Day 23: Hope Grows in the Unknown
Read: Romans 4:18-25
I go to church with a woman named Kelly. She has cystic fibrosis, which she was diagnosed with when she was ten. Cystic fibrosis is a life-threatening disorder that affects your lungs and digestive system. Growing up, she was told that due to her diagnosis, her life expectancy was 20 years old. On her 20th birthday, she wrestled with God fiercely. Was her time on this earth coming to an end?
She is now 41. She has a husband and two children, whom she loves dearly. A day after her 40th birthday, she was hospitalized and ended up being placed on a list for a double lung transplant. She received her new lungs on May 21st, 2018. In hope, she trusted that the Lord was not yet done with her life.
She has held to the belief that her identity is more than her illness. In her wrestling with the deaths of her friends who died too young, she also rejoices that she can keep telling their stories. She finds great joy in the fact that through the sorrow of someone else’s death, it led to saving her life and a new pair of lungs. Still, through this pain, she has praised the Lord. Her trust in the Lord’s goodness is a beautiful reminder of what it means to trust in God from day to day.
Abraham had that same faith for a son, as we see in Romans 4:18-25. God had promised that he would have a child, but it seemed impossible. He was incredibly old, and his body was failing. To have a child at 100 years old is a crazy promise, and yet Abraham stood in trust. He knew that God had the power to do what He said He could do. His faith in God’s promises granted him righteousness. To be righteous is to be free from guilt or sin, and to be in a good place with God. This promise was not only given to Abraham, but also to us!
In verses 24 and 25 of Romans, it talks about how God has given righteousness to us if we believe in Him, and that He raised Jesus from the dead. We have been made new creations in Jesus. More than transplanted lungs, we have been made completely new. We never have to worry about our new selves being rejected from God’s love or hope, and we get to rest in His promises.
Do you trust in God’s faithfulness to His promises? Do you believe God truly has the power to do what He says He can? It’s so easy to say that we trust Him, but still, live our lives in doubt. God is faithful to be who He says He is, so we can rest in that truth.