July 3 - Hope Won't Perish

July 3 – Hope Won’t Perish

“But the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish.” (Psalm 9:18)

There is not a one of us who hasn’t felt needy or even afflicted.

We feel forgotten and left out.

We experience loneliness.

For me, those are the times when I scream and cry out to God – asking where in the world He is and why doesn’t He care at all about me! 

Every year that I grew older, though … I began to recognize something about those times. 

They ended.

The knowledge that they had ended in the past – every single time – gave me the hope that the current period of loneliness or pain would also end.

No matter my need or affliction. No matter that I have been left out or forgotten by my friends or the loneliness that seems to surround me, I always carry a sliver of hope that never perishes. 

God is always going to show up.  He has never failed me in all of the times I have called on Him.  Never.  Even when I give Him no good reason to show up and care for me, He continues to be there.

My hope is based on experience – the experience of living in the love of a God who fulfills the promise – the Covenant that He made with His children.  He loves me.