tomb and find the fullness of hope – a holy hope that’s as alive as He is, as new as you are, and as present as the Spirit in you. I pray that you can embrace our God who is as transcendent as He is immanent and trust that His love for you is enough to overcome any sin that wants to keep you in the tomb.

Christ is risen! And with Him, so are we!

Father God, thank You for sending your one and only Son to die on our behalf so that our faith in Him redeems all our sin and gives us new life. Lord Jesus, we celebrate your victory over death. To see the empty tomb is to remind us of the fullness of new life we’ve been given – both now and for eternity. Holy Spirit, your presence in us proves that we no longer live as empty tombs but as holy temples. We ask for your continuous help to live out this new life we’ve been given with humility and hope, with intentionality and integrity, with your truth and our trust. Empower us to embody all that Jesus is so that our lives can be beacons of light in the world around us just as His light displayed God’s glory on the first Easter morning. Hallelujah! Christ is risen! In His name, amen.
(inspired by: John 3:16; Romans 6:4; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; John 14:26; Ephesians 4:2-6, 21-24; Psalm 25:21; Jeremiah 17:7; Matthew 5:14-16; John 17:1-5)

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.

Just as Bryan and Katie Torwalt’s lyrics in “Nothing Is Holding Me Back” on our God of Hope playlist remind us, Jesus is doing something new. And Easter really marks us with that truth — like Him and in Him, we have died to our old selves and old ways, and we’re born into new life! And should we doubt we have the strength or power to live in such newness of life, We the Kingdom belts out the truth that “God Is On the Throne” — Hallelujah! He reigns! He saves! He’s never gonna let us down!
This ends our Lent series. I can’t believe our seven weeks have gone so fast. We’ll continue our exploration of hope in the next series, “This Hope,” where we’ll look at how suffering and hope work together. I know — suffering doesn’t sound like much fun. But the truth is, we all do suffer in this life, so it helps to know that in God’s upside-down kingdom, our suffering not only has purpose but our hope can be sourced by it. And the foundation of all our hope in the midst of suffering is God’s promises. Y’all, I think this is gonna be a good one. I hope you’ll join in and invite someone else to take part too. Happy Easter! XOXO

Rhythms we can incorporate into our daily lives to aid us in our dwelling with God, living for Him, and putting our hope in Him:

I pray that this rhythm of putting Isaiah’s words to memory sinks deeply into our psyches so that we’ll always remember that those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength — in Him, we’ll soar like eagles!!!!!

Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:28-31, NIV
Finally, as a community, let us not neglect sharing God’s hope with others — especially in this Easter Season! Share your God-stories with people around you. Share this site. Share God’s Word. Shine His light into the world!

Featured Photo by Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash. Bits and Pieces photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova on Unsplash.

God of Hope: Just and Merciful

This Lent I’ve been fasting from television in the evenings – with the exception of watching The Chosen. I just can’t get over seeing the story of my Savior unfold with such emotion. The writers have captured so much of what we’ve been exploring in this space during Lent – namely, the paradoxical nature of God. Through artistry we’re given greater imagination to see the push and pull of Jesus’ humanity and divinity, the outworking of His holiness and love, the beauty of His sovereignty over creation held by His goodness – and His just and merciful nature.

God is just. Part of His multifaceted character includes justice: “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4). God, in His holy perfection must always judge rightly – it’s why He casts Adam and Eve out of Eden upon their disobedience; it’s why He floods the earth, washing it of all its “only evil all the time” state; it’s why He allows Babylon to defeat and take the Israelites into exile after decades of covenant-breaking pagan worship. Much as a judge presiding over a trial exacts justice for crimes committed, God does not let sin go unpunished because it would be wrong – but also because it would go against His very nature to do so.

And yet, at the same time…

God is merciful. David said God is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and great in loving-kindness. The LORD is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 145:8–9, NASB). It’s why we witness God forgive again and again – like Abraham after he lies to a king about his wife…twice, the Israelites after they bow down to a golden calf, and David after his adulterous and murderous choices as king. God chooses not to cut off His relationship with the people He loves, offering mercy in place of what they deserve because He embodies mercy.

Justice and mercy – opposites on the spectrum. Yet, in His mysterious way, God’s character encompasses both. Even more mind-blowing is how God can impose consequences while issuing great mercy. At the same time.

Of all the paradoxical natures of God, justice and mercy are the hardest for my mind to reconcile. Maybe I imagine the scales of justice, literally, where on one hand is the crime, the sin, and on the other hand is its due consequence: you cheat on taxes, you go to jail; you run a red light, you get a ticket.

But then I also imagine mercy as wiping that scale clean – no punishment given.

So, how do the two reside in one God all at once? The scale image fails us. But, we have been given a picture of what just-and-merciful look like together – the cross.

When we look upon the cross with our Savior’s body hanging, bleeding, dying, we see justice. All sin for all time paid for, covered, atoned. We also see mercy – for the One who assumed our sin as His punishment removes sin’s stain from our own lives, now and for eternity. What we deserved, He took on Himself.

This hope we have in Christ begins at the cross. For every unworthy notion we might have about ourselves, for every self-critical slander that tortures our minds, for every moment of despair that keeps us from moving forward, for every habit that keeps us in cycles of sin, we have the cross and the One who died upon it. For justice. And mercy.

The Cross

This week on The Chosen I watched the scene where Jesus is healing a crowd of people all day, and on the pages of Scripture that is all the detail we get. But in film, we get to hear the sounds of rejoicing and the gasps of awe. We witness the perplexity of the newly chosen disciples as they try to grasp what Jesus is about (they are still waiting for Him to overthrow the Romans). And, as the sun sets, we watch as Jesus drags His beyond-the-brink-of-exhaustion human body to His tent. He heals until the last person leaves, refusing to turn anyone away. It depletes Him. And it leaves me weeping for all the times I’ve taken Him for granted, taken His mercy for granted.

The next day He awakens fresh and ready for the next healing – but it requires Him to go to Jerusalem. Near the city gate, actual crosses have been erected along the road, heavy with the hanging bodies of murderers and thieves – set in plain view for all to see as a warning of what Roman justice looks like.

