Holding On To Our Hope

Romans 5:1-5

If you are in a personal desert-a place where your hopes seem only a wavy
mirage somewhere on the horizon-it is comforting to realize that God works
there.
Especially there.

John Ortberg writes: "Odd as it sounds, the desert can offer a unique
opportunity to experience the depth of God's love.

"When you're at the top of your game-praying with fierce joy, untroubled by
temptation, triumphing in ministry, and you come to God and hear again the
message
that he loves you, it is a great thing.

"In the desert, though, the word of God's love can speak to a deeper place
in your heart. In the desert you come to God and you haven't prayed well (or
maybe at all), you have been battered by temptation, rocked by doubts, and
feel you may be more hindrance than help to whatever work God may be doing
in
the world. Yet even so you hear the words, 'I still love you. I could not
love you more than I do now. I still want you for my child. Haven't you
learned?
You are the object of my undying affection. You are the beloved.'

"To be loved when we are feeling lovable-that's good. To be loved when we
are feeling unlovely, unlovable-that's life to someone who's dying. That's
grace.

"The desert is the place where I can learn to live for the love of God."


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