battered beyond measure. When Sam’s emotions churned like crashing waves, Jesus brought peace and power to withstand the mental affronts continually bombarding his mind.
To know joy in life, to glean all God desires for us in the midst of hurricane-sized trouble, we must face the storm. To do that, we need the steadfast anchor of God’s hope to hold us. His strength keeps us steady and strong, sturdy and ever-standing.
The deepest trials or the deepest failures in your life cannot thwart God’s faithfulness to you. Do you know the genuine goodness of God in your life—His immense mercy, His constant compassion, His everlasting love? He will be faithful to you forever. Do you know how to experience such a hope that will anchor you through any storm? Repeatedly say when you are in the midst of the storm, “I will hope in him” (Lam. 3:24 esv).
(Lamentations 3:19–25)
How to Put Your Hope in Him
Look at the situation accurately (vv.19–20)
I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
Line up your thinking with what gives you hope (v.21)
Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
Learn what gives hope in the midst of this situation (v.22)
Because of the L
ord’
s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
Linger on this fact: Every day God will be faithful to you (v.23)
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Let the Lord fulfill you totally, not just partially (v.24)
I say to myself, “The
Lord
is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
Lean on this truth to receive hope for your heart (v.25)
The
Lord
is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him.
Anchoring Your Hope:
Anchored in “Iceberg Alley”
“Everybody’s lost hope,” confessed Councilman Jay LaFont of Grand Isle, Louisiana, following the worst environmental catastrophe in United States history. On April 20, 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded off Louisiana’s coast, killing eleven people. The mile-deep well then began spewing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico . . . unchecked for months . . . closing the area’s beaches and crippling its fishing industry. “As long as you have something to look forward to, a little glimmer of hope, you can move on,” LaFont told reporters. “But this just drained everything out of us.” 6
Fortunately, the scenario couldn’t be more different for individuals living near . . . and working on . . . the oil platformHibernia off the coast of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. Residents and workers there are filled with hope, aware of the enormous amount of time and resources invested to build a structure that is said to be virtually indestructible.
The Hibernia’s meticulous design incorporates a GBS (gravity-based structure) system that anchors it to the North Atlantic seabed two hundred and sixty-five feet below the water. The total structure from the ocean floor to the top of the derrick is 738 feet high, with construction costs of over six billion dollars.
Simply stated, the structure is
immovable
. It has to be! It sits in the middle of “iceberg alley,” where icebergs can be as large as ocean liners. Sixteen huge concrete “teeth” surround the Hibernia. These teeth were expensive additions, designed to distribute the force of an iceberg over the entire structure and into the seabed, should one ever get close.
Radio operators plot and monitor all icebergs within twenty-seven miles of the oil rig. Any icebergs that come close are “lassoed” and towed away from the platform by powerful supply ships. Smaller bergs are simply diverted by using the ship’s propeller wash or high-pressure water cannons. As rugged and as strong as this platform is, and as prepared as it is for icebergs to strike, the owners have no intention of allowing an iceberg anywhere near Hibernia.
But if something unpreventable comes its
To know joy in life, to glean all God desires for us in the midst of hurricane-sized trouble, we must face the storm. To do that, we need the steadfast anchor of God’s hope to hold us. His strength keeps us steady and strong, sturdy and ever-standing.
The deepest trials or the deepest failures in your life cannot thwart God’s faithfulness to you. Do you know the genuine goodness of God in your life—His immense mercy, His constant compassion, His everlasting love? He will be faithful to you forever. Do you know how to experience such a hope that will anchor you through any storm? Repeatedly say when you are in the midst of the storm, “I will hope in him” (Lam. 3:24 esv).
(Lamentations 3:19–25)
How to Put Your Hope in Him
Look at the situation accurately (vv.19–20)
I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
Line up your thinking with what gives you hope (v.21)
Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
Learn what gives hope in the midst of this situation (v.22)
Because of the L
ord’
s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
Linger on this fact: Every day God will be faithful to you (v.23)
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Let the Lord fulfill you totally, not just partially (v.24)
I say to myself, “The
Lord
is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
Lean on this truth to receive hope for your heart (v.25)
The
Lord
is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him.
Anchoring Your Hope:
Anchored in “Iceberg Alley”
“Everybody’s lost hope,” confessed Councilman Jay LaFont of Grand Isle, Louisiana, following the worst environmental catastrophe in United States history. On April 20, 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded off Louisiana’s coast, killing eleven people. The mile-deep well then began spewing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico . . . unchecked for months . . . closing the area’s beaches and crippling its fishing industry. “As long as you have something to look forward to, a little glimmer of hope, you can move on,” LaFont told reporters. “But this just drained everything out of us.” 6
Fortunately, the scenario couldn’t be more different for individuals living near . . . and working on . . . the oil platformHibernia off the coast of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. Residents and workers there are filled with hope, aware of the enormous amount of time and resources invested to build a structure that is said to be virtually indestructible.
The Hibernia’s meticulous design incorporates a GBS (gravity-based structure) system that anchors it to the North Atlantic seabed two hundred and sixty-five feet below the water. The total structure from the ocean floor to the top of the derrick is 738 feet high, with construction costs of over six billion dollars.
Simply stated, the structure is
immovable
. It has to be! It sits in the middle of “iceberg alley,” where icebergs can be as large as ocean liners. Sixteen huge concrete “teeth” surround the Hibernia. These teeth were expensive additions, designed to distribute the force of an iceberg over the entire structure and into the seabed, should one ever get close.
Radio operators plot and monitor all icebergs within twenty-seven miles of the oil rig. Any icebergs that come close are “lassoed” and towed away from the platform by powerful supply ships. Smaller bergs are simply diverted by using the ship’s propeller wash or high-pressure water cannons. As rugged and as strong as this platform is, and as prepared as it is for icebergs to strike, the owners have no intention of allowing an iceberg anywhere near Hibernia.
But if something unpreventable comes its
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