To listen to this week's podcast click here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2324960/episodes/15866378-kunoni-how-to-walk-in-hope-episode-28.mp3?download=true
Today, I want to share a word that God has been speaking to me almost continuously. It started about this time last year at a minister's conference and has just been coming up repeatedly. I'm not ignoring it, and today is the day it needs to be shared! Mainly because there seems to be a shift – so many people I know are currently struggling, struggling with disappointments, fears, doubts, anxiety, and grief. Struggling in their marriages, with their children, and uncertainties over their future!
And if I'm honest, I have my own moments. Especially when I look and see what's happening right now in the Carolinas and Tennessee- whole towns completely gone – flood waters drowning families and sweeping away all traces of their lives and homes. I look and see what's happening in Israel. What's happening in our country with this upcoming election! It can all be so overwhelming. We need to hear what God has to say on the matter!
And I believe what He is speaking right now is – Hope. Hope realized.
His children, whom He loves so much, we need to understand that it's more than just "love." It's more than just "truth." It's about hope! Keeping sight of the importance of hope- because, without hope, people perish- they will lose their will to live! Without hope- we become defeated. And that is NOT what God says about His beloved!
Now a couple of months back, I was struggling with the beginning of depression. I realized that I was disappointed in a situation to the point that I could see depression creeping in even though I was with family, enjoying the beauty of this island, and from the outside, it looked like all was right in my world. Yet, as I sat on a lounge chair poolside on a beautiful Hawaiian day, I was struggling with inner turmoil, and God spoke to me and gave me the word "kunoni." I had no clue what this word meant and had to look it up. The Hawaiian dictionary defines kunoni as "to progress very slowly.”
Now, I know this doesn't sound like much, but God was speaking life to me at that moment. Showing me that He's with me and we are on a journey together- and that I need to understand this journey will progress and it will progress slowly. Peace washed over me, and I had such clarity and was so encouraged because He was showing me that I didn't need to be disappointed like I had failed and that I didn’t need to struggle- no, I needed to recognize the small and that even in the small there was progress and it's OK. We can take tiny steps because we are still moving forward in this journey. We aren't stuck! We aren't stagnant! We are walking this journey together; there is progress, and it will proceed slowly. I don’t need to lose HOPE!
But, there's more. I believe God's word that says the Lord is the same today, as He was yesterday, as He will be tomorrow. Our God is a god of Hope. Our God is a god of faithfulness. He is eternal, and He never changes!
We can cling to hope because there is no lack for those who love the Lord.
His word is true, and we can trust His promises.
Proverbs 3:5-8
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord and shun evil.
This will bring health to your body
and nourishment to your bones.
We can see a beautiful glimpse of what trusting God means even in the darkest depths of evil by looking at Corrie Ten Boom's life and what God did in and through her circumstances.
Corrie lived through the horror of the Holocaust. All of her family were arrested and imprisoned by the Nazis. When her 84-year-old father was told he could be condemned to death for saving Jews, he responded- "it would be an honor to give my life for God's chosen people." He died soon afterward in prison, and Corrie and her sister were deported to the notorious Ravensbrook concentration camp. The sisters were able to stay together throughout their imprisonment until Corrie's sister Betsy died on December 16th, 1944. Just days before her death, Betsy said these words to Corrie (which many people still quote to this day)- "There is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still- they will listen to us, Corrie, because we've been here!"
Twelve days later, Corrie was miraculously released from prison due to a "clerical error." And a mere week after her release, all of the female prisoners from her age group were killed. Yet Corrie was spared!
Do you know that two years later, at the age of 53, Corrie started a worldwide ministry that took her to more than sixty countries over the next 33 years? God gave her a unique opportunity to share God's love and message of hope with the world!
Today, I'd like to share with you one of her stories that has really resonated with me. It illustrates how when we trust God, He can use anything for our good—even the things that cause suffering.
Corrie writes:
“I and my sister Betsie were roughly pushed into Barracks 28 at Ravensbruck, a
“work camp” for prisoners. We stared at the stacks of wooden sleeping platforms
crowded into the large room. Only a narrow walkway cut between. The platforms were three deep and covered with dirty, stinking straw. There wasn’t even enough room to sit up.
We had just arrived by train along with hundreds of other prisoners, crushed
together for three days with eighty women in a freight car. Exhausted, we crawled onto the platform that had been assigned to us. But within moments, I sat up quickly and bumped my head on the platform above. “Fleas!” I jumped down to the floor. “The place is crawling with fleas! I…I don’t know how I can cope with living in such a terrible place!”
“Corrie, I think God has already given us the answer,” my sister Betsie said.
“What was that verse we read from the Bible this morning?”
I pulled out my Bible from the bag I wore on a string around my neck. In the dim
light, I read from I Thessalonians:16-18: “‘Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.’ Oh, Betsie, that’s too hard in a place like this!”
“No, come on, Corrie—let’s try. What are we thankful for?” my sister asked.
“Well…if we must be in this awful place, I’m thankful that we’re together.”
“And that the guards didn’t find the Bible you had hanging down your back!”
added Betsie.
I nodded gratefully. “Maybe we should thank God for how crowded we are in
here because that way, more women will hear the Word of God when we read it aloud!"
“That’s right!” Betsie’s eyes danced. “And thank you, God, for the fleas—“
“No, Betsie! I can’t thank God for the fleas. There’s nothing good about them.”
“Well, we’ll just have to wait and see,” my sister answered.
Every day, we were awakened at 4:30 A.M. and forced to stand outside in the cold
for roll call. Then we worked an eleven-hour day. We were given black bread for
breakfast and a thin soup of turnips for supper. The only thing we had to look forward to was when all of us stumbled back to the barracks at night. Before we went to sleep, Betsie and I would open our smuggled Bible and read God’s Word to the other women.
At first, we posted lookouts to keep a watch for the guards. Anyone caught with a
Bible would certainly be killed. But day after day passed, and no guards came into
Barracks 28. Soon we read the Bible twice a day, and more and more women listened.
No one bothered us.
One day, Betsie grabbed my arm and whispered, “I know why no one has
bothered our Bible studies. I overheard some of the guards talking. None of them wants to come into Barracks 28 because of the fleas!”
I wanted to laugh. “All right, Lord. Thank you for the fleas!”
May we press into this rich wisdom moving forward with the same tenacious, inspiring spirit that typified Corrie—a courageous soul. In Corrie's own words, "We have nothing to fear because Jesus is victor, and he will never let us down! With Jesus, even in our darkest moments, the best remains, and the very best is yet to be!"
Her amazing life and journey reminds us today that we can live strong and love well through Christ's hope and freedom.
Ladies, we are called to follow in Jesus' footsteps. To walk with Him, kunoni. Trusting that even in times of suffering, there's always hope because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are attentive to our prayers!
So when you find yourself in the middle of suffering, in the middle of disappointment, grief, doubt, and fear- it's OK because it is temporary, and we're not alone! His eyes are always on us, and He fights our battles for us! He is eternal. He is on the throne, and He is perfect in His glory.
Let us hold fast to that. Let us hold fast to His word that says that we have already been healed, have already been redeemed, have already been made righteous, and are lavishly loved!
I pray today that you will trust the one who promises never to leave or forsake us. To cling to hope and to truly know that there is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still, thank Him even for the fleas and realize the very best is yet to be!
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