Hope Floats

When I was a little girl, my dad taught me how to float in the pond at the campground we spent summers at.   I remember watching in awe as he would  literally float around the whole pond!  I hoped that I could do that one day.  At first, my attempts at floating would find my legs sinking down into the deep water.  In order to prevent that, my dad said it was all about the breathing and making sure my lungs and belly were full of air.   And then I did it!  I was floating!  It was such a peaceful, relaxing feeling...  

So how do you find peace in this life when most days you feel like you are sinking?...

Hope Floats

   

David said about Him:

“I saw the Lord always before me.

    Because he is at my right hand,

    I will not be shaken.

   Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

    my body also will rest in hope..."

Acts 2:25-28

"My body also will rest in hope..."  Something about those words speak to me.

Speak to me in a way quite different from the context of the Scripture passage where that statement is found...

Here David is referring to the blessed hope he has in knowing that when his body experiences death, he will be at rest with the Lord.

But as I read those words recently, during a time when my body was craving rest, rest from the constant anxiety that was pulsating through it, for no reason at all... I began to truly ponder this passage in a different light.

As I've shared in past posts, I can go through seasons of anxiety where I'm not anxious about anything in particular, but my body assumes an anxious state despite this.

During those seasons of anxiety, there may not be an anxiety provoking situation that I am acutely aware of, but upon further reflection, there are certainly attitudes and thought-processes that are preventing my body from resting, keeping it in an anxious state.

There are, of course, those situations which are understandably anxiety provoking, no matter how hard we try to calm ourselves.

The medical community certainly has documented how anxiety and stress effects the human body.   God designed our bodies with a fight or flight mechanism which is triggered as a result of fear from an immediate threat.  It is fascinating how our bodies respond to fear in such a manner that actually preserves and protects us.

Yet when we live in constant fear, even though there is no immediate threat, that same fight or flight response will have an extremely negative effect on the systems of our bodies.

What's that saying?   "A year from now, everything you're stressing about won't even matter."

As I look back at the things I was worrying about a year ago, I can say that for the most part this quote is spot on.

So why do I continue to worry??...

Hope No Longer Floats in a Sea of Worry

Worry is definitely a manifestation of having control issues.  And I'm preaching to myself here. When we worry, it is because we are fretting that things aren't going to go the way we feel they should, thinking we might not be able to effect the situation as we see fit.

IN OUR ATTEMPTS TO CONTROL, WE FEEL THE MOST OUT OF CONTROL.

And isn't control essentially playing God, wanting things to work out the way we deem it should rather than resting in the Hope that the One who has a perfect plan and purpose for everyone, will accomplish it.

Remember the story of Sarai and Abram.  Even after God had told Abram that a son of his own flesh and blood would be his heir, look at what happened...

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian 

slave named Hagar;  so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”

Abram agreed to what Sarai said.  So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, 

Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.  

He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.

When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.  Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”

Genesis 16:1-5

Sarai, who sadly I can relate to, was taking things into her own hands to force God's promise to come about.

So much strife and suffering resulted from "playing God" rather than resting in the Hope that God would accomplish His promise in His way and in His perfect timing.

Or what about the story of Rebekah setting into motion the deception of Isaac - wanting Jacob to receive the blessing rather than Esau...

Now it came about, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had hardly gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.  Then he also made savory food, and brought it to his father; and he said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that you may bless me.”  Isaac his father said to him, “Who are you?” And he said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”  Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who was he then that hunted game and brought it to me, so that I ate of all of it before you came, and blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.” When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” And he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing.”  Then he said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob, for he has supplanted me these two times? He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”  But Isaac replied to Esau, “Behold, I have made him your master, and all his relatives I have given to him as servants; and with grain and new wine I have sustained him. Now as for you then, what can I do, my son?”  Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.” So Esau lifted his voice and wept.

Then Isaac his father answered and said to him,

“Behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling,

And away from the dew of heaven from above.

“By your sword you shall live,

And your brother you shall serve;

But it shall come about when you become restless,

That you will break his yoke from your neck.”

So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”  Now when the words of her elder son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she sent and called her younger son Jacob, and said to him, “Behold your brother Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you.  Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, and arise, flee to Haran, to my brother Laban!  Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury subsides,  until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?”

Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am tired of living because of the daughters of Heth; 

if Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, like these, from the daughters of the land, 

what good will my life be to me?”

Genesis 27:30-46

How many lives were hurt because Rebekah decided to play God.  And in the end, she STILL lamented living because she was worried that Jacob would now take a wife from the daughters of Heth.

The moral of these stories, even when we succeed in effecting the change we set out to control,  we STILL won't be happy.  We will suffer consequences of going outside of God's will, and will possibly have caused pain to the others we sought to control.  There is no hope in that...

Hope Floats in God's Presence

Our Heavenly Father watches over every aspect of our lives, including those lives that touch ours. We will lose the desire to control, when we  rest in the following promise...

The LORD will keep you from all harm-- he will watch over your life;

Psalm 121:7

Even in the deepest affliction, God is there with us, sustaining us, blessings us.  (I spoke more about this in my post The Mystery of His Silence which you can read it here.

There is truly something cathartic about letting go and placing all of our Hope in God and in His promises.

There were a few acute times in my life when I felt an overwhelming psychological and physical relief when I let go and put my Hope in God to accomplish what concerned me.

I can remember a couple of times lying in bed late at night,  I would experience crushing sensations of anxiety, usually related to my own medical crisis, to the point of physically shaking in bed.  I was so distraught with anxiety and worry.

I remember coming to a realization that I was literally holding on for dear life TO MY WORRY!  I became so exhausted, I just let go...  Let go of the anxiety and worry...

I then placed my Hope for the situation in the Great Physician and the God of all Comfort.  It was at this point that I had experienced the most profound physical rest of my life.

The striving ceased, the worry released, the hoping commenced and the body rested.

You will be secure, because there is hope; 

you will look about you and 

take your rest in safety.

Job 11:18-19

Therefore my heart {was} glad and my tongue rejoiced!

May we always remember that the Lord is before us because he is at our right hand, and we WILL NOT BE SHAKEN...

 And may we say with the Psalmist...

 Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.     

Psalm 62:5

For more posts related to hope please check out the following by clicking on the titles:

How to Foster Hope When Circumstances Disappoint

3 Biblical Encouragements for Remaining Hopeful in Hardship
Do you struggle with expectations?

Three Reasons to Praise God When You Don't Feel Like It

The Assurance of Things Unseen

3 Reasons Why God Might Be Waiting to Answer Your Prayer

Remember - Hope Floats

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