The camera zooms in on Jesus as He glances up from His friends to see the crosses. A look passes in His eyes, and we know He knows. The dread of His coming day on the cross flashes in the crease of His brow, and a lump in my throat chokes me because He shows me what His brand of justice and mercy look like.

On the Lenten calendar, this is Holy Week – the week of Christ’s passion, His suffering, His enduring of all that He must in order to redeem us all back to God. This is our week to remember. To sit in the pain that Jesus experienced. To reflect on the work He accomplished by dying a death we deserved.

Justice has been served for all our sins, and mercy has been extended because Jesus paid the price. This is the hope of the cross. We live free and forgiven because our sins have been atoned.

Hope and Renewed Strength

Throughout my walk with Jesus, I’ve come up time and again with the reality of my weaknesses as a human. Physically, my body doesn’t always do what I want it to do. Mentally, my thoughts can hold me captive. Emotionally, my feelings can hijack God’s good plans with fear and shame. One by one I’ve accepted these weaknesses and have looked to God for help and strength.

Much more recently, however, I’ve had to come to terms with my weak faith, my inability to conjure up enough trust out of my own strength to carry me through waves of doubt or wilderness waiting. The day I finally saw my weakness for what it is, a dam broke inside me and I wept – sorrow for my pride and gratitude for the freedom that coursed through my veins.

Maybe it’s this new found acceptance of my own weakness that has me crying, yet again – this time with the followers of Jesus as I witness their own coming to terms with personal weakness.

Because of Jesus, Mary Magdalene’s hope comes out of restored life. Simon’s hope is sourced by a promised future of freedom. Matthew’s hope flows from a place of belonging and purpose. To a person, Jesus meets them where they are, truly seeing them for who they are – and hope floods in as they accept what He offers.

Jesus in His divinity knows the plan and outcome. Jesus in His humanity navigates the limitations of flesh – body, mind, emotions. But what underlies all of the curious conversations He has with His followers is the hope Messiah brings.

Watching the exchanges, hearing the dialogues, seeing hearts change because of Jesus’ presence – it all reminds me to keep putting my hope in Him. To keep receiving the strength He has to offer because I don’t have, and can’t even come up with, enough strength to believe and behold and become all that I long to.

Now I know why this one sentence out of all of Scripture grips me and fills me so:

“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” Isaiah 40:31a

Friends, it’s not within our power to build enough strength to be and do all that we desire, all that Jesus calls us toward. But when we release the reins of our lives and wills, giving space for the Spirit to live and move and have His being within us, we can stop putting our hope in others and ourselves. We can begin putting our hope in the only One who can be our enough.

Jesus will renew our strength every single time we put our hope in Him. And when our faith falters, we can look at the cross to remember how His justice and mercy make a way for hope.

Father God, how grateful we are that your mercies are new every morning – that as the sun rises to usher in a new day, so your mercy brings us new hope, new life. And how amazing it is that your mercy never excuses sin. You never back away from what is right and just; You make a way for justice to be served. And how humbling it is to look to the cross and remember Whose blood covers every injustice. Lord Jesus, we remember. We look at You, bloodied and beaten, hanging on a cross You never deserved yet knew was coming. You chose to die brutally so justice would be served and mercy extended. Thank You that your faithful love never ends – that your mercies never cease! Great is your faithfulness – we will hope in You! Holy Spirit, what hope we have knowing that You are our constant source of wisdom and strength. Our faith grows more secure everyday because You are in us and with us, filling us with all we need to believe, behold, and become everything the Lord is calling us to. We ask for your help in our unbelief. We ask for your strength as we face our own weakness. We ask for your justice to guide us and mercy to fill us so that we can live into the truth that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. We put our hope in Jesus and our strength is renewed! In His name, amen.
(inspired by Lamentations 3:22-24; Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 89:14; 1 John 1:7; Matthew 20:28; 1 Corinthians 2:12; Mark 9:24; 2 Corinthians 12:9; Isaiah 40:31)

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.

If you haven’t watched The Chosen yet, I cannot recommend it more. Words fail to capture the awe and wonder I have felt as new connections are made and deeper understanding is grasped. I think I want to make The Chosen my Lent tradition every year! 🙂 It’s free to watch. I’d love to hear your responses.
I had to do some reading of various articles to get my head wrapped around (or at least try to) how justice and mercy can be held in tandem within God. Got Questions had some of the most helpful explanations.
I think it’s easy for us in our educated, “enlightened” culture to want to achieve certainty in all things before we’ll believe them. Even as believers in Christ, we can succumb to the desire of understanding before we’ll trust — yet that’s not what faith is made of. Yes, there is much we can learn and grasp and apply as we dive into Scripture! But there will always be some elements that are mysterious, like how can a bush burn but not be consumed? How can God be both just and merciful? I so appreciate writers who have gone before us, who’ve explored such mysteries and can offer encouragement that for all we can cultivate about our faith, there will always remain mystery. And, it’s in that mystery that we can allow our questions to ignite our curiosity and awaken our awe of the One we’ll never fully understand. Yet we can trust. Thank you, Jen Pollock Michel, for going before and putting Surprised by Paradox^ into words we can turn to over and over!
I’ve attended Bible study at a local church since moving here in 2020, and one of the modern hymns we sing on the regular is “His Mercy Is More.” You’ll find it on our playlist — it’s a great one to play when we’re tempted to think we’ve sinned one too many times or gone beyond His grace. Nope. His mercy is always more! And we can receive it knowing that its debt has been paid fully.

Rhythms we can incorporate into our daily lives to aid us in our dwelling with God, living for Him, and putting our hope in Him:

As we add another two lines to our Isaiah memory passage, I pray that the truth of the words those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength will pour into your spirit, wallpaper your mind, and anchor your heart in the truth that God’s strength meets and overcomes every weakness you have. Put your hope in Him and be strengthened!

Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
Isaiah 40:28-31a, NIV
Finally, as a community, let us not neglect sharing God’s hope with others — especially as Easter approaches! Share your God-stories with people around you. Share this site. Share God’s Word. Shine His light into the world!

