Uplift Life

“And Hope does not disappoint us – because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit – whom he has given us.”
Romans 5:5

 

How often have you been disappointed?
All the time.
Right?
We don’t get what we want.
We don’t hear the words we need.
We get a test result that isn’t good.

My little is disappointed on the regular.
Any of you who have had kids in your life know how acutely each disappointment is felt by kids.
They whine and cry and pout and throw themselves on the floor and kick and scream.
Don’t you sometimes wish it were socially acceptable for adults to do this?
Oh man.
Life is full of things we hope for that we don’t get.
We pray and something else happens.
Sometimes the opposite thing happens even.
Does that mean God didn’t answer our prayer?  
Or that God did answer our prayer but wants us to be disappointed?
How are we supposed to deal with disappointment as people who believe in God?

 

I talked about hope last week – how hope is the expectation of something good.
And I also talked about how Christian hope is different than regular hope.
Hope that the weather is nice, or hope that our team wins the game.
Christian Hope is backed up by God’s promises.
And God’s promises, as I said last week, don’t fail.
So hope in God will never disappoint us.
It won’t let us down.

That’s what today’s verse is all about – all the things in our lives produce, at the end, hope.
Because suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character and character produces hope.
It’s a path.
One with a beginning, middle, and end.  
And despite all the suffering in the middle – we know what is at the end.
We know at the end, God wins.
Love wins.
And that is what give us hope.
And hope never, ever disappoints us.

I heard this song today – and so I wanted to share it with you. If you are dealing with something in your life that isn’t the way you want it to be – there are two things I have to say to you:

1. You are not alone.
   In this verse it says God has already given us the Holy Spirit – so we are not alone.
   God is with you, and your community is with you.

2. Love wins.
   Love always wins.