Bold As a Lion and Laughing at the Future!

Here I stand at the sink doing a mighty load of dishes. Our dishwasher racks are being repaired and doing every dish, pan and utensil by hand really makes me appreciate how easy I have it compared to those women of yonder years. Though I cannot say the work was done without sighing and moaning and some good old complaining to myself. I also do not have Palmolive hands. Nay dry, cracked, winter hands.

Yesterday during church I just could not focus on what my Pastor was saying. My mind was adrift. I was swirling into another one of my "oh no, it just seems all too hopeless" life moments. The reality of life, a struggling marriage and the stress and responsibility of home schooling was seriously pressing down on me. I just totally felt hopeless, right there in church.

My ears were perked when I heard my Pastor say, "Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present." As I clued in and listened he went on about a book titled "Unfinished Business" by Halford Luccock. Flagstaff, ME was about to be demolished by the building of a dam. So the people in that town gave up. They stopped taking care of their homes and the town basically "went to pot" (my words, not the Pastor's). After a year of this hopelessness the dam project was rejected and the people of Flagstaff, ME were left with their town in ruins because they had given up all hope.

Wow! I love how God knows how to speak directly to my heart. He is so faithful to do so. There I sat, finding it difficult to worship with so much on my mind. Finding it impossible just to have hope in God, to really trust Him with it all. I was about to let it all go to pot, giving up hope.

Today, before I even put my hands in the sudsy water I put on my mp3 player that my friend Kristin sent me a few years ago. It was dusty and entombed in its own headphone wires. The memory bank still holds the messages and songs she uploaded as I have never even used the software with it to add or change anything. I pushed play. John Piper's voice was passionate like a Southern Baptist preacher on a hot August night in a revival tent. I wriggled trying to get used to it.

Here was another message about hope. Women who hoped in God. Women who laugh at the future because of their hope in God. Women who hope in God are as bold as a lion. I wanted to be as bold as a lion and I definitely wanted to laugh (albeit somewhat hysterically) at the future, so I tuned my ears to listen. Now I understood the passion in his voice. I felt like I was going to cry because my heart was so deeply moved and encouraged by this message.

The wicked man flees though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. Provers 28:1

"One way to get right with a holy God" John said, "is to trust Him." There it was. Trust. Total trust. I knew my heart wasn't fully trusting Him to deal with my marriage and everything else that had me so down trodden. "Abraham didn't know how God would do it, but he trusted God to do it." Mr. Piper goes on. Bingo! Thank you Lord for breaking it down for me. I seriously can't see how God will fulfill His promise to me - but I needed to trust Him to do it.

Right there I said aloud, "Lord help my unbelief! Make me a woman who hopes and trusts in you!" "I can't hope in myself. I can't be wife or a mother or do anything you want me to be. I just am so unable. Please be my hope!"

Now I sit typing this out for you. My prayer is that if you find yourself in a hopeless state that you can be encouraged to trust God with all of everything so that you can be filled with hope, be as bold as a lion and laugh at the future!

The righteous shall live by faith! (Romans 1:17) Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." (Galatians 3:6)

Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:23-24

For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith." Romans 1:17

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. Romans 3:21

Know also that wisdom is sweet to your soul;
if you find it, there is a future hope for you,
and your hope will not be cut off. Proverbs 24:14

In Christ,

Elizabeth

If you are interested in listening (or reading the transcript) to the same program from the Desiring God Radio (online program) click below on part one of the Demonstration of God's Righteousness series

Demonstration of God's Righteousness part 1

Demonstration of God's Righteousness part 2

Demonstration of God's Righteousness part 3