Featured Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash. Bits and Pieces photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova on Unsplash.
^ Affiliate link, with which I may earn a bit.

God of Hope: Incomprehensible and Approachable

Years ago, my husband, my parents, and I attended the “Indescribable Tour,” an evening of worship with Chris Tomlin and teaching with Louie Giglio. It was a night of stargazing – not the celebrity sort, but the celestial. Like the Psalmist who said, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them” (8:3-4), Chris and Louie set out to give us eyes to see just how incomprehensible the universe and its Creator are to us.

Taking us out beyond earth, our sun, and our Milky Way Galaxy, Louie began naming various points of interest in the universe on the way to the furthest point any human eye had ever seen. Showing a picture taken by the Hubble Telescope, Louie kept zooming in on the Whirlpool Galaxy, taking us closer and closer to its center, the “X-Structure.”

Louie reminded us that through Jesus, God created everything on earth – and in the heavens (Colossians 1:16). Then he clicked the final slide to reveal what sat at the core of this “X-Structure,” thirty-one million light years away. A cross.

Not long after our “Indescribable” experience, I watched a sermon Louie had given that took listeners in the opposite direction – microscopic. As he went deeper into our biological cells, he zoomed in on a tiny protein called Laminin, which exists in our body in the shape of…a cross.

Jesus is everywhere.

Revelation describes Him as the “Lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made” (8:13, NLT).

Paul describes Him as Creator of the world and Redeemer of the New Creation:

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
    He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
for through him God created everything
    in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
    and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
    Everything was created through him and for him.
He existed before anything else,
    and he holds all creation together.
Christ is also the head of the church,
    which is his body.
He is the beginning,
    supreme over all who rise from the dead.
    So he is first in everything.
For God in all his fullness
    was pleased to live in Christ,
and through him God reconciled
    everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
    by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
Colossians 1:15-20, NLT

Jesus is everywhere.

Paul’s poem tries to capture for us how unfathomable this Firstborn over all creation is while at the same time pointing us to the One who can be known – two states of being that seem impossible to be held together. And yet, Jesus embodies both the incomprehensible and the approachable.

An Invitation

In much the same way as Paul, John waxes poetic about our unfathomable Maker:

In the beginning the Word already existed.
    The Word was with God,
    and the Word was God.
He existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through him,
    and nothing was created except through him.
The Word gave life to everything that was created,
    and his life brought light to everyone.
The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness can never extinguish it.
John 1:1-5, NLT

And, like Paul, John brings the incomprehensible down to a moment of invitation: “So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness” (v.14). The One who spoke and brought the universe into being also stepped down onto the planet He’d populated to become a person of flesh. Not to judge us but to live like us – and to offer humanity a way back into the loving arms of the Father.

Talk about unfathomable.

Oh So Tired

I don’t know where this finds you today, friend. But, I suspect most of us at some level are tired. Maybe we’re mentally exhausted by the constant bombardment of bad news. Perhaps we’re physically worn down by long to-do lists or the constant companion of chronic illness. Some of us even feel depleted spiritually, wondering where God is in all the mess.

Jesus in His humanity knew this kind of fatigue (John 4:6). He knew the temptation of giving in to hunger or pride or desperation (Luke 4:2,7,9). Yet – Isaiah reminds us – unlike our God, we are limited in our ability to push through in our own strength day after day. It doesn’t matter our health status or age:

Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall.
Isaiah 40:30

Isaiah doesn’t point this out to make us feel worse about ourselves but to offer hope – because our God is unlimited in power and might. And, He offers His strength to us:

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.
Isaiah 41:10, NLT

The Both-And God

The hope we need is not rooted in ourselves, other people, or even the promises of the world. Our hope is a person – Jesus. Who both numbers every star and knows each of our names. Who both spins planets into orbit and supplies each of us with what we need. Who both stands above us in the heavens and reaches His hand down to pull us into a hug.

So, as we sit in the tension of such a paradoxical deity, may we begin to recognize just how beautiful it is that Jesus is both incomprehensible and approachable – because somehow we find exactly what we need in the One who calls us His. With His mind-blowing abilities to create and sustain AND with His grace to redeem and draw near, our both-and God embodies our every hope.

Father God, like Paul and John we get all mushy inside thinking about all that You have done to establish the entire universe and to meticulously create bodily systems that function beyond the view of the human eye. How grateful we are for your grace and gift of life. How much we desire to put our whole hope in You. Lord Jesus, You are everywhere. How humbly we come to You, knowing how tiny we are in the big picture of galaxies and histories. You, who put every star and planet in place also walked this earth to die for our sins. The two ideas are inconceivable together – and yet, this is who You are.The fact that You dwell in us, continuously inviting us into your presence, is more than our minds can take in. Holy Spirit, how we need You. We’re so easily wearied, so quickly weakened in our flesh. To know that You are constantly with us gives us hope to keep our eyes on the Maker of the skies, trusting that He will continue to keep the universe aligned and working – including our very small and significant pieces of it. God of all hope, fill me with joy and peace as I put my trust in You, that I might overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name, amen.
(Ephesians 2:8; Romans 6:23; Psalm 8:3-4; Romans 5:8; Romans 8:10; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Romans 15:13)

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. (The first four are resources noted in the post.)

Of course, YouTube has the Indescribable talk Louie gave all those years ago. 😉 It’s about an 43 minutes long, but you can skim through parts of it to see some of those stops along the way to Whirlpool Galaxy — or head to the 37 minute mark to see the cross. And, here’s a segment of the sermon where Louie Giglio talks about Laminin.
The Bible Project blog has an article about the Colossians 1 poem that Paul wrote.
Our God of Hope playlist continues to anchor me in the hope I need each and everyday. I hadn’t included “Indescribable” on our playlist, but Chris’ song, “Everlasting God,” captures all the waiting we do in faith — and all the strength God has for us. Also, an artist who is new to me, Jervis Campbell, has a song on our list, “Hold Me Together,” that’s been rolling around in my soul for a few weeks now. It’s so cool to think of Jesus as what holds all creation together (Colossians 1:17) — and what holds us together.

