Hope and a future.

My son, if your heart is wise,

    my heart too will be glad. 

My inmost being will exult

    when your lips speak what is right.

Let not your heart envy sinners,

    but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day.

Surely there is a future,

    and your hope will not be cut off. Proverbs 23:15-18

If you faint in the day of adversity,

    your strength is small. 

Rescue those who are being taken away to death;

    hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. 

If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,”

    does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?

Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it,

    and will he not repay man according to his work? 

My son, eat honey, for it is good,

    and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste. 

Know that wisdom is such to your soul;

    if you find it, there will be a future,

    and your hope will not be cut off. Proverbs 24:10-14

Thus says the Lord:

“Keep your voice from weeping,

    and your eyes from tears,

for there is a reward for your work,

declares the Lord,

    and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. 

There is hope for your future,

declares the Lord,

    and your children shall come back to their own country.

I have heard Ephraim grieving,

‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined,

    like an untrained calf;

bring me back that I may be restored,

    for you are the Lord my God. Jeremiah 31:16-18

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

What is your hope set upon? Where do you look to be encouraged? What is the future you see for yourself? Has the Lord shown you His plans for you? Has He shared His heart for you? Have you been given glimpses of what He has prepared for you? Have you asked Him any of these questions? 

When the Lord shares His plans with you — there is both an uncertainty of soul — which wonders how you could ever accomplish anything like that, and a love and trust from Him which both goes deep and wide within you .. making you feel expansive and both humble as you experience His plan and touch. The key is .. working by His direction and following His path. You are locking yourself in with Him in His “yoke”, and He will be required to do the main pulling and work in the areas you are lacking. This is why it is exciting because His plans ALWAYS require Him to be intimately involved in the entire process of carrying them out. His plans require every ounce of faith He has deposited within you. It also requires a greater trust in Him, knowing He will accomplish that which He wants in His timing. So close obedience to His daily instructions will be required everyday.

The Lord has often given me instructions to do something that I didn’t feel like it had anything to do with the plans He had given me … but when I obeyed quickly usually the result made manifest how the task was important for me and His plans. We must learn to obey His Voice quickly even when we don’t understand right away. We can ALWAYS ask Him, and He will explain along the way — often times asking us questions that help us learn what He is trying to teach us. All of this requires a fairly good open clarity of constant communication with Him. You have to have developed a good ‘ear’ to hear His Voice within you. And learned how to trust Him so that you obey His instructions quickly without delay, knowing that when you follow Him He knows best. Building trust takes patience and practice, which requires tests and challenges. If God gives you something, it will immediately come with tests and challenges, because it requires ‘activation’ and knowing that what He gave you is REAL and works …IF you listen to Him how to carry it out. This is how trust works, it must be earned with tested experience. 

Many people know God is real and love Him but still don’t trust Him very much in their own lives. Because they fear the tests and challenges that are presented to them, and they usually struggle with those tests because they haven’t learned how to listen to Him closely within their minds and hearts. So most tests are met out of their own strength and knowledge rather than working with Him through each step and asking for His advice and instructions. These attempts almost always end in failure and are used by the enemy to berate the person. The Lord WANTS to do the work with YOU alongside Him. God doesn’t give up on us, He just has us take another test much like the first …again. 

He has given us a hope AND a future and we can be absolutely CERTAIN! Even though the situation around you might be desperate and seemingly disastrous, and filled with chaos, He is the Light and The Way through. We just have to listen to Him and … follow Him. We must learn to trust Him. With each challenge met .. our trust in Him grows if we follow His lead.

His kingdom awaits us – with each step we take.