Hope can be a dangerous virtue...when it is misplaced, of course. When we put our hope in the wrong things, it can turn into discontentment, bitterness, regret, worry and all other kinds of consuming sin.
I recently had the opportunity to speak about a lesson I learned about misplaced hope, mostly regarding the trials we endured after Cole came home and how the Lord used that to reveal my own shortcomings to myself. Little did I know, I would need those words from Him once again. I have a feeling it is a lesson I will endure many times in my life.
We have been in Texas for about a month. We are very, very blessed. The Lord has been good and faithful to us. He provides. He is here.
And yet, I have allowed myself to focus on the have-nots instead of the haves. I have fallen into a pattern of seeing the glass half-empty instead of half-full or even pouring over the edges. I have lost perspective of the big picture and have thus, misplaced my hope.
Romans 5:5 tells us that hope does not disappoint. Yet I have hoped and hoped and have been nothing but disappointed. Obviously, my hope has been in the wrong things. In earthly things, in circumstances, in the temporary. So what is this hope that doesn't disappoint?
In desperation, I search the Word to be reminded and find it in 1 Corinthians 1:9-10. "Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and He will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope." Our hope is eternal, in The Eternal, in salvation that comes only from Him and through Him. He is the only One who can save us from so great a peril of death and He alone is worthy of my hope. His purposes are much, much bigger than my circumstances and His expectations of me are not lessened because I am uncomfortable, sad or disappointed. The thing about God is that He is always worthy, always good, always holy. And as a new creature, as a believer in Him and a servant to His Spirit, I am without excuse. I must not put my hope anywhere else but in Him.
