Perspective {Hope}

Yesterday,

I went into church feeling hopelessness (though, I didn’t know what to call it at the time.)
As we were singing, before the sermon started, I continued in very much NON-worshipful thoughts. Lies of self-pity, empty of faith.

And then,

I looked around, at who was singing with me.

There was the couple in front of me who had lost a child, and fought with cancer.

A few rows over was the man whose wife had lied for years, and then left.

Down the row to my left was the young woman whose parents had separated and had tasted her bitter share of the emptiness of the world before she chose Christ.

Towards the middle sit the woman who had spent many years as a widow and single mom.

Behind me, are the couple whose sweet children just lost their Granddad.

Close to them is the man who is sitting without that woman he had hoped for, yet still is faithful (and still has joy). 

God is so good, isn’t He?
He never promised me that life on this earth would be easy. He never promised me that I would be satisfied in any circumstance, apart from Him. He didn’t even promise me that I would know why ______________.

But He promised that Himself is our steadfast light.

STEADFAST. Nothing in this world can be described by such a term. This is the stuff of “religious affections” that Jonathan Edwards spoke of as

 “…[having] a secret solidity, life, and strength, whereby they take hold of, and carry away the heart, leading it into a kind of captivity, gaining a full and steadfast determination of the will of God and holiness.”

OUR. All of those voices that I was singing with. We are all transformed, and testify to God’s UNFAILING, GOOD purpose.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
    though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
    though the mountains tremble at its swelling.” 

~Psalm 46:1-3~