Have you ever heard the old saying, "When it rains, it pours?" It certainly seems that this holds true in real life. Bad things happen to good people. Sometimes multiple things happen at the same time that seem overwhelming and terrible. I know a few families who can't seem to get a break. As soon as one trial seems to come to a calm, they are right in the middle of another challenge. The stress of work, family problems, health situations, and spiritual battles can all culminate in a feeling of complete and utter hopelessness. It feels like you are being crushed underneath a mammoth load of problems. When you see no way out, it is easy to fall into despair.
If anyone has ever experienced this phenomenon before, it would be Job in the Bible. Think about it. He lost everything he owned and all of his ten children in the same day. His health was also eventually taken away. His very support system turned against him. His wife told him to go ahead and curse God and die. His so called friends came to comfort him and ended up blaming him for being a secret sinner. Job's situation indeed looked hopeless. Job even cursed the day that he was born.
However, Job had hope of a resurrection. He said in Job 19: 23-27, “Oh, that my words were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book! That they were engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead, forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!" Job had hope that no matter what happened to him in this life, he would be with God, his Creator, one day. This story has a happy ending. Job received what he had materially lost with a double portion!
You may be in the midst of a fiery trial like Job was. Maybe you are feeling the flames lash out at you from all sides--work, home, even friends or family. You can have the same hope that Job had. The Bible says in Titus 2: 11-14, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." God's grace provided us a way to have salvation by sending Jesus to the earth to be our Saviour. Along with this salvation comes the blessed hope that we will be with Jesus eternally in heaven!
God has a way of taking hopeless situations and turning them around for His glory. He opens the door to new job opportunities. He restores health. He is Jehovah Rapha. He gives new relationships. He comforts the brokenhearted. He lets you find that forgotten check when the light bill is due and your bank account is empty. He is Jehovah Jireh. Isaiah 61 verse three declares, "To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified." God will turn things around for His glory.
God has not forgotten you in your time of need. Hebrews 10:23 says, "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." Hold on to hope! God is faithful!
What a great reminder!