Hope or Faith

Pastor Carol Grace ♦ October 29, 2024 ♦ 1 Comment

(NIV) Ps 33: 20 We wait in hope for the LORD;

he is our help and our shield.

21 In him our hearts rejoice,

for we trust in his holy name.

22 May your unfailing love be with us, LORD,

even as we put our hope in you.

After my first heart attack, I wrote the following poem:

HOPE

Hope drifts in on angel’s wings, barely

disturbing the air, the room, we

hardly know it’s there.

Yet, it arrives, unhurried, but

not unwanted.

We see it in the

face of a friend, the

trace of a smile, or simply

a kind word. It is the promise

of good things to come, the

assurance that we are not alone. It is

what gets us through another day

when we think we cannot go on.

I had just turned 50, we had only been in Pittsburgh two weeks, I knew no one and I was trying to put a house together. But I was so weak I couldn’t go up and down the stairs. I didn’t have a church yet. My friend Coralie offered to come help, but she had just lost her mother two weeks earlier and I was afraid it would be too much for her. So I needed hope.

Did my need for hope mean I had lost faith? Not at all! Hope is foundational to faith.

(NIV) Jeremiah 31: 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” The difference between our hope and those without Christ is that we have a confidence that is built on a firm foundation. We hope in God because of Who He is, what He has done, and what we know He will do.

May we build up our own faith and hope by Bible reading and prayer and staying connected to other believers who we know will stand in the gap for us when we are too ill or weak to pray. And when we are too weak to even say a prayer, just say Jesus.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen