Hope

“Your prayers may not be answered in the way you hope they will,” a friend cautioned a caregiver. He didn’t want her hopes and prayers for a brighter future to be dashed.

No kidding, thought the caregiver. She knew the future looked grim. But she clung to a trace of hope for healing and restoration that had almost been extinguished by pessimism and bitterness. She knew God’s Word indicated that circumstances wouldn’t always turn out the way we think they should. She knew that God’s ways are often different than ours.

In time, she realized that her friend had been trying to prepare her to face a grim reality—but God had called her to a hope-filled reality.

It’s true that circumstances often don’t turn out the way we want them to. Our prayers often aren’t answered exactly as we hope. But God’s ultimate resolution never makes things worse—in the long run, it will always exceed our highest hopes and imaginings.

God’s ways are not our ways. But His are much, much better than ours.