Often events in life reveal hidden secrets of our hearts. The announcement of a colleague’s promotion, a friend’s news of a wedding or a baby, or simply someone’s good fortune. Suddenly you find yourself smiling in happiness at their news while at the same time being excruciatingly aware that the news has left your heart exposed and vulnerable. Is this what Hannah felt while she longed for a baby, Jacob as he yearned and toiled for Rachel, or Ruth as she faced an uncertain future? What do we do with our unfulfilled hopes and dreams?

Our natural self preservation instinct is to shut down the pain and numb its existence in our lives. To avoid facing the pain we seek to disguise or destroy the hope in our hearts. We do this in so many ways—through denial, through finding comfort in food, consumerism, day dreams or cynicism and even in seeking empathy from friends. But these are only temporal solutions that serve merely as pain killers rather than providing healing. Giving God access into this extremely fragile part of our lives is the one option available that will provide sustainable relief and allow our hope to live.

Letting our hearts be exposed to God does intensify the pain, no anesthetic is offered. It makes us acknowledge the existence of unfulfilled hopes and dreams and shows them in all their rawness and vulnerability. BUT in the exposure and reality of this pain a miracle happens—God comes in. He strengthens, encourages and comforts us. We learn to place our longings and dreams in His hands. God promises that “those who hope in me will not be disappointed” (Isaiah 47:23).

By keeping our hearts open before God we prevent the pain of unfulfillment being distorted into jealousy. Jealousy acts to undermine our faith with God. It makes us believe that God is unjust and that He has favorites. We allow this envy to develop when we choose to believe that someone’s favor, provision or position is a deduction from God’s ability to bless and provide for us.

Putting our hope in God also protects us from fear. Fear is also after our faith. It wants to convince us that God does not mean what He said and for us to disbelieve the promises of God. The enemy uses fear to undermine our trust in God, because ultimately you can’t love and worship a God that you do not trust. If we let this fear take root in our lives it will inevitably sabotage our relationship with God.

We need to remember that the validity of God’s promises rest on His character and His resources. The Bible tells of God’s faithfulness, His mighty works and the abundance of His resources. We know through the Bible that God can change what seems unchangeable. He can make the impossible possible.

He who promises is faithful. —Hebrews 10:23

All the promises in Him are yes and in Him Amen to the glory of God through us.
—2 Corinthians 1:20

In a passage about the confidence we can have in God's promises, Hebrews tells us that by believing in God and His promises, we have a sure hope that acts as an anchor or safeguard in our lives. We can take refuge in the Lord.

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil. —Hebrews 6:18

In Philippians 3:3 Paul says that we are to put no confidence in the flesh. When our confidence is in our flesh, that is ourselves, our resources and other people and not in God, we lose hope and subject ourselves to worry and frustration. As Oswald Chambers said, "All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God.” As we surrender our hopes to the Lord a transformation occurs. We find that our hope for our lives becomes hope for God. Our specific hopes and dreams don’t disappear, but they now reside within the hope and promise of Jesus. It was once said that for Christians “hope is no longer a passion for the possible. It becomes a passion for the promise" (Anon).

And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You. —Psalm 39:7

By placing our hope in God we give God the freedom to move in our lives according to His will and purpose. We are able to take refuge in the knowledge that God has good plans for us.

“For I know the plans that I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans for good and not for harm, to give you a future and a hope." —Jeremiah 29:11

In the knowledge that our dreams are safe in God’s hands we can find the courage to go on. It means that in the midst of whatever we are going through we can find peace. When our hope is centered and dependent on God, when we choose to turn our thoughts to Him, we can find the strength in the simple truth that God is enough. And at the end of the day we can honestly proclaim “it is well with my soul.”

Copyright © by Philippa Smyth Share