Hope Does Not Dissapoint

Have you ever experienced great anticipation? If you are living and breathing, I can only imagine your quick reply is yes. Do you know that feeling of excitement when expecting a package in the mail?

Or how about when you tossed and turned all night as a child so eager that Christmas morning was only a few hours away! Have you watched any football games lately, cheering anxiously, excited for your team to take home the win? What about the days or weeks spent waiting for a friend’s email response? I have a dear friend in Mexico who just delivered her third baby. Sadly, after the delivery things didn’t go so well and she became very sick. We have prayed for her and her family everyday and were so excited when her husband finally emailed us that she is home safe and sound. However, I am incredibly anxious to get word from her; to receive a personal message from my far away friend.

This feeling of expectation; I have had it ALL WEEKEND! Why? Because my husband is not here! That’s why! Oh, the anticipation is killing me! I can’t wait any longer! He’s only been gone since Thursday, it’s now Sunday, and he is due home any minute! I realize that’s only four days, but it’s felt like the longest four days of my life. Do you know this feeling? I cannot wait for him to share how the visit with his close friends went. I’m so excited to hear how blessed and encouraged the ladies were during the women’s weekend. Yes, I know good news and good things are in store and I am EXCITED!

Tonight I’m incredibly thankful to God for granting us emotions; for creating us with desire, anticipation, excitement, and longing! As I think about the numerous, sometimes ridiculous things I get so excited about (such as sharing something with you!), I begin to feel slightly childish, as if I need to grow up and get with the “more spiritual” program. I don’t think God sees it that way though. When we give our children a gift, are we not anxious to see them get excited over it and use that gift? There’s not much I hate more than buying my son or daughter something special only to watch them never even use it. How irritating and disappointing!

Well friends, God has given us many gifts and one of those gifts is called HOPE! All the feelings I have described boil down to that one word- HOPE.  The longing I have to hear from my friend, the anxiousness I feel for my husband to get home, those are just shadows of the HOPE our God imparts to us. He offers us a HOPE we cannot see (Rom 8:24-25), a future full of HOPE (Jer 29:11), a HOPE that does not disappoint (Rom 5:5), a HOPE of eternal life (Titus 3:7), a living HOPE (1 Pet 1:3), and our greatest HOPE, Jesus Christ (1 Tim 1:1)! When my husband walks through that door, my anticipation will be fulfilled with his presence. However, there remains within me an even stronger HOPE; a HOPE for a deeper, more intimate relationship with my Savior and a HOPE to spend eternity with Him. Nothing else in this life compares to the HOPE of Jesus Christ.

“Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise.”

- C.S. Lewis