Hope Set High
Have you ever encountered a fear head-on? If so, there’s no certainty in taking the step to overcome a fear when you haven’t done it before. Unfortunately, moving ahead doesn’t wait for us to become comfortable with uncertainty, but transitions make us want certainty.
Transitions can feel so uncomfortable. We never know if everything will be okay, what exactly will change, who’s leading, who’s in charge, or what it will all look like. We try to stay in the past, where things felt more familiar, but we have a complicated relationship with it.
On one hand, there’s forgetting the past. Things we want to forget, like our mistakes, wrongdoings, or an awkward time in our lives, trends we wish we weren’t a part of. As a culture, we’re so obsessed with what’s next that we’ve lost sight of our history, roots, and where we came from.
Transitions can feel so uncomfortable. We never know if everything will be okay, what exactly will change, who’s leading, who’s in charge, or what it will all look like. We try to stay in the past, where things felt more familiar, but we have a complicated relationship with it.
On one hand, there’s forgetting the past. Things we want to forget, like our mistakes, wrongdoings, or an awkward time in our lives, trends we wish we weren’t a part of. As a culture, we’re so obsessed with what’s next that we’ve lost sight of our history, roots, and where we came from.
Those who don’t learn from their history are doomed to repeat it.
On the other hand, some people love to live in the past. The high school football player or lead singer in a band. Their pinnacle moment in life was back then. Or we have a really great season of life we don’t want to end, but it always does. We live in a reality of trying to re-create it rather than releasing it.
When we live back there, we can never fully live in the present moment or receive what’s ahead.
When we live back there, we can never fully live in the present moment or receive what’s ahead.
Those who do not lean to the future are doomed to miss it.
The future would be a lot easier if we knew what it looked like. God rarely gives His people a complete picture of the destination, but He gives us something better – His presence and faithfulness.
God was back there, but God is also right here, in this moment, in this season with all of its complexities and nuances. And God will be up ahead in all the future holds.
Hebrews 13
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Remember His Deeds
Psalm 78
2 I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter hidden things, things from of old— 3 things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us.
This is the foundation on which we build the present and future. We stand not on the shoulders of those who have gone before us, but on who God is and what He has done.
Release the Next Generation
Psalm 78
4 We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done. 5 He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children, 6 so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.
Faithfulness doesn’t mean holding onto our season for as long as we can, faithfulness means handing what we’ve received to those coming behind us and teaching them to do the same.
God was back there, but God is also right here, in this moment, in this season with all of its complexities and nuances. And God will be up ahead in all the future holds.
Hebrews 13
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Remember His Deeds
Psalm 78
2 I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter hidden things, things from of old— 3 things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us.
This is the foundation on which we build the present and future. We stand not on the shoulders of those who have gone before us, but on who God is and what He has done.
Release the Next Generation
Psalm 78
4 We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done. 5 He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children, 6 so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.
Faithfulness doesn’t mean holding onto our season for as long as we can, faithfulness means handing what we’ve received to those coming behind us and teaching them to do the same.
Jesus has been building His church long before any of us arrived, and He will continue to long after we’re gone.
He builds it through us, but not just the current us, the us that was before, the us that is now, and the us that’s to come. That’s an important reminder. Someone else will one day do your job, and someone else will one day own your house.
Are you spending your life trying to be the only “us” in those places, or are you remembering that those seasons will one day end? You should always be able to look behind you and see someone other than you.
Know that the biggest challenge for you in this is that the next generation will take what you give them but do it differently than you do. Don’t get stuck on how they’re doing it, look at the fruit it’s producing.
Set Your Hope Higher
Psalm 78
7 Then they would put their trust in God, and would not forget his deeds, but would keep his commands.
Your hope isn’t found in a place or in the past. We remember the past, but we can’t do anything about it. Your hope isn’t found in the future because it's uncertain. Your hope isn’t found in the right person. We need to set our hope higher.
Are you spending your life trying to be the only “us” in those places, or are you remembering that those seasons will one day end? You should always be able to look behind you and see someone other than you.
Know that the biggest challenge for you in this is that the next generation will take what you give them but do it differently than you do. Don’t get stuck on how they’re doing it, look at the fruit it’s producing.
Set Your Hope Higher
Psalm 78
7 Then they would put their trust in God, and would not forget his deeds, but would keep his commands.
Your hope isn’t found in a place or in the past. We remember the past, but we can’t do anything about it. Your hope isn’t found in the future because it's uncertain. Your hope isn’t found in the right person. We need to set our hope higher.
Your hope is found in God.
Hope is having a present reality about a future that is unknown. When you travel to visit someone in a city you aren’t familiar with, everything looks different until you see the familiar face. You lock eyes. Someone you love is waiting for you. You know them, they know you. And they’re looking for you.
They know the way, the city. There’s no unknowns or surprises. They welcome you, embrace you, and suddenly the unknown no longer seems unknown. God isn’t just there when you get there, but He’s already there.
They know the way, the city. There’s no unknowns or surprises. They welcome you, embrace you, and suddenly the unknown no longer seems unknown. God isn’t just there when you get there, but He’s already there.
Knowing who is waiting for you matters more than knowing what is waiting for you.
We can be uncertain and unafraid at the same time. Our confidence isn’t that we know where God is taking us. Our confidence is that wherever God takes us, He’s already there. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He IS yesterday, today, and forever.
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