“Hopelessness sucks you dry of any peace or victory in your life. It can be almost suffocating, stealing the Word from your heart and blanketing you with heaviness.” (Guideposts)

Do you ever feel this way? It’s an awful feeling when it seems the life is sucked right out of us. We try to grab and hold onto the promises, but they slip from our grasp. Losing all hope in the mercy of God.

Even when we don’t always feel it, God keeps His promises. Sometimes we have to wait a looong time, but never so long as some of the people in the Old Testament had to wait. After God’s last promise of His Son coming, there were 2,000 years of silence. Can you imagine? They must have felt so hopeless at times. The Savior had not yet come. They had to cling to God’s promises that He would come.

It’s impossible for God to lie. When He gives a promise, it is more than 100% certain He will keep it. We know today the promise of a Savior was kept. Jesus has come. He has paid the price. He has given hope to hopeless souls.

“We who have run for our very lives to God
have every reason to grab the promised hope
with both hands and never let go.
It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline,
reaching past all appearances right to
the very presence of God where Jesus,
running on ahead of us,
has taken up His permanent post as High Priest for us,
in the order of Melchizedek.”
Hebrews 6:18-20 The Message

When the storm waves jerk the ships of our souls back and forth, up and down, the rope to the anchor of hope won’t break, because it is made of the unbreakable love of a faithful God.

We may sometimes feel like hope is forever gone from our hearts, and it would be if it were up to us. But even when we cannot see it, Jesus is the unbreakable Lifeline that leads us to salvation, safety, and solace.

We have this hope, this strong and trustworthy anchor, that reaches into the very certainty of the Presence of God. Yes, He’s waiting for us to flee to Him for refuge with all the broken pieces of our lives.

“We see our failures and our lack of faith,
but God sees what we will become
as His Spirit faithfully works through
the broken pieces of our lives.
God’s timing always perfectly matches His plans,
even if sometimes it runs roughshod over ours.”
(Sheila Walsh in The Storm Inside: Trade the Chaos of How You Feel for the Truth of Who You Are)

 

The Reason We Have Hope

“Third Man”
by Loretta Lynn

Last night I dreamed I took a walk up Calvary’s lonely hill,
The things I saw with my own eyes could not have been more real.

I saw upon three crosses three men in agony;
Two cried out for mercy… but the third man just looked at me.

Oh, the pain in this man’s eyes that just broke my heart in two!
It seemed I could hear the third man say: “I’m doing this for you.”

I knelt beneath the third man’s cross and slowly bowed my head,
I reached out to touch His feet and it stained my hands with red.

And when I heard Him cry in pain, I raised my eyes to see;
Blood spilled from the third man’s side… and some of it spilled on me.

The third man wore a crown of thorns, spikes held Him to the tree,
I heard him cry, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

And there within a mighty crowd the ones who mocked him cried,
“King, save Thyself if Thou art King!” and then the third man died.

I heard the thunder roll and saw the lightning pierce the sky.
The third man was still hanging there and I began to cry.

I saw the boulders fall and heard the breaking of the ground.
Then I awoke and thought I dreamed;
I touched my cheek and found
My eyes were wet where I had cried.

A dream? I wished I knew—
I still can hear the third man say,
“I’m doing this for you.”

Praying we will hang onto the Lifeline of Hope,