In a world with a lot of tags, Christians have been tagged blind optimists. Our thought today though is: what makes us optimistic in the face of real hardship?
It’s no news that these times are hard, and there is always someone vying for your attention or something trying to seize your peace. You are constantly making choices but why do you choose to remain joyful when sad times knock on your door? Why do we remain hopeful in spite of the gloom that seem to envelope us? Why do we keep trusting, believing, and going to God time and time again through it all?
We may not have all the answers, but for us the number one reason we stay hopeful is because of the assurance we have in God’s word that says:
When you go through deep waters,
I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
You will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
You will not be burned up;
The flames will not consume you (Isaiah 43:2).
Beyond and above the promise in God’s word, is the fact that many of us already have an experience of victory through His name as reiterated by the Scriptures, which says, “I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears” (Psalms 35:4).
Sometimes though, things don’t turn out the way we hope they would. At those times we must remind ourselves that God’s plans for us are always good. It may not bring us to our desired end but will always lead us to His expected end (Jer. 29: 11). A lesson from the movie “gods of Egypt” comes to mind here. Seth’s desired end was to rule all Egypt and have immortality, but his father, the sun god Ra, had set him up with tougher experiences to prepare Seth to take over from him. Seth failed because he wanted his will at all cost. We must avoid whining and murmuring constantly about what appears not to be working, and in the process seek the easy way out. This only leads to guaranteed failure. We must trust God that all He does is working out his will in us.
Guess what! Every challenge we are facing (or would ever face) has an expiry date. Ours is to constantly trust God that He would get us through it, and seek His will as we wait. We’ll look back someday and see that we’re the better for it.
This is our inspiration!
Many times, we look to stories of people who finished strong for inspiration. Why not choose today to trust God and be an inspiration for someone else tomorrow? Storms come and go but God remains. He gives us wisdom and strength to go through storms and surrounds us with people to help us. His word tells us “weeping may endure for a night but joy will come in the morning! (Psalm 30: 5b). That is why we trust Him who commands the morning and rules the night, God!
