Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope. My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life…I have sought your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise (Psalm 119:49-50, 58) NIV
The war in Ukraine breaks my heart. Slaughter of innocent people, including the deliberate attack on hospitals, schools and public places where people are seeking refuge is pure evil. I have to force myself to concentrate on anything else because this tragic situation occupies much of my thoughts and prayers – day and night since it began. I find it so consuming because I have friends in both Ukraine and neighboring countries that are helping its refugees. I feel so helpless.
I remember the struggles I had when I posted “Claiming the Promises of the Psalms: The Promise of Deliverance.” With all the examples of miraculous deliverances, we still had to deal with the reality of Christians being martyred for their faith. My conclusion for that promise was that indeed the promise of deliverance is real, and best found in Colossians 1:13-14. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Even when God choses not to miraculously deliver one of His children from a trial in this life, in the midst of that trial, Satan has no power over him and a believer is ultimately delivered from all pain and sorrow.
In testimonies of Christians who are in Ukraine and those who are helping just across the Ukrainian border, the refrain is the same. God is a God of hope. How can they be so hopeful in a time of terror? Christian hope is not wishing for something that might or might not happen, but a certain assurance that the God of hope will someday make all things right.
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose hope is the Lord.
And now abide faith, hope, love….
…remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father.
But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.
Jeremiah 17:7, 1 Corinthians 13:13, 1 Thessalonians 1:3, Hebrews 3:6
The refrain of Kristian Stanfill’s song, Hope has a Name, is:
Hope has a name
Emmanuel
The Light of the World
Who broke through the darkness
All hail the King
Emmanuel
The Light of the World
The Glory of Heaven
One Focus Ministries 