God is there Hope?

Isaiah 40:28-31
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

It is so easy to give up when things are difficult and seem to be dragging on forever without reprieve. Relationships can have their times of being very daunting and very discouraging especially in marriage. You may think all hope is lost, but look what Isaiah says, “but those who hope [put their hope] in the Lord will renew their strength.”

One of my most favored historians of the 20th century happens to be Sir Winston Churchill. Here is a man who was voted in as prime minister during World War II and watched as his beloved country and the surrounding countries were falling to the hands of a dictator named Hitler. His country men were ready to give up, but did not because of this one pivotal man. In fact most people thought of Churchill to be the wrong man for the hour and just a crazy man, but God knew better.

Just three days after taking office he announced to parliament "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering." (Finest Hour: Battle of Britain) You see Churchill had taken the office after the previous Prime Minister, Chamberlin, felt it best to negotiate with the enemy only to find himself betrayed and his country being damaged through bombings and the take over by the enemy.

Instead of Chamberlin changing course he gave up hope and ran from the situation. God rose up the proper person for the job to restore the hope needed to defeat the enemy, Sir Winston Churchill. This was a man who was looked at as the wrong guy for the job, crazy and out of his mind and in fact maybe even a little green.

Churchill understood that the journey was going to be monumental, but they had no choice but to press forward. Giving up was not an option. He understood that there were two things that where to be involved for success; time and hard work.

In broken relationships we can look at our marriage from Chamberlin’s eyes or from Churchill’s eyes. We can either give up during the task seeing that it is too great to handle or we can see it from the angle of it being too great of a loss not to try not to be victorious. The question boils down to which seems the best, giving up not even trying to get over the hurdle or trying to cross the hurdle knowing better days are on the other side?

The only way we can be successful is to stop looking at the situation and looking at the promise, stop looking at the ground and looking up to the Creator. Too often we become consumed by the defeats rather than celebrating the victories.

When the Brits started changing their perspective and trusting their leader their moral started to return. As they celebrated the victories that came their way they became more and more confident that they could get to the other side and be successful.

When World War II came to a close in 1945 the British saw themselves on the other side of hope and a new day. They endured and took credit and pride, rightfully so, for what happened, but went one step further. They fired the man who gave them hope and brought them to the other side of victory.

Just a few years after World War II Sir Winston Churchill was replaced by Attlee. Britain lost her first love, the one who gave them protection and hope thinking that the grass was greener on the other side. Little did they understand that which they thought would be the best really was not only to come back to the one that proved himself to be their protection and victor, Winston Churchill (yet again learned through time and tears).

This is the way relationships can be. We end up getting rid of those who can help us through the hardest times and replace them with another love, whether it is another lover or just an activity. We find that because of the exchange we shed a number of tears, pain and many months and even years of recovery to a heart that needs so badly to be healed and protected.

God feels the same way. We have the tendency of giving up on Him in the hard times giving up on hope and replacing our hope with the answers of another. Our hope lies in God alone. God gave us our spouse as a reflection of His grace and sovereignty for us. Walking away in hard times shows that we do not trust God in all things and we have better ideas.

“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb. “
Sir Winston Churchill
“We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. “
Sir Winston Churchill

Put your hope in the Lord. It is through Him that we will not grow weary or faint. As Churchill did not loose hope or grow weary he found that God put him back in power. Do not loose hope if your relationship is in peril God can and will restore.

Chris Andexler

11/4/2010