It's a rainy day today here in the bluegrass, and as I drag myself out to the car what I'd really like to do is just go back to bed.
And it's been a good week... but sometimes we just get worn out.
I'm thinking back to the middle of summer... where it is so hot and dry and the grass is starting to turn brown.
Sometimes that's how I feel, even as I check off my to do list and meet with students and hug Caleb and take popsicles to the ball girls.
Dry. Drab. Thirsty...
This week in the P31 OBS of Renee Swope's A Confident Heart, we're reading chapters 1 and 2. Our verse for the week comes from Isaiah 49:23b, which says (NIV): Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.”
Just looking at this verse gives me pause. If I hope in Him, I will not be disappointed. Hope is a confident expectation. If you are expecting something, you can't doubt that it will occur- you know it, you look for it to happen.
By putting our hope in Him, we will not be disappointed... will not be let down, will not have our dreams smashed.
The King James Version, which is my primary study Bible, says it a little different. "and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me."
The word wait there translates to hope... waiting with expectation. Ashamed can be translated as "disappointed"... but it also had another translation. The Hebrew Word can also be translated as "to be made dry."
When grass is dry, it is dead in the heat of summer. When creeks are dry, there can be no life. When the well is dry, all you get is dust.
I don't want to be dry. I want to be alive, full of hope, free from disappointment, even on my darkest days.
How do we do this? Well, we hope in God, because He will not allow us to be dry. Today's reading was from Chapter 2, which touched on the story of the Samaritan woman at the well from John 4. "I'll give you living water. You'll thirst no more." (my paraphrase).
The Samaritan woman was thirsting for something. I'm thirsting for something. You're thirsting for something, because we were made to be in relationship with the One and Only God. We try to fill our insatiable thirst for that one thing with people and jobs and possessions and tasks and books... but all that does is sap out our life, our water, and we become dry, brittle, and dead. But He wants to fill us. He wants to offer us living water. His living water gives us hope, and we will not be disappointed.
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I love this verse and needed it today. I never thought about the disappointment being a dryness or a desperate thirst....but what a powerful thought. Thank you for sharing that!
ReplyDeleteI love this, Lauren! And I love how you found that "ashamed" and "disappointed" can also mean "to be made dry." Taking a verse like this and studying it always brings fresh revelation. Your post spoke to my heart this morning. Thank you for sharing.
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ReplyDeleteThis is so good word. I was writing about this in my journal, about thirsting, but God being the only one who can fulfill us.
ReplyDeleteLove this blog Lauren, but I always love yours. Great verse mapping and I loved the part about being made dry. Love you sister. Debbie W. (OBS Facebook Group Leader)
ReplyDeleteLauren, that was beautiful. I think sometimes I feel like the grass, parched dry and desperately using whatever moisture I can get to just carry on, but God wants us to more than carry on, He wants us to thrive. Thanks for sharing your verse mapping. I still struggle with it. You have made it come alive. :)
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