Some years ago, her husband, LeRoy, was diagnosed with a rare neurological disease. Throughout this difficult season, Kim has fought to rely on God’s mercy and grace to meet each day’s needs . . . and to not lose heart. We wanted to share this post in its original context from January 2019 because the truth Kim shared then is still true for whatever you may be facing today.
As 2018 came to a close, the new year slipped into the night quietly for us. My husband and I weren’t shooting off fireworks or blowing horns. We didn’t even make it to midnight. Without any late-night parties or fanfare, we gently released one year and opened our arms to the next.
This new year brings hope for answered prayer and demonstrations of God’s tendency to go beyond what we could think or imagine.
Back in 2015, shortly after Moody Publishers asked us to write Men Who Love Fierce Women, my husband, LeRoy, began having some odd physical issues. We spent two years on the medical merry-go-round of doctors, clinics, and tests, but we had no answers. In the summer of 2017, while I was speaking at the Gospel Coalition Atlantic Canada conference (more than 2,000 miles from home), LeRoy collapsed. Long story short, we flew to a hospital in Dallas, Texas, where he spent almost three weeks. We left that hospital in a bit of shock, while he struggled to walk with the assistance of forearm braces.
My husband was diagnosed with a rare neurological disease that attacked his spinal cord and left him partially paralyzed. Every morning he enters a new battle with pain. Every morning he fights for joy and for the opportunity to glorify God in this illness. But as we move into a new year, we’re moving in with hope, with a determination to not lose heart and an awareness that we are completely relying on God’s mercy and grace to meet each day’s great needs.
We know that if “hope” is based on our circumstances, then it’s a flimsy thing. It will waver like the wind, blowing here and there, and on days when winds of adversity hit, we’ll be knocked to our faces and ready to give up. . . . On days when blessings come on the wings of cool breezes, we’ll say that “all is right in the world.” But that is not solid hope. That is not the hope of gospel reality.
The Secure Hope
The hope of the gospel is not a “hope” for something that may come, one that you anticipate might happen or that you’re looking to as a possible outcome. Instead it’s the “living hope” that Jesus secured for us—our safety and assurance through every difficulty. Hebrews describes this hope as an anchor that has been tested through Jesus’ entrance into the holy of holies—where He paid our sin debt.
Because God wanted to show his unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because he has become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 6:17–20)
Reframe Your Thinking
If you will reframe your thinking and base your perspective (for today and for the future) on the work of the cross, your hope will become a certain confidence. Not a confidence in future events but a confidence and assurance in the person of Christ.
Jesus is the Lamb of God who laid down His life to deliver us from the mess we made and reverse the effects of the Fall. When we receive what He has done, we have the solid foundation of the living hope He secured for us. As we function in life and consistently walk in that hope, it shapes our reactions to adversity and our interactions with others. That living hope shapes us into living examples of His grace, filling the earth with His glory.
Take Time to Reflect
First Peter 1 gives a beautiful description of Jesus’ payment for us. Slowly read through these chunks of Scripture and pause to give thanks:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3–5)
Jesus set us free from bondage to the corruption produced by the Fall. Do you know that you’ve truly been set free because of His blood that was shed for you? Are you experiencing that “living hope”?
And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. (1 Peter 1:17–21 ESV)
Evaluate Whether You Are Experiencing “Living Hope”
Today, I encourage you to evaluate your understanding of hope and find security in the living hope that is the anchor in every storm. Below are some questions you might find helpful in doing that:
- Is your faith and hope in God?
- Have you been rescued, redeemed, “born again to a living hope”?
- How does the “living hope” of the gospel affect the way you respond to circumstances?
- How does it affect your outlook on life in general?
Join the Discussion