Victory / Defeat

Hope Eternal

Hope is the mechanism that keeps the human race tenaciously alive and dreaming, planning, building.

Hope is not the opposite of realism. It is the opposite of cynicism and despair. Hope is not a lie, but the truth itself.

Everything that is done in the world is done by hope. -Martin Luther

Boulders and Burdens

Doesn’t it sometimes feel like you are pushing a boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down? Maybe it even rolls right over you on its way.

Faith is what unlocks God’s ability both to help us with our burdens now and bring us to victory in the future.

It took time to learn that dark times are important. I had always enjoyed the ‘flowers’ of life but it took thorns to show me the beauty of God’s comfort. You know, the Bible says that God comforts us when we’re afflicted and from His consolation we learn to comfort others.

Well, my experience says that the thorns make the roses more precious. We treasure God’s providential care more during trouble than at any other time.

Spiritual Bouyancy

Joy is a spiritual buoyancy that comes when we are rejoicing in God. This joy, this buoyancy, does not mean we are impervious to suffering; it means we are unsinkable.

He Answered Nothing

There’s a stillness that lets God work for us, and holds our peace; the stillness that ceases from its contriving and its self vindication, and its expedients of wisdom and forethought, and lets God provide and answer the cruel blow, in His own unfailing, faithful love.

How often we lose God’s interposition by taking up our own cause, and striking for our defense.