On some days, it’s hard to see any silver linings.

Many of us have experienced dark days, faced with situations that look hopeless. Heavy clouds of debt. Physical conditions that threaten our lives. Relationship conflicts that seem to have no solutions, Depression. Employment uncertainty. A spiritual wilderness.

The writer of Psalm 25 knew all about black clouds on the horizon. Countless times, he writes his sad laments on the same themes: I am alone and in deep distress. My problems go from bad to worse. See how many enemies I have and how viciously they hate me! Why am I so discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? This writer knew exactly what it feels like to be overwhelmed by life’s problems.

Yet he begins and ends the same chapter by saying to God, I give my life to you. I trust in you, my God! Protect me! Rescue my life … I put my hope in you.

Things looked pretty bleak to the writer. He knew nothing about the hope that can change our lives today (we’ll talk about that soon); but he did know the only one he could have confidence in was God. He knew God’s character, love, and power. And so he pinned all his hopes on God, even though circumstances in his life looked pretty impossible.

Knowing God’s character, love, and power — knowing the Father better — gives us a new way to look at life and our circumstances. Problems and enemies don’t disappear when we trust God with our lives; but we can know that when we are almost drowning in discouragement and sadness and helplessness, there is hope.

Oh, yes. I’ve experienced times of famine, times when it seemed there was no hope, when I saw nothing good on the horizon, when I could not see God’s hand moving. Haven’t you had such times?

But the eyes of the Father are on us then; and He keeps us alive, even though we cannot see or feel it.

the LORD’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts him.

Let’s get an accurate picture of the one in whom we hope. This is long, but don’t skip through it. Read it, hear what it says about the character of the Father we trust. Let it soak into your spirit.

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
   and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
   and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
He brings princes to naught
   and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
No sooner are they planted,
   no sooner are they sown,
   no sooner do they take root in the ground,
than he blows on them and they wither;
   and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

“To whom will you compare me?
   Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
   Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one,
   and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and strength,
   not one of them is missing.

Put your own name in the place of “Jacob” and “Israel” (because you are now part of that lineage) — 

Why do you say, O Jacob,
   and complain, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD;
   my cause is disregarded by my God” ?
Do you not know?
   Have you not heard?

Our Father tells us, His children —

But those that hope in the LORD
   will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
   they will run and not grow weary,
   they will walk and not be faint.

We grow tired and weary. We stumble and fall. He does not. He renews our strength and even increases our energies.

Hope in the LORD of the universe. Believe what He says He will do for you. Will you believe what He says?

Our Father is good to those whose hope rests in Him, to those who seek Him.

Scriptures: from Psalm 25, Psalm 42:5 (NLT), Psalm 33:18-19 (NLT), Psalm 32:10 (NIV), Isaiah 40:22-31 (NIV)

p.s. If you’re just holding on by your fingernails today, go to the Word of God and look for the passages that talk about God’s power and love surrounding those who trust in Him, about His care of those who reverence Him, about His power defeating anything that stands against you. Such passages have taken me through some of the darkest times of my life. The Psalms, the book that most often talks about deep trouble and misery, is also chock full of promises that God rescues His children. Look for God’s words to you, His child. Believe them.　

May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.

For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

People who live in the light. Ah, doesn’t that sound splendid?

We have been rescued. I like that word. It especially speaks of our helplessness to move into the Son’s kingdom on our own strengths. It is impossible to escape the darkness in which and with which we have all lived unless … unless … we are rescued by One who has the power to move us out of the darkness and into His kingdom of light.

Does it also sound a bit like pie in the sky? Wonderful, oh yes, but impossible? But God says a kingdom of light does exist, and His children have been moved into that kingdom, out of the darkness, to live in the light. Do you believe Him?

And how does this happen? We all know that we were once far away from God … his enemies, separated from him by … evil thoughts and actions. (v.21) We all know how much darkness lurks deep within us.

And you may even be feeling that way today, feeling as though you’re living in darkness, all too aware of those things within you that keep rising up from your old nature. Or maybe you still have many regrets about things you’ve done in the past; maybe you wonder how those things can ever be forgiven, how you could ever be free of that darkness. Or maybe you’re just wondering how you could ever be … good enough to live in a kingdom of light.

The good news is that we can’t ever be good enough, but we have been rescued! The death of Jesus Christ makes reconciliation to God possible. And that reconciliation isn’t limited to Jesus taking the punishment for our sins. Look! There’s so much more:

Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

We are brought into God’s presence as holy and blameless … without a single fault!

