My Yes Is on the Table: A 5-Day Study on Surrender by Jennifer HandÖrnek

The people-pleaser in me has a hard time at the eye doctor. At the eye doctor, they place this contraption thingy (the highly technical terminology for you here) in front of your eyes, and the eye doctor asks you to read the eye chart. Then comes the part the people-pleaser in me hates. He flips from one lens to the next and says, “better or best.” Flipping back and forth, he wants me to say which lens helps I can tell he has an answer in mind, but it starts to get fuzzy. I am trying to read in his voice what he thinks I should say. I need to stop myself from saying, “What do you want me to say?”

What if God were sitting in that eye-doctor chair and asking me the difference between what I saw with the lens of fear and the lens of faith? I would want to sign up right away for the supernatural prescription of faith. But why did I find myself feeling it more natural to pick the fear lens?

I like to picture God moving the contraption away so that I could see Him. Look into His eyes. Let Him see mine. Let Him see the way I see the land. Then watching His hands prescribe for me Psalm 34:4–10. I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.

Let me introduce you to Rahab in Joshua chapter 2.The spies had been sent into the land.

Rahab may not have seemed like the likely choice for a model of faith. Her profession in town—a prostitute. The people of the city heard that there were spies in town, and they came looking at Rahab’s house. Rahab took a bold step of faith by hiding the men. She told the spies that she had heard of the God of Israel. She had some bold faith in a God who was unfamiliar.

There was some fear in that faith. She moved from that fear stop and took a shaky faith step when she stepped out in faith and made a request.

She asked for a sure sign of hope.

One of our biggest fears in saying yes to God can be holding on to hope in the outcomes of God.

Rahab decided to hold on to hope on a scarlet thread.

Rahab trusted her life and the life of her family to a scarlet thread of hope.

What is your scarlet thread of hope?