As I listen to the radio news and watch the evening news, I find my heart is often filled with despair. There seems to be a lack of hope in what is broadcast in our news. There's despair over the economy, despair over environmental issues, despair over the housing situation, and despair over the future.
When my heart gets heavy with the lack of hope that comes from the news pundits (both liberal and conservative) I find that I am longing for something solid to hold on to. When my heart is heavy, I have found a place to go where I find hope - I go to the Scriptures and to my faith in God. Hope in the Bible is not merely a positive anticipation about the future, rather biblical hope is defined as "the expectation of coming good."
One of hundreds of Scriptures where we find such hope is Psalm 46:1-4, "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah, there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the most high dwells."
I encourage you to read the entire psalm, but these first four verses have so much that calms a troubled heart. Notice a few things, first, that your hope, your strength and your place of safety is found in God - it is not found in the answers of this world. Eternal hope goes beyond anything life and governments have to offer.
When the kingdoms of this world are falling apart, when governments are going broke and other governments are obligated to keep them from collapsing, it is God who is constant, stable and a place of hope.
Secondly, I really like that phrase, "ever-present help in trouble."
That means, God is always there, when your friends fail you, when your spouse is not all you expect them to be, when the world's problems overwhelm you, God is constant. He does not change like the shadows or blow with the winds of cultures. When everything that seems solid is giving way, our psalm declares that there is a place of hope and peace, it is a "river."
The river of God is called "quiet waters" where he leads those who trust in him. The river of God is a place to go when all that this world has is failing. The river of God is real serenity. Have you come to the waters of God?
The Bible declares all who receive Jesus Christ are children of God. Children born of God's spirit and that begins a journey with this hope that God brings. Come to the waters of God's spirit and live. If you have yet to experience this hope, go to your local church and worship the Lord. Ask the elders or pastor about the peace and hope God gives.
Pastor Rich Lammay of High Sierra Fellowship is a member of the Carson Valley Ministers' Association.
