Recognize God’s Wonder with Hope
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I had a dream last night that filled me with hope. The dream dealt specifically with a situation in my own life over which I had begun to lose hope. In the dream someone I did not know had something occur in his life that seemed impossible. He was elated over this miracle. I spoke to him and said, “Thank you. What has happened to you gives me hope.” Tears came to his eyes as he realized that the power that had been worked in his life was not for him alone. It also gave hope to others.
It’s easy for us to lose hope. Relationships are tumultuous and we don’t see any way for them to get better. Loved ones’ lives are in disarray and no matter what interventions we give, nothing seems to fix it. Our own addictions and mistakes seem to get the best of us everyday. Poverty or illness or disability beat us down to a continuous state of depression. “Why hope,” we think, “when things will never change?”
However, when we stop to consider the wonder of God, hope is revived. If we truly believe God is all powerful, we must conclude that God can do all things. God can change those individuals we think are hopeless. God can open a sea for us to walk across on dry land when we are cornered by addiction or disease. If God can fling the stars and planets in place, I must conclude that God can transform me and those I pray for.
In Ezekiel 37 we find the prophet’s vision of bones. God shows Ezekiel a valley of dry bones that represent the nation of Israel. As Ezekiel walked among the scattered bones, he considered the question of whether these bones could ever be revived. The barren, devastated valley of bones represent the hopelessness of the nation. Death is final. There is no resurrection.
Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’ (Ezekiel 37:11)
Hopelessness, however, fails to remember the power and wonder of God. In the vision, God revives the bones into skeletons. God puts flesh back on the skeletons, and finally, breaths life back into the corpses. What was impossible, became reality.
When we truly recognize God’s wonder, we cling to hope because we understand that God is able to do all things. With God, all things are possible–transformation, forgiveness, healing, eternity. Hope, then, is a way to demonstrate our love for God, a way to show God how important God is in our lives. When we hope, God is pleased. When we hope, our own lives are lifted.
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