Face Reality and Avoid Disappointment

Hope is always connected to the future. Everyone has had their hopes dashed by an unexpected turn of events, such as being passed over for a promotion when a salary increase would have provided for important needs in the family. Hope has validity when it’s centered on realistic needs.

One of my professors was fond of reminding his students that if they did not study for his exams, they would fail. Yet a friend of mine believed that if he sincerely prayed, God would make sure he passed the exams whether he had studied or not. He failed the exams because of vain expectations and false hope.

When hope has not been realized, disappointment and frustration are usually felt. Yet God’s word points to a better way forward. “Why are you cast down on O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? I will put my hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Giving praise to the Lord lifts up the heart and soul and restores hope for the future.  

____________

Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon those who fear him and worship him with awe-inspired reverence and obedience, on those who hope confidently in his compassion and lovingkindness.

~Psalm 33:18 Amplified Bible

____________

Subscribe to the Attitudes Answers podcast on your favorite podcast platform to hear this and other 2-minute features 3 days every week.

Blessed to Limp

Everyone has experienced the consequences of false hope. That's because hope is different from choosing what you want. C. S. Lewis said, "Most people, if they really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that what they want acutely cannot be had in this world." Eventually everyone gets to a crossroads in life where they come face to face with God and reality.

 

          Jacob faced uncertainty the night before he was to meet his brother. As he tried to sleep, Genesis 30:24 tells us a man wrestled with him until daybreak, but Jacob refused to let the man go. Then the man informed him his name would now be “Israel, because you struggled with God and have overcome.” 

          Jacob would carry a permanent reminder of experiencing God and being blessed by him. The angel of God touched the socket of his hip, resulting in a permanent limp. This experience would strengthen Jacob's hope for a future blessed by God to be passed on to his children who were receptive to trusting in the God of hope.