Rhythms we can incorporate into our daily lives to aid us in our dwelling with God, living for Him, and putting our hope in Him:

Lenten rhythms often include fasts from things like food or TV or social media. Sometimes they include something we add to our usual routine — like Scripture memorization. I’m a new believer when it comes to putting passages to memory because I’m discovering it’s so much more than a checkbox duty. It’s empowerment because it’s truth. It’s a “listening to and learning the voice of our Creator and Redeemer” — it’s “shaping our minds in the moment to mimic the structure and mind-set of the mind of God” (David Mathis, chapter 5, Habits of Grace). This practice becomes a means of approaching our incomprehensible God so that we can know Him and become like Him!!!!!! So. Let’s add another verse to our Lenten passage:

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
Isaiah 40:28-30, NIV
Finally, as a community, let us not neglect sharing God’s hope with others — especially as Easter approaches! Share your God-stories with people around you. Share this site. Share God’s Word. Shine His light into the world!

Featured Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash. Bits and Pieces photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova on Unsplash.
^ Affiliate link, with which I may earn a bit.

Source: Bible Project on the Colossians 1 poem.

God of Hope: All-Powerful and Patient

We humans, we’re just not good at waiting. It’s why we honk at slow drivers, tap our toes as we wait in line, and even shout our impatience at the train blocking the intersection.

God, however, is consistently described as patient – slow to anger, and long-suffering. There’s no yelling coming down from heaven when we miss the mark, yet again. Not even a disappointed sigh. Our holy and loving God knows everything about us – what makes us tick and what trips us up. Our sovereign, good God left His throne to walk the earth as a man so that He could experience the temptations and frustrations that we do. He gets us.

So, He’s patient.

Yet, we read about God being omnipotent – as in He has all the power over all things all the time and in all ways.¹We see at Creation that a spoken word from God is all it took to form light and land, animals and humans. We see His power manifested in miracles like the ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. His power goes before His people as they enter the Promised Land, defeating their enemies and providing protection. God’s power oversees nature as He moves stars, rolls back the sun, conceives a baby, and calms the sea. We witness His power in Jesus through healings, the casting out of demons, and raising the dead to life. God. Has all. The power.

He could zap anyone He wants. With a word, He could wipe us out corporately – like He did once before when humans were “only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). He could give up on us individually when we repeat the same cycles of sin. But, He doesn’t.

Instead, the One who holds all the power remains patient. He invites us into the holy trust of waiting on Him with a hope that knows how to hold on.

Wait, Hope

The Hebrew words for hope incorporate an element of waiting. Qavah, embodies the tension we feel as we wait, integrating the sense that waiting on God is to wait with expectancy. Another word, yachal, beautifully captures the fully entwined nature of hope and waiting. Both offer us a picture of hope anchored by faith – even in the tension of the wait.

Yet, when I think of waiting, I don’t always feel hope. Maybe because I’m covered up in impatience and worry and angst. But the more I lean into this ancient way of hope, the more I resonate with the reality of my need to wait with hope because of God’s faithfulness and goodness. I am starting to see how I can wait with the kind of patience God demonstrates.

The irony doesn’t escape me that in my humanity I struggle to live out of the fruit of patience while God embodies it. I recognize my need to remain in Him in order to have the kind of trusting patience I long for – while He is always, only, and ever slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (Exodus 34:6). ‘Slow to anger’ is patience. ‘Abounding in love’ is the hesed of God – His perfect loving kindness. Together, these become a description of God that is interlaced throughout all of Scripture. They are an anchor of His truest nature.

Wait. Hope. Hope. Wait. I feel the tension between them even as I write the words. Wait elicits such negative emotions from me; whereas, hope brings the light, the goodness I long for. And it hits me – maybe that’s the point. God knows us so well that He knows how easy it is for us to spiral in the mess of our minds when we’re in seasons of waiting. He knows that to remain anchored in Him, to trust in Him, we need hope.

The author of Psalm 130 captures how we feel in the wait perfectly. Then he weaves in the hope to keep his faith in God afloat. Hear his despair in the first two verses:

Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;
Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.

Then the light of hope flickers on in verse 5:

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
and in his word I put my hope.

His whole being qavahs for the Lord because he put his yachal in His word. Then he calls all the people of God to:

…put your hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
(verse 7)

Psalm 130 becomes the beautiful tapestry woven by words of a person who fully experiences the tension of waiting and hoping, who chooses to trust the ‘unfailing love,’ the hesed, of God. It becomes a model for our own hope in our seasons of waiting.

Patience and Power

Christian worship leaders, Shane and Shane, have recorded a song called “I Will Wait For You” that’s based on Psalm 130. I recommend the whole of it (it’s on our playlist), but take a glance at this section:

Yeah, I will wait for You, I will wait for You
On Your word I will rely
And I will wait for You, surely wait for You
‘Til my soul is satisfied
So put Your hope in God alone
Take courage in His power to save
Completely and forever won
By Christ emerging from the grave

Our themes of waiting and hoping find their source in “His power to save!”

Friends, our God who embodies such paradoxical natures as power and patience demonstrates for us just how much we need both. And once again, we see that God’s power is not the authoritarian versions we’ve met with in human leaders who seek status or privilege or the subservient oppression of everyone under their rule. No. Our God’s power is a source for good in the world. And as we begin to trust in this truth about who He is, we can also rest in our waiting. We can hope in His patience – because He has the power to do all things for all good. He forgives. He redeems. He brings beauty from ashes.

Power for the Weak

Isaiah knew this about God. It’s why he encourages the exiles who had lost all hope of ever returning home, who thought there would be no end to their waiting:

He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
(40:29)

Our God sees us. He knows our wilderness journeys and our mountaintop hallelujahs. He knows our despair and our doubt. He receives our weary hearts and bodies and mind – and He gives us strength. He patiently waits for us to come to Him, and when we do, He offers His power to us. And we get to watch the all-powerful, sovereign God – the Creator of the ends of the earth – extend His victorious right hand toward us and give us strength.

