My Hope is in the Lord

I received a gift of one of those little automatic vacuum cleaners that runs around the house sweeping up everything in its path. It’s surprisingly intelligent too! When it encounters something blocking its way, the vacuum does a mechanical fist bump a couple of times and never hits the offending blockage again! The user manual tells me I can forget about vacuuming altogether. What an amazing thing; except, I don’t forget about vacuuming. I literally spend a good 30-minutes watching it make laps across my living room floor, then move into the kitchen where it studiously cleans the baseboards beneath the overhang of the lower cabinets, then finally head down the hallway, bouncing from side to side like a slalom skier at the Olympics. When it’s done, it dutifully motors its way back to its base and shuts off. I’m thankful for my clean floors but I wasted a half-hour watching it do what it was created to do.

When I think about it, I react the same way in my spiritual life. I pray and ask God to take away the burden of a problem, with every intention of letting Him handle it, then I constantly revisit the issue and “help God out” by trying to solve it on my own. God doesn’t need my help. My hope is in Him. I’m counting on Him. I trust Him. Much like the user manual for my little vacuum, God’s Word promises that He will take care of it and I can forget about it.

I am counting on the Lord;

    yes, I am counting on Him.

    I have put my hope in His Word.

Psalm 130:5 (NLT)

My greatest hope is in the promise of salvation for those who love the Lord. We can’t save ourselves from our sins; no earthly being can. God took it upon himself to redeem us by sending His own Son to die for us so we can spend eternity with our Lord. With love and compassion, we are forgiven and pulled from the depths of sin. Those who wait on the Lord wait in hope. I’m counting on it.