When hope promises, faith delivers

Photo by Jeremy Yap on Unsplash

HOPE is an experience the other side of suffering, that God often grants us amid our struggle, where, in trust, we believe.

Faith is the phenomenon of leaving behind the world of reality — pain, seemingly a destiny — in hope that a better reality is possible. Faith is action that believes in such an ideal.

Faith knows and accepts pain is part of the process. But it refuses to accept that pain is a destiny. It knows better. It believes in the redemptive plan of God. It believes beyond this world’s reality. Faith simply sees more. Much more. Indeed, ideally, faith rises above despair in a confidence that trusts, with God, all things are possible.

Here are some tangible considerations:

Imagine in our depression a time coming when we know it was an important experience to have. This is not discounting our pain. The symptoms and signs of depression could be ongoing. That doesn’t mean there’s no purpose to it. There is understanding growing within us that transforms our ignorance into compassion; our hardness of heart is being softened; we view others who are distressed with warmth, not judgment; our inclination is to include and not deny them.

God is using our depression to help us to know
how to love people better who sorely need His love.

Imagine in our anxiety, a hypervigilance that is building effectiveness and efficiency within us. See how our anxiety may form the basis for a diligence God is training us in. He will not waste the experience of our anxiety if we conform our anxious moments to faith. That is, if we believe that God can grow us despite our anxiety. If we believe God can even use our anxiety as His instrument for our growth, then, over the years, He transforms us through it.

Even as we pass through deepest trial, in over our head, God is with us, and never abandons us. Indeed, via faith, over the passage of time, God redeems every trial.

When hope abides in our heart, our mind is delivered in the faith action of trust.

No matter the pain in our lives, God can use it to bring us closer to Himself, and to make us more like Himself.