“In his word I put my hope.” Psalm 130:5
Like anyone else, I have days when discouragement seems to get the better of
me. At such times I try to remember that the Lord has provided me with a source
of continuing inspiration and hope. To tap into that source I need simply to
open the pages of my Bible, God’s letter of hope to me.
I’m reminded of a story about an elderly woman who had lost her husband,
George, some years earlier in an automobile accident. Theirs had been a long and
happy marriage, and she missed him terribly. When she suffered a broken leg, she
felt more confined and alone than ever. One particularly blue day, she found
herself longing once again for her husband’s company. She sat in her living room
and began to weep. “Dear God,” she prayed, “please give me the strength to get
through this hour.”
Get your Bible, a quiet voice inside her said. But her Bible was in the
bedroom, and, with her leg in a cast, she thought it would be too hard to
retrieve. Then she remembered a small travel Bible on a nearby bookshelf. She
reached for it and turned the pages to find a favorite Scripture.
Suddenly a letter fell into her lap. She carefully unfolded the yellowed
pages. It was a love letter from George. In it, he expressed his deep affection
for her. His words of comfort went straight to her lonely heart.
In the back pages of the Bible she found more notes from George. He had
written them in the hospital while awaiting an operation, apparently fearing he
would not return home. After he recovered, the notes were forgotten.
That woman spent the rest of the afternoon basking in the company of her
husband’s letters and in the certainty that the Lord cared for her.
When you’re feeling short on hope in your marriage, ask yourself if you’ve
spent enough time lately reading your “mail” from God. Jeremiah wrote, “When
your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight” (Jeremiah 15:16).
As we go about our days, we can draw on the same delight… if we’ll just read the
Bible for a few minutes and wait for His Word to meet our need.
God loves you with infinite compassion and tenderness. He knows just what you
need and when you need it. In the pages of Scripture, you’ll find example after
example of His wisdom, comfort, and love— all meant for you. It’s the kind of
“mail” that will really make your day!
- Shirley M Dobson
From Night Light For Couples, by Dr. James
& Shirley Dobson
Copyright © 2000 by James Dobson, Inc. All rights
reserved.
Illustration by Lucille Heimrich from A Match Made in Heaven by Susan Wales
and Ann Platz (Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah Publishers, Inc., 1999).
No comments:
Post a Comment