Hope

I was born a worry wart. Always striving, always imagining the worst, and always controlling.

During the past few years the Lord has been teaching me about casting my anxieties on Him and trusting in His provisions as my Heavenly Father who cares for me.

Even as I look back to the worries I've had, I realize that 99% of the things I imagined would happen to me, did not happen. And even when what I anticipated did happen, the struggles I faced were used by Him to sanctify me and I ended up coming out of the fire with a more beautiful character than before.

I'm currently reading a book called The Glory of Christ written by a puritan named John Owen in the 1600s. It is quite a dense piece of literature, but I was recently told that if one had to choose between only reading modern books or only reading classic books, the wisest decision would be to read the classics as they will tax one's thinking powers unlike the predigested material we read in today's newspapers, magazines, and on social media.

That may have been a bit of a tangent, but what I am getting at is that Owen's 17th century wisdom has been enlightening to me concerning the topic of worry and suffering... Especially during this chapter of my life.

I very much enjoyed this excerpt:

"Our beholding by faith things that are not seen, things spiritual and eternal, will alleviate our afflictions, make their burdens light, and preserve our souls from fainting under them. Of these things the glory of Christ is the principal and in a due sense comprehensive of them all. For we behold the glory of God Himself 'in the face of Jesus Christ.' He that can at all times retreat in the contemplation of this glory will be carried above the perplexing, prevailing sense of any of these evils, of a confluence of them all. Crux nil sentit in nervo, dum animus est in coelo. (Translation: One does not feel the pain of the cross when his mind is on heavenly things.)" - John Owen, The Glory Of Christ

In other words, when the object of our meditations and thoughts is the glory of Christ, we have a stronghold and rest for our souls especially in times of affliction.

Where am I going with this? Well, this time in my life consists of many different stresses. From a worldly perspective, I am extremely susceptible to giving up on hope. I am a new college graduate, I have a fairly low income, I am marrying young in a country with a very high divorce rate, and I am hanging onto the hope that my fiance will find a full-time job in this crazy economy after he graduates from SDSU in December. Am I scared? Absolutely. But am I in despair as one might expect? Absolutely not. Is this because I am a strong, independent, level-headed woman, depending on my own might and strength to pull through?

Absolutely not.

So what is the reason for my hope? Where does my hope reside? My hope rests in my God who always provides for me, who cares for me, and from whom all blessings flow. By His grace, nothing can lead me to despair.

"We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed..."

2 Corinthians 4:8-9

According to the world, the odds are against me. But my God is for me.

Because of His beautiful grace, I don't have to lay paralyzed, unable to face the day with all of its troublesome possibilities. I can work hard, love abundantly, and walk through the beauties and hardships of life while relying on Him.

Because of this truth, we Christians are more than conquerors. No trial, opposition, or any form of suffering could ever separate us from the love of our Father.

John Owen says it best:

"... it is the Lord Christ in whom our nature has been carried successfully and victoriously through all the oppositions that it is liable to, and even death itself."

Christ conquered death and my life, hidden in Him, is eternally secured. I need not worry and I need not strive.