At this midway point in our Lenten journey, I pray that for whatever you are waiting, you are able to allow God to lift your weary head and empower your weak body so that you can continue to wait in Him, with Him, and on Him. With hope. Friend, His power is not only meant for good, it is fully sufficient. It’s more than enough. His patience is unbounding and full of love. And He offers both to you today. Hold on to our God of hope!

Father God, how great You are! How mighty! How powerful! We marvel at the way a word from You can cause water to separate from the land, making a sea. We stand in awe of the way a word from You can heal and restore. So, we know that You have the kind of power that could destroy, yet You choose to wait patiently for us to turn to You. Like the Psalmist, we ask that You would hear our cries for help and that You would be our patient hope as we wait for your response. Lord Jesus, we know that You endured the weakness of a human body, mind, and will. And we’re so grateful that You understand all our inner workings because that is its own kind of hope – a hope that dares to believe that just as You rose from the grave, we can rise from our despair and doubt. Because You have all the power and patience needed to help us come up from the ashes in beauty. Holy Spirit, thank You for indwelling us, offering us God’s patience and power every moment of every day. We ask that You would continue to help on this journey to live out of hope rather than cynicism or despair. Our patient God holds us. And His power sustains us. In Jesus’ name, amen.
(Inspired by Psalm 95:3-5; Genesis 1:9-10; 2 Kings 20:5; Exodus 34:6; Psalm 130; John 4:6; Matthew 26:38; Philippians 3:10; Isaiah 61:3; Acts 1:8)

1-I pulled this great description of God’s omnipotence from a “Got Questions” article.
I continue to read Jen Pollock Michel’s book Surprised by Paradox.^ And it has really been a gift of affirmation for all I’ve been feeling and thinking in this season. She describes God as the great “I AND” (a play on words of “I AM”) as a way to demonstrate how often He holds within His nature such paradoxes as powerful and patient, sovereign and good, holy and loving. So good. So appreciated.
Be sure to check out that Shane and Shane song, “I Will Wait For You” on our playlist! Is there a song that’s resonating with you this Lent?

Rhythms we can incorporate into our daily lives to aid us in our dwelling with God, living for Him, and putting our hope in Him:

We continue to add to our rhythm of putting Isaiah 40:28-31 in our hearts by adding verse 29. There is SUCH POWER when we read these lines aloud. They bring us back into the reality of God’s presence, power, and patience.

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Isaiah 40:29, NIV
Finally, as a community, let us not neglect sharing God’s hope with others — especially as Easter approaches! Share your God-stories with people around you. Share this site. Share God’s Word. Shine His light into the world!

Featured Photo by Raimond Klavins on Unsplash. Bits and Pieces photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova on Unsplash.
^ Affiliate link, with which I may earn a bit.

God of Hope: Sovereign and Good

Years ago, I was part of a teaching team that led a Christian “basics” class. One particular session offered discussion prompts around the idea of God’s lordship, such as: “God runs a kingdom not a democracy.” “In a democracy, the leaders represent the people; in a kingdom, the people represent the king.” For many, this was revelatory – maybe because Americans have only, ever known democracy, so we tend to impose that onto our faith, onto God.

The discussions, issuing from these talking points, varied but almost always landed on the fact that God is in control. He has the plan and the power. He has absolute authority. And, in His wisdom, He has given us free will, so we can choose to follow His ways. Or not. But His ways remain. Always. No matter how we might make our case.

Most people in our class wiggled in their seats with the utterance of “absolute authority.” Our American sensibilities seem opposed to such, well, sovereignty. We’re used to having a say. We rankle with the realization we’re under someone’s rule.

When we dig a little deeper, we can get to the source of such aversion to authority: trust. Think on it – in America’s relatively short history as a nation, we’ve fought a Revolutionary War to break free from a king’s tyranny. We’ve battled against Czars who imposed their might unfairly on people (Russia), as well as Chancellors who led their nation (Germany) into atrocities against humanity. Our track record with “sovereigns” has always been with bully dictators, so our trust factor is low.

We’re beginning to understand why the idea of living in God’s kingdom rattles us a bit…or a lot. We like the idea, albeit an illusion, of being in control of our own lives. We distrust anyone who tries to exert control over us.

Yet, as followers of Jesus, that’s exactly what God expects of us – to trust Him in His sovereignty over creation, countries, and our own little corners of the world. To trust God’s ways and will, it’s imperative we know His heart. We must know that the Sovereign One is good. We must trust that He only desires our good. Even when other people cause harm; even when our fallen world produces disasters, disease, and death; even when evil runs rampant, spreading its lies and spewing its hate, GOD IS GOOD.¹

Peeling Back the Layers

To fully trust God with our lives, we need to discern why we believe Him untrustworthy. James Bryan Smith would suggest we mine the layers of our false narratives of God’s character, digging into our experiences and assumptions to get at the truth of how we view God.²

One layer to our reticence might be that we see God as an angry judge – a Sovereign who blesses the good and curses the sinners. James suggests that this way of viewing God not only fits the false narrative many pastors have preached for decades but also fits tidily into our desire for control. In other words, we’ll strive to do all the right things so the bad won’t happen.

To see how this false narrative about God needs adjusting, we must ask ourselves: “Is this understanding of God consistent with the God Jesus revealed?”²

So, we look to Jesus, God incarnate, knowing His words will reveal much about God. And, we hear Him say, “There is only one who is good:” GOD (Matthew 19:17). From His own lips, Jesus attests to God’s goodness.

Jesus’ actions also demonstrate God’s nature. When His disciples see a man, blind since birth, they ask Jesus, “Who sinned? This man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2-3). And, going against the typical Jewish way of thinking, Jesus refuses to affirm that anyone’s sin caused the blindness. In fact, He heals the man, demonstrating not only His authority over the natural but His belief that no judgment was necessary.²

Jesus reveals to us a God who is both sovereign and good. He shows us that God does not walk around with lightning bolts in His hands, eager to zap each person who does something wrong. That’s not to say He couldn’t (because He is sovereign). It’s just not who He is (because He is good).

Photo by Carlos N. Cuatzo Meza on Unsplash

So. What layers of your own false narrative about God do you need to peel back in order to believe that God is trustworthy?

