love, mercy, patience and hope…

lamentations 3.21-23 (ncv) says, but i have hope when i think of this.  the LORD’s love never ends.  HIS mercies never stop.  they are new every morning.  i have hope when i think about GOD’s love.  i have hope when i think about GOD’s mercy.  because HE is a GOD of love and hope and mercy. 

you drive into a gas station.  what would you hope to find there at a gas station?  gas.  you go into a doughnut shop, what do you expect to find?  doughnuts.  you go to the GOD of hope and love, what are you going to find?  not fear, not guilt.  you’re going to find hope.  you’re going to find love.  because that is who GOD is. 

this verse says, GOD’s love is new every morning.  if it’s new every morning i want to think about it every morning. 

in fact, let me get even more practical than that.  if you’re feeling hopeless, or if you don’t want to start feeling hopeless, here’s the practical thing to do.  before you even get out of bed in the morning – remind yourself GOD’s love is your lifeline.  you wake up feeling groggy.  before you even get out of bed because who knows what’s going to happen the first thirty seconds of the day.  “GOD, no matter what happens today, YOU love me.”  just remind yourself of that.  every morning.  there is power in doing that. 

another way to find hope in a hopeless situation is to make patience your priority. 

but you say, “i don’t want patience!  i want hope!  and i want it now.  i don’t want to wait for it.”  if you’re looking for hope and someone says to you in the middle of a problem, “oh, just be patient.”  does that sound like an answer?  to me it sounds like somebody just patting me on the back.  “oh, it’s going to be ok.”  and send me out with no real answer.  yet GOD, when HE talks about our problems, talks about the power of patience to make a difference in our lives. 

our priority is to solve the problem.  that’s not GOD’s priority.  GOD’s priority is to grow us through the problem.  why is that by the way?  because GOD knows that you’re going to far outlast any problem that you have.  problems that you have, they might last five days, five months, five years.  they might even last the rest of your life.  but compared to the eternity that GOD has created us for, that is a short time.  so because GOD knows that you’re going to far outlast your problems.  HE’s more interested in your growth and my growth than in solving the problem immediately. 

just a thought from the front porch…