3/18
((from Eve))

Well, this is third time we’ve been in Romans 5 this week. You think maybe the Lord has something for you here, friends?

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” Romans 5:1-2

In the days and weeks that followed the loss of our first pregnancy we were fortunate to have several people walk alongside us in incredibly encouraging ways. From checking in with a text to offering a meal, our friends and family served us so well. They showed up in our grief and it was a blessing to see God provide through them.

Over and over we heard something to the effect of, “At least you can get pregnant – you’ll totally get pregnant again. Everything will be okay. You can still have a baby!” Though the words were true, and were offered in the most genuine, heartfelt expressions of their love for us, the more we heard it, the more I realized that they were part of why true hope can be so emotionally taxing.

Pointing us to a possible, future, healthy pregnancy wasn’t helpful. It was encouraging us to hope in the wrong thing. Hope in the wrong thing? Is that even possible? Yes. It is. And in this case, a future, healthy pregnancy was the wrong thing for me to hope in.

Not that I’m not full of hope that the Lord will one day add to our family – I am! But I’m learning that the ultimate object of my hope HAS TO BE Jesus and His glory. Jesus, His glory, His eventual return, and His promise to restore all things are the only things guaranteed for my future. The only things that cannot disappoint me.

When I choose to hope in Him and in the future “restoration glory,” I can be confident that my hope has found a trustworthy object. Trials and suffering produce something in us – they’re not accidents and they serve a purpose. But, I’m learning that to taste their “fruit,” I have to make a conscious decision about what I’m going to hope in.

The more I talked things over with the Lord, the more I recognized that the “easy” hope was for me to grit my teeth and endure the season by hoping for a healthy future pregnancy. Why not hope for that in order to get through the sadness?

Because, friend, we are not guaranteed that things will get better. Or easier. Or healthier. We just aren’t.

We have no “right” to have a healthy pregnancy or biological children. We just don’t.

However, we are guaranteed that when we believe in Jesus for our righteousness…
That He will never abandon or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
That He loves us with a steadfast love. That His mercies will never end (Lamentations 3:22)
That He will not withhold good things (Psalm 84:11).
That He is working all things together for our good (Romans 8:28).
That He is coming back to restore ALL things to the way He created them to be (Revelation 21:3-5).

These are the things I can confidently hope in. These are the things that put the glory of God on display for my feeble heart.

This is why hope is hard for me at times. Not because I’m not hopeful about a given circumstance or situation, but because it’s hard for me to stop hoping in a temporal thing and start hoping in an eternal thing. Sometimes it means day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, consciously re-directing my hope from the thing I can see and that makes me “feel” better to behold the things I cannot see but have full confidence in… this is what it looks like to cultivate the right type of hope.

What a gift we have in the promises of Jesus. They are what I can anchor my soul to as we navigate life on earth. We’re asking the Lord for a baby and we’re full of hope about what His plan will hold… but we’re absolutely certain of HIs return and the restoration He will bring. Oh, friends – as we walk this world together, let’s surrender our hearts and minds  to reckless hope in the right things!