More Layers

Closely related to this errant picture of God as “angry judge” is our assumption that God causes everything that happens in the world. How many times do we hear God “given the credit” for judging a city or country after a devastating natural disaster? How often do we hear ourselves blame God for taking away something or someone?

Other false narratives about God that can seep into our psyche might be that we think of Him as fickle or capricious, not really caring about individuals – maybe even picturing Him as using us as pawns in His heaven-sized chess game.

Yet, none of these are accurate pictures of a Sovereign who is good.

The truth is God knows the number of hairs on your head (Matthew 10:30). He is not clueless about who you are – He’s familiar with all your ways (Psalm 139:3). He cares for all the little details in your life, not wanting you to worry about what you eat or drink or wear (Matthew 6:25-26). God is present in your life (Matthew 28:20), knowing what you need before you ask Him (Matthew 6:8). He has known everything about You since your moment of conception (Psalm 139:13-16), and He thinks about you so often that those thoughts cannot be counted (Psalm 139:17-18).

Layer by layer, we can burn off all the false notions we have of God’s nature. And, we can add all the promises He has made as a means for building our trust in Him.

Promise Keeper = A Good and Faithful God

One way to build layers within us that help us trust that God is only ever out for our good is to look back. When we obediently look back over all the hills and valleys of our lives, we can see where God was present. We can recognize where He placed the just-right people in our lives, provided the timely funds or food, gave us much needed rest, or carried us through the greatest losses we’ve ever faced. In doing so, we feel the goodness of His presence and provision.

Looking back to see God’s faithfulness in the past helps us believe He’ll be faithful again, now. It also builds our confidence that He is, indeed, present and powerful and Promise Keeper (Psalm 145:13). Therefore, our confidence in Him grows, and so does our trust.

Isaiah gives us words to cling to when it feels like God has abandoned us or failed to do as He promised:

Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.
Isaiah 40:28

Isaiah wants us to know that our sovereign God never grows tired – not ever. He’ll never get tired of our needs, our ongoing circumstances, or our failure to trust Him fully. He won’t get tired of us – He created us! He loves us! He is good.

And, in case we’re tempted to doubt that He’s present and working in ways we cannot see or feel, Isaiah reminds us that God’s understanding is unfathomable to us. God sees the big picture, the beginning to the end (Isaiah 46:10). His ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). In other words, this God of ours, He is the one in control. Even when it doesn’t look like it from our vantage point.

Friends – there’s. our. hope!!!

God rules. He reigns over everything seen and unseen, in our homes and nations, in our workplaces and schools, in the darkest places conceivable. He has not given up on us (1 Corinthians 1:7-9 MSG)! He has not turned His back on the world! He loves this place that He created and the people He made in His image (Psalm 145:9). He is in control.

We can trust that. We can trust Him.

God is sovereign and He is good. The impossibility of those two words belonging together stirs within our hearts a doubt, but it is a learned one – because we live in a fallen, broken world where people are given free will and our enemy free reign – but that doubt is not based in truth (Joshua 24:15; John 12:31).

Our truth lies in Jesus, the Word. The way, the truth, and the life. Our hope.

Take heart, my friend. Rest in knowing you’re part of a Kingdom that is led by a mighty and merciful, commanding and compassionate God. Our King reigns on His throne in heaven – not as a distant, fickle, powerless puppet, but as One who knows you intimately, loves you fiercely, and longs for good in your life. So, let’s put our hope in the One who holds the reins.

Father God, we nearly quake at the realization of just how powerful You are. We know that You created everything and everyone in all the universe, yet it somehow shocks us to think about the absolute authority that you possess. We thank You for your mercy when we fail to acknowledge your will and way, and we ask your forgiveness when we doubt your ability to act with incredible power at any moment. Lord Jesus, You are our King of Kings. We awaken to this idea that WE represent YOU. We are humbled that You reign on the throne as One who understands every single aspect of our humanity – our fears and fury, our grief and glee, our temptations and tailspins. You rule with compassion and control, and that awes us. We’re humbled – and grateful. Holy Spirit, we look to You for help in peeling back the layers of our disbelief and doubt. We ask that You would lead us in uncovering the false narratives we hold about God so that we can align ourselves to your truth about who He is. And, we implore You to ignite within us a trust in God that carries us through every season so that we never, ever forget that He is sovereign and good. In Jesus’ name, amen.
(Inspired by Romans 13:1; Matthew 28:18; Ephesians 2:4-5; Revelation 19:16; Hebrews 4:15-16; John 14:26, 16:13; Jude 1:20-21; Psalm 135:6-7, 34:8)

1-This Got Questions article has a great analogy to help us understand God’s sovereignty and how that holds space for free will — it’s about a man and an ant.
2-James Bryan Smith’s book Good and Beautiful God^ was a pivotal study for me years ago. It was the first time I realized how skewed our view of God can be — and how that view can hinder our sanctifying journey with Him.
Our God of Hope playlist continues to sing to me throughout my day. If you need some encouragement in your trust of God’s goodness, turn up Andrew Peterson’s song, “Always Good.”
Friends, many times our “looking back” isn’t limited to our own lives but the lives of those who have gone before us — like Moses. It helps so much for us to know the stories that have come before us, so I cannot heartily enough recommend The Devoted Collective‘s brand new study on Exodus (I’m so honored to be a writing contributor). This eight-week study includes reading chapters of Exodus, corresponding devotions in the book,^ and/or journaling^ your responses. I hope you’ll take part!

Rhythms we can incorporate into our daily lives to aid us in our dwelling with God, living for Him, and putting our hope in Him:

The anchoring passage for this series is Isaiah 40:28-31. This week we add the last two lines of verse 28. In my moments of overwhelming doubt or grief, I literally read this verse out loud, hearing Isaiah’s imploring tone. He wants us to remember these truths about God — so let’s put this to memory:

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
Isaiah 40:28a-b, NIV
Finally, as a community, let us not neglect sharing God’s hope with others — especially as Easter approaches! Share your God-stories with people around you. Share this site. Share God’s Word. Shine His light into the world!

