Hope
Joseph Castaneda
Hope
Psalm 23:4 reads, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil…”
I've read a lot of commentaries and devotional books on Psalm 23. Many of them have a compelling story about what David meant, or maybe even what particular mountain/valley he was referencing in the Psalm, but they all tell the same story: God is walking with us through the valley of the shadow of death. He doesn't send us on our way with a, "I'll meet you on the other side" pat on the back, but rather, He walks with us from one side to the other.
Winston Churchill is usually attributed with saying the following, "If you're going through hell...keep going." In many ways, whether he meant to or not, I think he was grabbing the theme of Psalm 23 and putting a WWII vernacular to it. He was telling the brave soldiers who would bring freedom to Europe, "Don't stop in the valley. Don't stop in the trenches (literally, the place of death for so many heroic young men). Don't stop until you are all the way across the battlefield."
Whatever you are facing today, remember God's great words in Psalm 130:5, and know that there is hope when you trust in the Lord. The God who allows you to walk into the valley of the shadow of death, walks with you, He comforts you, and He walks you through it!
So many of you have prayed us through our own journey, how can we pray you through yours? Send us an email at, overboard@overboardministries.com, and include your specific requests.
(Kristi Walker, one of our Overboard authors, wrote a book, especially targeted for women, dealing with the challenges of facing disappointment. Check out this resource in our bookstore and grab a paper or ebook version today!)
DETOURS IN DISAPPOINTMENT
We all face disappointments in this life. We long for romance but live alone. Couples ache to become parents. People let us down and sometimes our bodies do, too. Nothing, apart from God, is truly disappointment-free.
Many times in life we chart our own course and are then shocked, frustrated, confused and even angry when the road we wanted to take is suddenly not a possibility. Detours should not be looked upon as negative turns of events, but as God's guidance. Most of life's disappointments are actually appointments from God Himself!
We have a choice: we can follow God in faithful trust, or we can step away from that trust on easy little side paths of resentment, worry, bitterness, or misery.
In Disappointment: A subtle path away from God, Kristi will show you how to see the let-downs of life, thru the lens of God's character. He is the one that will never disappoint us, and by learning to trust Him with our biggest hurts, we find a path toward Him, and not away from Him.