“That’s just the way I am.” Have you ever felt that way? Or maybe—“I’m too broken, God can’t fix me.” Or even—“My son/daughter will never come back to Jesus.” We try and we try to be the person we think we should be, and we pray and we pray for our lost loved ones. But sometimes in the waiting, we lose hope. Sometimes in the trying, we get discouraged.

When we try to force change and fail, what happens? We try to get comfortable in who we are. We grumble when change disrupts our status quo. But what if there was no hope for change? What if who we are now was all we could aspire to be? I cringe just thinking about it.

Have you ever asked God why he doesn’t take us to heaven as soon as we utter the sinner’s prayer? Why we stay on this journey of challenges, trials, and heartaches? What would happen to the lost souls of this world? Who would tell them about salvation?

Just as there is hope for us, there is hope for the world.

So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.

Galatians‬ ‭6‬:‭9‬ ‭NLT

Don’t give up.

”For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.“

Jeremiah‬ ‭29‬:‭11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

God gives us hope for our future.

But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

2 Corinthians‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬-‭18‬ ‭NLT

The Spirit changes us into his image, bringing us freedom from who we were before.

Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.

We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)

Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭18‬-‭19‬, ‭24‬-‭25‬ ‭NLT

The world awaits us, and heaven’s glory beyond that. There is hope for change, and it lies in the hands of the One who holds all things together (Colossians 1:17).

I won’t despair—even in the waiting, even in the trying—because my hope is not in my efforts, or in my prayers for change. No. It is in my great big God!

Grace & Peace,

Sandy

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