Day 17 - Hope in God's Word

Child of Hope: An Advent Devotional

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Hope in God’s Word

My soul faints with longing for Your salvation, but I have put my hope in Your Word.
Psalm 119:81

One of the things you learn as a child, which can come as quite a shock to the system, is that Daddy doesn’t always keep his word. Daddy may have promised to take you to the zoo on Saturday, but something came up and he couldn’t make it. You complain, but it does you no good. The priorities of children are not always the priorities of their parents. Eventually, you discover that, for many people, “promises and pie crusts are made to be broken.” Few and far between are those whose word is their bond. Friendships and feelings, rules and relationships are cast aside when our priorities change. What I want usually trumps what I promised.

Is God like that? The great sadness, for some people, is the abandonment of child-like faith that begins in adolescence and reaches full-force in adulthood. When we fashion God in our own image we end up projecting our failures onto Him. Since we break our promises, we reason, so must He. And a god who breaks his word is not a god who deserves to be worshipped. A fickle deity promises the earth, then becomes distracted. His priorities are not ours. Like Daddy and the zoo, this god leaves us high and dry. How can we place our hope in such a god?

The truth is, we cannot. How fortunate, then, that the God of the Bible is not the god we have created. We may be made in His image, but the image is defaced by sin. We are not like Him; He is not like us! We may depend upon God because His Word cannot be broken. We need not be afraid that He will forget us, or cease to love us. Our hope is in His Word. And, in Christ, that Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.

Prayer for the Day
Lord God,
constant in Your love for us,
unchanged and unchanging,
we rest content in the knowledge that Your Word
shall not be moved.
Give us assurance of salvation,
and the gift of Your peace.
For Jesus’ sake.
Amen.