Hope Springs Eternal

With spring (finally) in the air, I couldn't help but see the analogy of the physical end of hibernation for some of God's creatures, and the spiritual ending of a personal dark, cavelike experience in my own life.



My husband and I have been going through a challenging time in our lives that is new to us. We are traveling a path (thankfully together) of obedience to God which involves a new ministry at a new church. We don't like to think of it as abandoning our "family", but rather enlarging our family.



When we really stop to think about it, as born again Christians we will all be together, every denomination, and forever. For reasons that only God knows, He sometimes pulls us away from a body of believers for a season, to grow us and to serve Him in different ways. It is not necessarily our choice to go, and we don't always know where we are going. But like Abraham, we step out in faith and in obedience.



I can imagine that Abraham, too, was afraid. I can imagine that some of his godly friends that he left behind were maybe even disappointed in him. They didn't get it. Some of them probably thought, "Could this really be God? To take you and your family away from us and put you on a path to...somewhere?"



And I can imagine, too, that while he traveled to the unknown, he also endured a cavelike experience. A time of darkness - a time of not fully understanding. As head of the household, he probably felt the weight of the world on his shoulders.



And maybe he was even hurt by the reaction of some of the faithful that he left behind; especially those who were not encouraging him to be obedient. There were gossips back then, too, and I can imagine some of them saying, "There has to be another reason why Abraham left us."



Iimagine the joy, though, that Abraham and Sarah experienced when they finally arrived at their destination. They had been obedient. They had fought the good fight of traveling a hard road to an unknown territory. They had seen God's hand all along the way.



We can't let others stop us from moving on. We can't wait for their understanding. God will take care of that in time. Our part is to pray and obey.



Oh, hope does spring eternal! And our eternal hope that we have in Jesus trumps the enemy's attacks every time.



May you have eternal hope in Him, too.

Connie