Featured Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash. Bits and Pieces photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova on Unsplash.
^ Affiliate link, with which I may earn a bit.

God of Hope: Holy and Loving

When we give ourselves space to think about who God is, we can sometimes get caught up in a mental game of tug-of-war because we can’t quite discern if He is this or that. Is He full of wrath or slow to anger? Is He to be feared or trusted? Is He holy or loving?

In our discomfort, we too often avoid searching Scripture for answers to these lofty, yet necessary, questions. So by default many will believe that God had one nature before Jesus (ie: more holy) and a different one after (ie: more loving), leaving us in another kind of pickle – because we know that God is immutable, never changing (Malachi 3:6).

So. What if instead of dismissing the “Old Testament God” who’s a little harder to understand, we dig into those stories, histories, and poems of old and look for a fuller, truer picture of who God is? What if we acknowledge how hard it is to live in the tension that God can be BOTH holy AND loving? Then, what if with our new found understanding of God’s nature, we discover a growing hope within us because He embodies all the paradoxes and all the possibilities?

Buckle up, friends. We’re diving in.

The Holy and Loving God of the Old Testament

Consider God during the Exodus where we witness Him establishing laws that to our twenty-first century ears sound harsh and strange (Exodus 21-23). But, as so many wise teachers have told us, we must be careful not to impose our current sensibilities and realities onto those of the past.¹ So, we zoom out, remembering the context: the Israelites at this time were a group of people who had only known slavery for over four hundred years. With some perspective, that’s 150 years longer than we’ve been a nation. That’s generations of Hebrew people who never had a single moment to do what they wanted, who only ever had someone else telling them what to do and where to go and who to worship. They had zero context of living together as a nation, zero experience worshiping the ONE and only true God.

It’s in this context that God, in His holiness, descended onto a mountain to meet with Moses and give all the boundaries this group of people would need to live well together and to engage with other nations without losing their identity. At the foot of that mountain, the Israelites shook with fear as fire elicited thick smoke and thunder rattled the people to their core (Exodus 19:16-19).

Photo by Seif Amr on Unsplash (the actual Mt. Sinai)

The reality of who God is stands as true to us today as it did for the Israelites: God. Is. Holy. God is uniquely holy, transcendent of everything else in creation. He’s above and beyond our comprehension. He’s so perfect and righteous that not one person could ever stand in His presence, see His face, and live (33:20). Not because He’s malicious but because our sin cannot withstand the power of His purity.

So, when God says, “Don’t let the people touch the mountain or they’ll die” (my paraphrase of v.21), He’s not trying to scare them so that He’ll have more power over them. He’s merely stating facts. They are too unclean, too impure to endure a single touch of such holy ground.

Yet, at the same time, God is loving. Out of love for His people, out of a true desire for them to love each other and live well together, laws were laid down. People who had never owned anything needed to understand appropriate consequences for theft of property, for instance. In other words, it was not okay to kill someone over a stolen ox or a broken wheel. These laws, for that day and time, were the most loving thing God could have given His people.¹

The Holy and Loving God of the New Testament

On “this side of the cross,” God is still holy – so holy that we would not be able to enter His presence if it were not for the blood shed by His Son. But God so loves us that He sent His Son to live among us and to die like us in order to defeat death by His resurrection (John 3:16).

Perhaps, instead of shrugging off the holy “Old Testament God,” we can turn to those early books of the Bible to learn facets of God’s character that are difficult for our modern minds – such as His omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. And as we do, we’ll begin to see how all of God’s nature flows out of His love for His creation.

And, rather than dubbing Jesus as only a God of love, we can look more closely at His life, as documented in Scripture, to see that He lived on earth full of love and holiness. Just as Jesus entered homes of prostitutes and tax collectors, loving them where they were, He also called them to lives of holy righteousness: “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11). “Sell all your possessions” (Luke 18:22). “Carry your cross” (Luke 9:23). Just as Jesus cleansed the Temple courts from the money changers (Matthew 21:12), the Spirit works in us to cleanse us of all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9) – why? Because God is always holy, and to enter into His presence, we must be made right by His Son’s blood (Hebrews 9:14).

Jesus is holy as God is holy. God is love as Jesus is love. The holiness and love of our God span all space and time.

Isaiah 40:28

When I read the opening of our Lenten passage (Isaiah 40:28-31), I hear Isaiah’s voice ratchet up a notch, incredulous of the disbelieving, disobedient Israelites who face exile for their worship of pagan gods:

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
The Creator of the ends of the earth.
Isaiah 40:28a,b

Isaiah’s call is to holy reverence of our eternal God! To remember who He is!

From the pages of history, Isaiah also calls out to us in our disbelief and doubt: Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard? God has been around since the beginning. He actually, with only His spoken word, created every single thing in this universe – from the distant stars to the molecules in your body. Where’s the awe, people?² (my version of that verse). I join Isaiah in saying: OUR GOD – He is holy, and He loves us soooooo much that He’s made a way for us to draw near to Him.

Seriously, as I type these words, my own awe-factor skyrockets. It’s so easy for me to get caught up in all my to do’s, all my worries, and all my longings that I start doubting all of it. God. Myself. The purpose of life…

But then I recount all these truths about WHO GOD IS, and my faith and hope ramp up. It’s like my brain and heart finally line up, and the connection is electrified. My brain shimmers with “oh yeah! That’s who God is. And this is who I am because of Him.” And my heart speeds up with the thrum of humility, gratitude, and sheer awe.

This holy God of ours, He loves us!

Don’t Miss the Blood

I wouldn’t dare miss one of the most significant parts of this holy and loving choice that Jesus made on the night He collapsed in Gethsemane, asking His Father to “take this cup” from Him (Luke 22:42). In His divinity, Jesus knew what was coming. In His humanity, He dreaded facing it.

But instead of doing the selfish thing and calling down twelve legions of angels to save Him (Matthew 26:53), He stepped into His role and purpose, giving us His holy gift of love – that of laying down His life for His friends (John 15:13).

