You know
what one of the greatest things about God is? Well, that’s kind of a
silly question, isn’t it? There are all
kinds of great things about God. We could spend the rest of this service
making a list and not get it done. But
here’s what I think one of the greatest things about God is: no matter
what happens, God will never leave us without hope. No matter how bad things might look, no
matter how black and bleak things may appear, God never, ever leaves us without
hope.
We read from the fortieth chapter of
the book of Isaiah. Most of the thirty-nine chapters that come before it
are Isaiah predicting doom and destruction on Israel. They have not
trusted God. They have abandoned
God. They have trusted in their own
strength, they have trusted in other nations and other gods, they’ve done
everything except trust in the Lord. And God is going to call them to
account for that. The day of reckoning
is at hand. In fact, at the end of
chapter thirty-nine, Isaiah tells the king of Israel, “Hear the word of the Lord Almighty: The time will surely come
when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up
until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the
Lord. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who
will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the
palace of the king of Babylon.”
But then,
chapter forty starts off this way: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your
God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.”
And it goes on to tell how the glory of the Lord will be revealed, that
all people will see it together. It says God tends his flock like a
shepherd, God gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his
heart. And then it gives us the words we read this morning, “He gives
strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak...those who 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.”
God wants
the people of Israel to know. Things are going to be bad for a
while. And then, after that, they’re
going to get worse. But don’t give up hope. There will come a time when things will get
better again. God is not going to
abandon you. God is going to allow some bad things to happen, but not
forever. God is going to save you. Not right away--you’re going to have to wait
a while. It’s going to seem like a long time. But don’t give up hope. God is still there. And at the right time, God is going to bring
you back and make you stronger than ever.
That was a
message the people of Israel desperately needed to hear. And it’s a
message we still need to hear today.
Because I suspect pretty much all of us have had a time where things
went very wrong in our lives. A time when things were bad and you did not
see how things were going to get better.
If you never have, that’s great.
I’m happy for you. But most of us
have. Maybe now, when we look back on it, we realize it was not as bad as
we thought it was. But at the time, when
we were dealing with it, when we were in the middle of it and we did not know
how things were going to come out or even if things were going to come out at
all, it felt terrible. It felt miserable.
And maybe we even felt abandoned by God.
When that
happens, we need to hear this message. We need to know that God’s words
to the people of Israel apply to us, too. We need to know that God has
not abandoned us. Yes, things may be bad
right now. And they may get worse before they get better. But they will get better. If we don’t give up hope, God will come, and
God will save us. It may not happen as quickly as we wish it would, but
it will happen. In God’s way, and at
God’s time, God will bring us out of the situation and make us stronger than ever.
But that
raises another question. Why do we have to be in that bad situation in
the first place? Why does God allow things to get bad, and then to get
worse? Sometimes, of course, it’s
because of our own actions. Sometimes, we bring bad things on ourselves. But not always. Sometimes bad things happen that are not our
fault. Sometimes bad situations develop
that we have no control over at all. And yet, there were are, stuck in
the middle of it. Yes, it’s wonderful
that God promises to bring us out of it, but why did God let us get into it at
all?
The Apostle
Paul wondered about that, too. He says, in Second Corinthians Twelve,
that he was given what he called a “thorn in the flesh” to torment him.
We don’t know exactly what that was, but Paul says that he prayed
repeatedly for God to take it away from him, and God would not do it. He
said God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made
perfect in weakness.” He goes on to say
that because of that, he delights in his weaknesses and his difficulties,
because it’s only when he’s weak that God power will work through him. He
says, “When I am weak, then I am strong.”
Paul talks
about that some more in the passage from Romans that we read today. He
writes that he glories in his suffering.
He says that suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance produces
character, and character is what produces hope, hope in God.
I said
before that I think most of us have gone through a time when things went really
wrong in our lives. And maybe it was our own fault, or maybe it was
not. But I want you to think about that
time. What you went through, did it
change you? Did it make you different in any way?
It usually does. Going through a
hard time, going through a time when things went wrong, going through a bad
situation, those things change us. They can hardly help but change
us. Those hard times that most of us
have gone through are what made us who we are today. We would not be the people we are if we had
not gone through those times.
When I look
back at my life, I can see times when I was not very happy. Now don’t get
me wrong here. I’m not saying I’ve had a
horrible, miserable life. Compared to a lot of people, my life has been
pretty good, really. But I’ve had times
when I was very lonely. I’ve had times when I felt like I was overwhelmed
by life. I’ve had times when I felt like
I was letting everyone down. I’ve had times when I felt like I was the
oddest oddball there ever was and always would be. It’s not a good feeling at all.
Sometimes,
I’m tempted to look back at those times and wonder what would’ve happened if
I’d done things differently. But there’s no point in that. When we ask, “What would’ve happened if I’d
done things differently,” we’re really asking, “What would’ve happened if I
hadn’t been who I was?” Because the reason I did what I did is that I was
who I was.
But, in
going through those things, I did not stay who I was. I changed. God used those things to change me. And when you’ve gone through things, you did
not stay who you were. God changed you.
If you look back, you can see that.
How God changes us is different for each of us, because the ways in
which we need to change are different for each of us. In Paul’s case,
Paul says it was to teach him humility.
For you and me, it may have been something else. But God uses those things we go through,
those “thorns in the flesh”, to change us. God uses them to teach us
perseverance and to develop our character, just as Paul said.
And that’s
what gives us hope. And it’s why we can rely on that hope, why it will
not put us to shame. Because we know, just as God told the people of
Israel, our situation is not going to last forever. God will bring us out
of it. And when God brings us out of it,
we’ll be changed people. We’ll be better
people. We’ll be people who know, beyond any doubt, that God is always
there for us. God has been there, God is
there, and God always will be there. That’s the hope we have as
Christians. And it’s a hope we can
always rely on.
So if you’re
going through a tough time right now, know this. God has not abandoned
you. God sees what you’re going through.
And God will bring you through it.
Even if it does not feel like that right now, even if you cannot see the
way out, hold on to that hope. God will bring you through it. And when you come through it, you won’t be
the same person you were. You’ll be
better. And you’ll know that you can
always rely on God.
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