But Then God...
By: Kristen L. McNulty
Reprint rights available on request. Email the author at kristenmcnulty@hotmail.com.
Recently I was thinking about a situation and I found myself thinking "well, that's never going to change. It is the way it is. It's hopeless." Almost immediately I remembered "but then God..."
What does "but then God..." mean? Well it’s something I’ve learned over the years. You see when we are in the middle of our circumstances, we stop writing the sentence after the reality we see before us.
Maybe your hopeless statement is:
The marriage is never going to change.
The bill is never going to get paid.
The relationship is broken beyond repair.
The challenges at work or school are insurmountable.
Adding The Hope We Know
It’s easy to leave these statements there and give up hope, but we are missing the last part, the part we as Christians know can be added to any and every situation: "but then God..."
The woman was sick for over a decade and spent all of her money on doctors, none of which could help her. But then God through Jesus healed her, just by her hand touching his clothing.
The nation of Israel faced enemies on their heels and seemingly the only options of either drowning in the Red Sea or dying at the hand of Pharaoh's army. But then God parted the Red Sea and made a safe escape route for them to take.
There were too many people to feed and not enough food, but then God through Jesus fed thousands from just a few fish and loaves of bread.
David was facing a giant with only a few stones as a weapon and to the outside world, his death and their destruction looked certain. But then God brought down the giant with a single stone and rescued the nation of Israel.
Consider What He Could Do
If you find yourself in the middle of a situation that appears to the human eye to be hopeless, I challenge you to remember we follow a God of miracles and divine interventions. Consider what He could very well do and refuse to mark this situation in your mind as hopeless or one that cannot be changed or saved.
We follow a God whose power is infinite, whose love is without measure and who watches over us day by day, moment by moment. He is not unaware of what is happening in your life and He is not powerless to change it. As we read in Jeremiah:
"O Sovereign Lord! You made the heavens and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you!" Jeremiah 32:17
Nothing is too hard for the Lord our God. As such, we are never without hope!
Adding Hope To Your Vocabulary
Maybe your divine intervention and "but then God..." moment won’t come today or tomorrow. Maybe it will unfold differently than how you might have envisioned it. But no matter what happens, you are not beyond the reach and the intervention of God. Hope is a word that should never leave your vocabulary no matter what the situation looks like!
"And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God's house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise." Hebrews 10:21-23
So don’t write off the situation you might have thought was hopeless. Instead go to God with it. Because as these verses just told us, the way for us to go into the presence of God has already been made. And while we wait to see how He will act, like verse 23 said: "Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise."
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