Do you ever feel like you’re all alone in a boat, sailing a narrow channel between hope and desperation? In my spiritual discourse lately God has revealed that I have a multitude of lessons to learn, and He’s led me to explore the difference between hope and desperation. I think one of the greatest enemies of hope is fear. It’s like a gust of wind as your boat tries to navigate the already unsteady waters. I can literally feel fear sweeping over me like a cold wind. It’s followed almost immediately by ripples of doubt, which are like the waves the wind stirs up. They begin to force you towards the opposite shore, towards desperation.
This is what I’ve learned about desperation: it’s the result of a need for control. When you or I feel our world slipping out of the path we imagined it we begin to panic; we want to grab onto the reigns of our life and direct it where we think it should go. The more we try to control our life, the more off course we drift until we are overwhelmed by desperation. We flail our arms and run in circles, pulling our hair out, trying to pull our lives back in towards ourselves. Living in desperation puts a strain on every interaction you have, every relationship. If you try to control your life yourself you will drift even farther out of the way. Even when you think you have it in control, you know you can’t trust your own guidance, so you question all your actions, all you decisions. That’s what desperation looks like.
God has a different solution. It’s hope. I was really trying to figure out the correlation between hope and faith, and faith and trust, etc… and this is where hope led me. It led me to faith. In Hebrews we read the definition of faith
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” – Hebrews 11:1
With faith we can feel the result of our hope. Hope is a peaceful desire for blessings from God when we are already content with where God is leading us, when we already have put our faith in him to steer us in the right direction. It is so hard to let go of our lives, we sometimes don’t even realize when we are still holding on. There is something so peaceful about fainting into the arms of Christ, knowing that wherever he takes you, you’re going in the right direction. It is my personal opinion that when we feel like we’ve made a mistake, a wrong turn, we think it’s up to us to get back on course, when we really just steer further from our goal or overcompensate, leaving us in a worse state than when we first tried to control our own life.
I heard a very encouraging verse today. I’ve heard it many times before but here it is:
I heard a very encouraging verse today. I’ve heard it many times before but here it is:
“Be still, and know that I am God…” – Psalm 46:10a
Today I heard in a devotional that the word “still” as it is used here literally means to drop your hands to the side and relax. Is that amazing or what??? So, we’re alone in the middle of a narrow pathway, our boat is being tossed and you have lost all control and you have two choices: You can try, in desperation, to regain control, fighting the storm with incapable, human strength, or, you can drop your arms to your side and relax, letting God take control of your life. He is the only one who really knows where you’re going. Can you imagine sailing towards a destination when you don’t even know where you’re going? How can we navigate our own lives if we don’t even know the destination? It is so common for me to think I know where I’m going and I do everything I can to get there, without admitting that God might not want me there, and if he DOES want me there He can get me there a lot quicker and with less trouble, fewer wrong turns, and with more surety.
It is so beautiful to know that God is leading you. It’s so incredible we can’t seem to grasp it sometimes. In my favorite Psalm, chapter 139 there is a verse that says:
“Such knowledge is too wonderful to me, it is high. I cannot attain unto it” – Psalm 139:4
Sometimes we just can’t seem to grasp the kind of ability lies in the hands of God; that it’s limitless. I think it was a sure blessing from God that while I drove home from work today, thinking through these wonderful truths a song came on that said it in such a beautiful way I just want to leave you with the lyrics.
If you need a bit of encouragement, please read Psalm 139, it will blow you away, the power and majesty of the God that made us. I love you all and I pray that you can all be encouraged through what the Spirit has been teaching me. I struggle with all these things and there is no way I could possibly survive my own life if I didn’t surrender it to Christ.
“In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” – Proverbs 3:6
Finally Free – Nichole Nordeman
No chain is strong enough, no choice is wrong enough
No mountain high enough that He can't climb
No shadow dark enough, no night is black enough
No road is lost enough that He can't find
And if the Son has set us free, then we must be free indeed
Let the chains fall away, starting today
Everything has changed...I'm finally free
No pain is deep enough, no heart could bleed enough
Nothing but Jesus' love can make a way
And if the Son has set us free, then we must be free indeed
Let the chains fall away, starting today
Everything has changed...I'm finally free
Everything has changed...I'm finally free
Everything has changed...I'm finally free
