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Day 4 Just A Few Thoughts

Without truth, how do we hope? Hope inherently requires us to trust in the thing we hope in, and you would never trust something that you didn't believe was true.  Hope needs truth in order to take root in our souls. That's why in hopeless situations we turn to anything stable, anything we know, things that don't change.  When we come to the end of ourselves, we often turn to God and his Word for hope-- and we usually see him work the most clearly here because we have nothing else to distract our gaze on him.

I know that I, albeit selfishly, look to him and wait for him to fix the mess I'm in.  Now, God is constant.  But that doesn't mean hope in him means an instant clean up.  I mentioned yesterday how Jesus is truth.  And in his truth, Jesus promises us that we will face hardships (John 16:33).  But even in the midst of life at it's rawest state, his words of love and restoration can sing louder if we only look back to see the verses he wrote before:

Trust.  My promises are good. I am faithful.  I am true.  Remember me and how I've worked, because I will work again.  Do not be afraid, I am here.  And this is hope.

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