TRUE HOPE FOR OUR TIMES

How majestic is your Name in all the earth!

The works of your hands praise You!

I may step on some toes here, but I really have felt a burning in my heart to speak up and point to our TRUE HOPE in these trying days in which America finds herself.  Many Americans have believed a
huge lie. We are not a post-Christian nation. We are still a nation under God because it is not God who moved, but it is we.

For years now we have had promises from our politicians (from both parties) for Hope and Change, but we got some changes we hadn't hoped for! For many among us. our hopes were dashed by broken promises, selfish and corrupt decisions, and politics before integrity as a regular way of life. Those voted in to protect our country and our unique values, have sold us out to a set of false HOPES.

I know many of us as Christians are fed up with the empty promises and scandalous focus on money as the solution to much deeper problems of our people than politicians even have an inkling about. And the reason money and power don't solve any issues we are going through is they're representative of dangerous and misplaced hopes! 

Our true hope is well highlighted in the Scriptures.  Our "portion" isn't something that the government can dole out to us! Our legitimate HOPE is in the Lord, God who is our true portion! Lamentations 3:24, "The Lord is my portion (share), says my soul. Therefore I place my HOPE in Him."  Surely Almighty God is where I need to place my HOPE.  Scripture tells me that if I will HOPE IN THE LORD there is blessing attached.  Psalm 146:5 says "Happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose HOPE is in the Lord." Jeremiah 17:7 says "Most blessed is the man who believes, trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose HOPE and confidence the Lord is."  Psalm 33:18, "The eye of the Lord is on those who fear him and whose HOPE is in HIS mercy."

As a woman of God, I have chosen to put my HOPE in the God I trust, who cares for me and has provided for me for 57 years, rather than a system of government.  God says, "choose this day who {what} you will serve".  I can't serve two masters: God and a world system made by man.  The Lord has been good to me through my life in times of plenty and times of lack, He has remained a "rock" for me to stand on (unlike the shifting sands of the whims of Washington power brokers.) Isaiah 26:4 puts it well, "Hope confidently in Him for the Lord God is an EVERLASTING ROCK". I can attest to that. Even now when some of our material resources are diminishing, I am filled with such peace and a true HOPE that God, my sustainer, will help me "pass through the waters" and that we "will not be overtaken".  That kind of HOPE comes from my 40 year relationship with Jehovah Jireh, my provider (the God of the Bible.)

I want to always be a woman of Godly integrity and purposes. I don't want to align myself with corrupt viewpoints and "cleverly devised schemes" and flowery talk signifying nothing. Psalm 25:20-22 speaks to this: "May integrity and uprightness protect me because my HOPE Lord is in you.

I know, I know.  This is a hard stand to take in our culture that has tried to jettison God from every part of our society, but I am encouraged on by Peter who said, "But in your hearts set Christ apart as Holy and acknowledge Him as Lord, always be ready to give an answer for the HOPE, that is in you."(I Peter 3:l5) That's what I'm doing here, giving my answer to the HOPE than lies within me,

I don't fear the future, because I have known the goodness of the Lord in my times. Lamentations 3:26 tells me "The Lord is good to those whose HOPE is in Him, to the ones who seek Him." We may experience even tougher times than these in the days ahead in America, but I know that my God can and will "supply all my needs according to His riches in glory." He delights in our HOPE in Him. He loves to do the "impossible". He is my Good Shepherd and loves to take care of me, His sheep. The Bible says, "It is He that has made us and not we ourselves".  Hard for some of those "self-made" political types to swallow, I imagine.

I pray that men and women of faith in our nation's capital will humble themselves and look at where they are placing their HOPE and begin to see that real change will only take place in the hearts of Americans and thus America when we have placed our HOPE back in God. We need to "humble ourselves and pray, and seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways." (II Chronicles 7:l4)

A wise young woman I heard recently wisely remarked that it is what we answer to this one question posed to the Apostle Peter by Christ that can make or break our life: "Who do you say that I am?"
May my answer always remain:  "You are Christ, the Lord, the son of God, who loved me and gave His life for me. I put my HOPE in you, Lord."  He, unlike politicians and government, has never forsaken me and never will.  He is my strong, and high tower and the lover of my soul!