Holding on to Hope

Sometime back I heard a woman speak about a trying time in her life – years when everything seemed to fall apart. During that time she lost a husband and a job. Through all of this, she hung on to a promise in the book of Joel, where after a terrible drought and plague God says, “I will repay you for the years the locust have eaten.”

This woman felt that the locust had taken a toll on her life.

However, her testimony affirmed that in her experience God was faithful. Not that she got back what she lost, but that God had carried her through it. She was finally coming to a place where she could begin to see blessings and feel joy once again. She felt stronger and wiser than ever.

I don’t know what the locust have eaten in your life, or what toll they may have had on your health, your family, your heart. But, I do know this: you can hold onto hope. You can trust that God is faithful. You can know that even through heartache and pain, we are ever being pulled closer to God.

Let us pray: God of Hope, through the ups and downs of life, through the joys and heartaches, we trust you are with us, and we trust that you are good. I pray today especially for those who are in the midst of life’s struggles and who can’t see a way out. We hold on to hope for them. Bring the right people into their lives to help carry the burdens, and may they know you are near. We ask in the name of the One who is the Resurrection and the Life. Amen.