Now that, my friends, is a rescue.

Regardless of what is going on in the world around you, be filled with joy today. You, child of God, have been rescued and now are a part of the Son’s kingdom of light.

Scripture: Colossians 1:11b-14, 21-22

My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
(John 10:10 NLT)

Jesus compared himself to a shepherd who gathers his flock. The story in John says that those who heard him didn’t understand, so he goes on to explain how the shepherd provides for and guards his sheep. And, Jesus says, his own purpose is to give those who come to him a rich and satisfying life.

C.S. Lewis once wrote that “we are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea.”

In Isaiah 55, God asks, “Why do you spend your money and your energy on things that do not strengthen or satisfy you? Listen to me, and you will find the finest food and have life.”

God goes on to say that His thoughts and plans and ways are far beyond anything we could imagine and that He accomplishes what He intends to do. Listen to me, He says, and you will live in joy and peace (v. 12) and your life will be transformed.

Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow.
Where nettles grew, myrtles will sprout up.(v. 13) 

If you study the symbolism of cypress trees and myrtle, you’ll find varying interpretations. One commentary says that cypress represents eternal life, and myrtle symbolizes peace and tranquility. It’s enough for me, today, to know that God promises to change my life, to remove thorns and nettles, and replace them with good things.

This is not to say life will be smooth and easy, with no questions or pain or disappointment or want. Somehow, we Americans especially have come to think that those things do not belong in our picture of a “good life.” Yet often God works in the hard times to bring us good things; he may bring us to even greener pastures by walking with us through the desert.

The last verse of chapter 55 in Isaiah says that these events will be an everlasting sign of his power and love. I believe God works in our lives daily, but we often miss seeing it.

Your Assignment: Ask the Spirit to open your eyes, to help you SEE the signs of God’s power and love in your days.

May the Spirit within the children of God light a flame of desire that says, Yes, I want a rich and satisfying life and I do not want to spend my life on things that do not satisfy.

Father, replace thorns and nettles with peace and joy.

How many of us parents, knowing we cannot protect and snatch our children from the world’s traps, pray for God’s power and protection to cover them? How many have wept over wayward loved ones and begged for God’s hand to hold their lives? How many young fathers or mothers, struck with a terminal illness, plead with God to care for the families they will leave behind?

I hear just such a prayer coming from Jesus. He has one last precious evening with his disciples. Jesus knows what is coming the next day; and, even though He has tried to explain everything to them, He knows His disciples do not realize that He will soon be gone, no longer with them. This chapter of His life on earth will soon be closed. He prays a tender prayer over them, asking for their protection. Listen to the love in His heart for them and for all who will someday also be His disciples. 

“I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name — the name you gave me — so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me.

Did you notice one of the reasons Jesus asks for protection? “So that they may be one.” “They are not of the world.”

And did you notice that this prayer also covered you? All who believe no longer belong to this world. And Jesus’ prayer asks God to make us one.

Many families go through turbulent times. They struggle through things that could break them apart and alienate them from each other for the rest of their lives. What keeps a family hanging together, even when they hurt each other, when ideas and goals are different, when perhaps they don’t even like each other very much? It’s a family. Something about that word has cement in it. Something prompts sisters and brothers, parents and children to act in a certain way, “because we’re family.”

Of course, families don’t always hold together. The cement in human families sometimes crumbles. But God, the glorious Father, has put us in a family where His power works to make us one.

Jesus came to this world in a form the world could recognize. He began to show man who God was and opened the door for humans to have a relationship with the Father, unencumbered by guilt and unworthiness.

When Jesus left this earth, He asked for protection for all who believed in His message, all who now belong to another realm beyond this world. He asked that God would makes us holy through the truth.

And then comes the Spirit of God, to live within each one who believes, to teach us the truth and connect us to each other! Isn’t that amazing!

And now I have to stop. This subject of the work of the Spirit is HUGE. The New Testament letters are filled with the Father’s explanations to His children about the Spirit that lives within us. So we’ll look at that in other posts …

For today, know that you belong to something beyond this world, that Jesus prayed for you, for your protection, for your guidance into truth, and for your connections to other believers.

Wow.

 Scriptures: John 17:11,15,20 (NIV). Read the entire chapter for all of Jesus’ prayer.