Hope Does Not Disappoint

Last December, a woman attended my Encouragement Event who was heartbroken over not being able to get pregnant. She came to pray one on one. She said very little, but I knew her story. She was tired of baby showers for other people. She was just tired. She could not reconcile why her desire was so strong if God had no intention of blessing her in this way. She had been told that there was sin in her life. She had to endure speeches entitled "maybe it's not God's will for you." Are we surprised when our pep talks do not bring relief?

As we talked, I knew that the Lord wanted her to keep believing. I knew that this mature believer's rescue was coming from the Lord. I knew that the enemy wanted her to give up and move on with her life.

So, I handed her a postcard of Romans 5:5.

A few months later, I read a note from her that said: “I’m believing double for my trouble.” She was soon pregnant with twins.

Her ultrasound was yesterday. They discovered one little son and one little daughter. A new note from her said: “Someone once said that hope does not disappoint. And that someone was right.”

It was Paul, not me, who said that in Romans 5:5:
Hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Let's understand something: when we are hurting, that's all we can do. When we are depressed, that's all we can feel. We are numb to joyful situations in the middle of our pain. We are pulled into long days of hardship when one area of discouragement begins to spread into the other circumstances of our lives. It begins to cloud relationships. Our uncomfortable friends offer uncomforting comments.We need to resume our real life, not be content with our depressed one.

I'm sad to say that the contemporary Christian response to these aches has been: "Praise the Lord anyway!"

What happened to faith? What happened to waiting on the Lord?
When did we replace that with “be content with something else”?