Hope Has a Name: His Name Is JesusSample

Hope Floats

The other day, I was working in my garden, the July sun warming my face, and I was amazed at how much my flowers have grown since spring. It wasn't that long ago that snow covered the ground in a blanket of white. And as time flies like the wind, blowing through the trees, rustling thick branches, and bending pointed leaves only to disappear as quickly as it arrived, the snow will soon cover the ground again.

My perennials will be buried deep in the cold, hard ground in the winter months. The bulbs are there in the dormant season and are quietly laboring to grow even more extensive and deeper root systems—preparing themselves for the right time and season to break forth from their hidden home and bloom.

Some of you feel like you have been praying for something, a need, healing, or a dream, but it hasn't come to pass. The hope you felt the first time your knees touched the ground and your lips uttered your request waivers each day that prayers go unanswered, so you think it is dead. But I am here to tell you that it is not dead; it's just sleeping.

Solomon tells us in Proverbs 13:12, "Hope deferred makes a heart sick." Prayers for salvation for a family member that goes unanswered, the search for a new job that seems to go nowhere, the battle with cancer that lingers, the arms that ache for another baby lost in a miscarriage—all can make our hearts sick as we eagerly hope for something and it keeps getting postponed.

You see, it's easier to worship God in summer's glory, with its vibrant colors, when the sun's golden fingers caress your face. But can you learn to trust him in the cold and gray of winter when the sun hides for days, and the frigid wind stings your cheeks?

Allow God to prepare for you what you have been praying for. Stay close to him, pray, read his Word, and allow him to work while you wait. God is doing miraculous things in the secret place so that you can continue to grow and expand your roots, anchoring them into the soil of his love and grace.

His timing is perfect, and he is working all things together for your good. As it is written in Isaiah 60:22, "When the time is right, I the Lord will make it happen." Be blessed in your winter season, my friend. Let God do what he needs to do in the invisible so that you will be fully prepared for what he has planned for you when your spring arrives.

Our unfulfilled desires, unanswered prayers, and deferred hopes can lead us to a rich encounter with Christ Jesus. Like a balloon that escapes a child's hand and drifts away, allow your hope to float to the Lord, who alone is the fulfillment of all that we pray and long for.