music :: worship :: life
Last September I took part in a prison ministry called “One Day with God” that was held at the Leblanc Unit in Beaumont. We were given special t-shirts to to wear so we could be easily identified. I had to go out to my car to exchange shirts.
When you leave the unit, you have to stand in front of a video camera until the guard buzzes you, then you can open the gate. About 20 feet further there’s another gate with another camera, and the process repeats.
When the guard buzzed me, I opened the first gate and walked through. But when I got to the second gate, I stood and stood and stood. Finally I got tired of waiting, and pushed the button to call the guard. She said, “You have to go back and close the gate behind you before I can open the gate in front of you.”
Friends, this is a brand new year. Last year is gone. A lot of good things happened last year; a lot of bad things happened last year. But for better or worse, those are in the past. All those blessings, all those trials—all are in the past. In Lamentations 3:25, Jeremiah says: “The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. (ESV) Friends, a lot of us are waiting at the gate for God to buzz us through, but we haven’t shut the gate behind us. And though we stand there for eternity, until we go back and shut the gate behind us, God is not going to buzz us through. God has blessings in store for all of us, but we have to shut the gate behind us first. God has blessings ready and waiting, but he cannot give them to us until we let go of the old stuff. His blessings are like manna from heaven. You cannot store yesterday’s manna; it quickly rots in the basket and becomes worthless. And you cannot collect new manna if your baskets are full of the rotten manna from yesterday.
The same chapter of Lamentations says:
I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
—Lamentations 3:19-22
The word translated as “hope” here means something very different than it does in our ordinary modern usage. When we say “hope” we mean something like “wishful thinking”. When we say we hope it doesn’t rain, it means that we are wishing for clear weather or that we would prefer clear weather. It would be inconvenient if it rained, and it would be nicer if it did not rain. I hope it warms up. I hope the Cowboys win. I hope the economy improves. “Hope” in our everyday usage, simply means that we would like something outside of our control to happen, and that we wish for it, but cannot be sure it will occur.
But in Hebrew, the word translated here connotes a sense of assurance, of expectation, of waiting for something we know will come. Hope, in the Bible, means waiting for what you are sure is going to happen.
The difference between our word “hope” and the Hebrew word for “hope” is like the difference between wishing for a child and expecting a baby. When you wish for a child, you have no assurance of it. But when you are expecting a baby, though there may be nothing yet to see, you know it is on the way. It is only a matter of time.
This moment is pregnant with God’s blessing. We need to prepare a room for it.
When Jeremiah says that reflecting on God’s unfailing love gives him hope, it is because he is expecting him to act. He is saying: “I am waiting patiently with expectancy. I am expecting God’s mercy. I am expecting God’s blessings. For his mercies, just like manna from heaven—his blessings, his gifts—are new every morning. Fresh gifts, fresh mercy, fresh grace, fresh love, fresh blessings, fresh anointing every morning.”
But he cannot give us new blessings until we let go of the old. He cannot fill our hands until we come to him with hands empty. We can wait forever at the gate before us, but until we close the gate behind us, God cannot buzz us through.
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