We don’t have the time today, but if we were to go back to the book of Exodus and read all the directions for building the Tent of Meeting (aka: Tabernacle), we would start connecting dots all the way to the cross:

First dot – heaven’s throne room, the holiest space ever. It needs no atoning sacrifice because all who enter are holy. But, there’s the problem – because of humanity’s tainted state, we cannot enter God’s presence.

⬇️

Second dot – the Most Holy Place, the most set-apart space in the Tabernacle because that’s where the manifest presence of God would descend and dwell. But animal blood had to be shed as an atoning sacrifice for one priest to enter on behalf of the people.

⬇️

Third dot – Jesus, the One who tabernacled among us, died as our final sacrifice, making us clean and holy so that He can intercede for us and we can enter God’s presence anywhere, anytime.

⬇️

Fourth dot – the future coming of the New Heaven to the New Earth, where God’s throne room lands in the midst of His creation, where we dwell WITH HIM in person, for all time.
(NOTE: Hebrews 9 beautifully paints this whole story.)

These dots connect the plans of our holy, loving God to restore His relationship with us. When we pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10), it is as literal as it is spiritual. God has gone before us and made a way – throughout history – for us to dwell with Him. He continues to do so. And He will till it is finished.

So, just as Moses sprinkled the blood of an animal sacrifice on the altar and ark, the priests and the people to make them pure and holy (if only for the moment), Jesus had to shed His blood – a life for a life, poured out for us and on us – so that we can become holy vessels of God’s love in a world that needs BOTH holiness AND love.

Friend, our God is big and loving enough to handle all our doubts, questions, and fears. He’s strong and holy enough to help us move from our places of despair to stances of hope. Lean in, dear one. Listen for the God of hope. His heart beats for you – a holy rhythm, from the beginning of time, beating a cadence that rings out as true love.

Father God, You are holy. You reign from your Holy, Holy, Holy throne room in heaven with a might that we cannot fully fathom. You are sinless³ and faultless – without a smidge of evil in your being. Out of love, You have done a holy work in this fallen world to give us hope – His name is Jesus. Lord Jesus, You are love embodied. From your holy conception to your sacrificial death, everything You did and continue to do comes from your desire to love us well. In the midst of such grace, we confess our doubts without any fear of retribution. We confess our fears with the hope of perfect love. We confess our sins before our holy God who forgives them as far as the east is from the west. “We renounce our hope of ever being able to save ourselves. Instead, may it be all our hope to be washed in your blood and purified in your Spirit – all because of You, the One who bore all our sins in your own body upon a tree.”⁴ Lord, we step into your sacrifice with awe and gratitude, allowing ourselves to be washed in your holiness and filled with your love. Holy Spirit, how we rely on You to be the thread within us, tying together this beautiful tapestry of holiness and love. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
(inspired by Revelation 4; Hebrews 4:14-16; Romans 5:8; Romans 15:13; 1 John 4:10,18; Romans 8:1; Psalm 103:12)

1-Two teachers: Jen Wilkin (especially in her Exodus^ studies) and Sandra Richter, of Epic and Eden^ renown, have both helped me learn to read Scripture with cultural context – through a lens of the Israelites’ reality, in their day and time – to see that everything God did for them back then derived from His holy personhood AND His perfect love.
2-Lisa Harper inspired all this awe-speak when she said, “In essence–we miss miracles and even fail to hope for them because we are awe-deprived” (Instagram, August 19, 2022). She went on to explain that our awe-deprivation leads us to say things like, “I’m just afraid to hope,” or “How could He do it?” or “There’s no way He can breathe a miracle out of these circumstances.” We need awe, people!
- Friends, studying Exodus is a GAME CHANGER. So. If you would like to engage in a study of Exodus, I want to invite you to join The Devoted Collective in our brand new study on Exodus (I’m so honored to be a writing contributor). The rhythm of these eight weeks is to read five chapters of Exodus a week (one every weekday) then journal your observations, obstacles, and outcomes (in other words, respond to the text yourself), then read the corresponding devotion, which helps unpack a truth from that chapter. We get started March 20th if you want to follow along on Instagram. But, you can get the book^ and/or journal^ on Amazon anytime! I can’t wait!
3-Craig Groeschel quoted Jackie Hill Perry in a sermon (Instagram Oct 19, 2022), helping us understand that God’s being holy means He has no sin. Therefore, “if He can’t sin, then He can’t sin against you. And if He can’t sin against you, then He’s the most trustworthy being there is. You can trust in Him. Put your faith in Him…and cry out to Him.”
4 -my adaptation of a quote from John Wesley’s Thirteen Discourses on the Sermon on the Mount,^ p.411. I’m completely blown away at his bringing together hope and Christ’s blood: “may it be all our hope to be washed in your blood.”
Of course we have a playlist! One song that seems to have been written for THIS POST in THIS SERIES is “Holy” by Bristol House. Soooo many paradoxes of our faith woven into its lyrics: “light of the world, shining through the dark;” “Son of Man and Son of God;” “Lion and Lamb;” “beginning and end.” You get the idea. The chorus is “You are holy. We love You, love You, love You!” Amen!

Rhythms we can incorporate into our daily lives to aid us in our dwelling with God, living for Him, and putting our hope in Him:

The anchoring passage for this series is Isaiah 40:28-31. This week we add the next two lines of verse 28 — let’s be memorizing these heralding words so that each time we feel doubt or disbelief creeping in, we can call on Isaiah’s words to center us on the truth of who God is!

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
Isaiah 40:28a-b, NIV
Finally, as a community, let us not neglect sharing God’s hope with others — especially as Easter approaches! Share your God-stories with people around you. Share this site. Share God’s Word. Shine His light into the world!

Featured Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash (Basilique Notre Dame de Montréal, Montréal, Canada). Bits and Pieces photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova on Unsplash.
^ Affiliate link, with which I may earn a bit.

This Hope: Our Endurance

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This Hope: Resurrection Life

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God of Hope: Transcendent and Immanent

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God of Hope: Just and Merciful

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God of Hope: Incomprehensible and Approachable

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God of Hope: All-Powerful and Patient

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God of Hope: Sovereign and Good

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God of Hope: Holy and Loving

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