Easter Hope
What seems out of control in your life right now? A diagnosis, a child, a work situation, something in your own heart?
What if, in spite of all appearances, God was actually completely in control. Try this simple exercise. Take what feels out of control to you right now and in a moment of silence, pray this prayer. “You are in control of this God so I trust you with it.”
Last night at our Maundy Thursday service we saw that a moment in which things seemed in chaos God was actually in perfect control – the trial and death of Jesus. Do you think that if He was in control of the circumstances of the world to bring that to pass He might be in control of what is happening in your life right now?
Easier said than done. I know. But what is the alternative? Despair? Casting off a trust in the goodness of God? Discouragment? And what does this orientation of faith produce? Calmness, peace, confidence, and perhaps most importantly – a glorification of God. It tells the world that God is a wonderful trustworthy Being.
And could it be that God is using the ‘little’ tests to prepare you for the later bigger ones?
I have been thinking lately about this simple idea: If we spend our whole lives falling in love with this world, why should we expect – when trouble comes, when loss looms on the horizon – that we should be ready for the next world?
This life is getting us ready for the next. The Easter message is a message that orients our longings past the horizon of this life.
May we all learn that He was telling us the truth when He told us through the prophet Isaiah that He “will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.”
April 22, 2011 at 3:46 pm
Lyrics often speak the words I falter in my attempt to express:
“Who told us we’d be rescued; what has changed and why should we be saved from nightmares? We’re asking why this happens to us who have died to live, it’s unfair.
This is what it means to be held, how it feels when the sacred is torn from your life and you survive. This is what it is to be loved, and to know that the promise was when everything fell…we’d be held.
If hope is born of suffering, if this is only the beginning, can we not wait for one hour watching for our savior?”
As to the Lord’s sovereign control, it’s amazing how quickly my thoughts and actions disregard a truth I believe. Daily, if not hourly, I find myself taking back control, almost by nature. I’m learning to capture those thoughts more quickly and save myself much anxiety and trepidation; still I seem to find myself there again and again. I have, however, learned to find solace in the arms of God in the midst of the storm, rather than holding my breath, alone, waiting for it to calm.
Gratitude does not even begin to describe my feeling for the hope found in Jesus!