A Door of Hope

Last night I watched 'Hope Floats' with Sandra Bullock and Harry Connick Jr. I know it's been out for a long time, but I had never seen it. In the movie, Birdee (Sandra Bullock) finds out on national television that her husband has been having an affair with her best friend. That brought back a lot of memories for me; my ex-husband had bragged about his 'other women' so much that almost everyone else knew about it except me. I knew exactly what Sandra Bullock's character was feeling.

In the movie, she went back home to start a new life, but I chose to stay and try to make a life with another man. He never cheated, but his anger was out of control and sometimes I wore the evidence of it. Like Birdee's daughter, my two daughters were young, and in their innocent wisdom questioned "why?"  I can't say that I knew the answer; not fully, anyway. I have learned over the years that, in order for the Lord to bring a person to the end of something, they must first go THROUGH something.

Some things the Lord has brought me through: a cheating husband, a cancer scare giving me 3 to 5 years, an abusive relationship, a suicide attempt, my grandmother's death, facing the demons from my childhood and dealing with the people who let it happen. These are all things that are finished and accounted for on God's tally sheet. There are still things yet to go, things that are fresh and recent......

Lately, I have been questioning my purpose, and what it is exactly that I am accomplishing in my walk right now. Unlike the name of the movie, I feel my hope sinking-not rising. Some years ago, the Lord gave me the scripture of Hosea 2:15, when it seemed my world was collapsing around me.

"And I will give her.....the valley of Achor for a door of hope...." What is the 'valley of Achor?' Literally speaking, it is the place the man, Achin, and his family and all that he had, was stoned after he took the 'cursed thing' from Jericho after Joshua's army conquered it. "Achor" is translated from Hebrew as "Trouble." So, the Lord was telling me that out of 'trouble' He would bring hope. There would be a door presented-all I had to do was open it.

But, what is hope? Hebrews 11:1 says hope is the substance of faith. That means it is the ingredient that makes faith faith. What is faith? The same verse says that it is the evidence of things not seen. And what is the evidence of unseen things? The belief that the unseen things will manifest into the seen, from intangible to tangible. As the chapter goes on, the list continues naming the people in our spiritual heritage that believed, even though everything (and sometimes everyone) spoke out against it.

Someone once said, "One with God is the majority." This means that if God has shown us a truth, a prophecy, or something He means to bring to pass, and we are the only one he tells, we must believe it. We must be on the side of faith, not on the side of sight. There might be times when He takes us through such a dark place that we can only see from one day to the next, and barely that. We may feel as though there is no hope.

Paul sums it up in Romans 5:1-5, where we get a glimpse of why things happen to us the way they do. 'Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation works patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope makes not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.'

So, even if we feel like our world is falling out from under us, that God is so far away, and there is nothing worth pursuing another day, listen to this song, and know that there is a reason He has us where we are.                                                    

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

In the midst of our trouble, God will open a door of hope. All we have to do is walk through it.