Habbakuk 3: 1-6, 17-19 (links validated 1/14/26a)

Christians are charged to always be people of hope. One anonymous poet on the internet put it this way: All the water in the world However hard it tried, Could never, never sink a ship Unless it got inside. All the hardships of this world, Might wear you pretty thin, But they won’t hurt you, one least bit Unless you let them in. Our hope isn’t based on pretty lies that make us feel better about ourselves and about the difficult situations of our lives. Instead, it’s based on the reality of God and God’s never-failing love for us...

Another example may be seen in the life of Gladys Aylward, who was a British missionary to China in the 1930's. When the Japanese army invaded the region of China where she lived, she decided to lead more that a hundred orphans over the mountains toward Free China with the help of only one assistant and while she herself was both wounded and sick. Here’s how the book The Hidden Price of Greatness, describes what happened on that journey. “During Gladys’s harrowing journey out of war-torn Yangcheng…she grappled with despair as never before. After passing a sleepless night, she faces the morning with no hope of reaching safety. “A 13-year-old girl in the group reminded her of their much-loved story of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. “‘But I am not Moses,’ Gladys cried in desperation. “‘Of course you aren’t,’ the girl said, ‘but Jehovah is still God!’ “When Gladys and the orphans made it through, they proved once again that no matter how inadequate and anxious we feel, God is still God, and we can trust in Him.”