#Scripture hope deferred free

He scoops up the ashes and wipes the tears. Those moments of despair? The moments of 'no' or 'not yet's? The moment the doctor gives the diagnosis? The moment the casket closes? The moment the baby's heart stops beating? The day they walked out? Or you did? These moments stand etched on our memories and are reminders of who we are and where we come from. The moment of the body-dunking in baptism.

But when Jesus breaks the padlock and we leave our shackles behind?

#Scripture hope deferred free

We would take for granted that we were roaming free without chains. Without the darkness, we would perhaps never realize the magnitude of our salvation. Without the law, what promise would we have? The dark backdrop of the law was illuminated by the brightness of the Child of Promise who ushered in grace.

The death of the law made way for the promise of life. I now do time, not because it is my sentence, but because it shows the immensity of my gratitude. This does not mean I am no longer bound to any rules, simply that the rules changed. Now, with the Judge Himself granting me grace, I no longer have to live in fear of the consequences of the law. In an odd sense, it was my chaperone until I married the chaperone. I have a new appreciation for it, this law. When the disciples wondered as they fled during Christ's crucifixion if they had somehow missed the boat and this guy wasn't really the One Who would crush Rome and save them from oppression. When even the man who was born to prepare the way for Christ wondered from a jail cell if He was truly the One the prophecies referred to. But I know there were times that Abraham wondered when. They were told that Jesus would come, to believe that one day He would be sent. We were like the rich young ruler, craving perfection in law-keeping but lacking so much knowledge in life-gaining. It was the way we got our identity until Christ BECAME our identity. It was the bank we measured our eternal rewards by until we gained our inheritance. It was our thermometer until the Healer arrived. It was our foster parent until our Father adopted us.

When those hopes are our hopes.īefore the way of faith was made available to us, we were placed under guard by the Law. Wading through shallow shattered hopes can almost drown you in waves of sadness. It is hardest to believe when walking through the ashes of what you thought would be your future. The death of a dream always means the birth of a new promise.