How is your sense of anticipation these days? In many ways, being able to anticipate something good is as important as the actual experience of that good. It’s what keeps a person from despairing in long stretches of sorrow and struggle. We anticipate weekends, vacations, holidays, special events, changing seasons, the visit of a friend, etc. The expectation of relief and refreshment just around the corner adds joy to everyday drudgery. But without it, despair and discouragement set in.
We are walking a stretch of road right now that seems to have no such corner in sight.
Years ago, during a class I was teaching on discouragement in hard times, a quiet, gray-headed woman—whose life modeled joy and faith in hardship—shared the verse she recalled every morning: “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly” (Psalm 5:3). In context, that verse is from a prayer that cries out for help, described in various translations as groaning or sighing (Psalm 5:1-2). It is on those mornings when all we’ve got is a groan and a sigh that such a psalm helps us look to God with that important anticipation factor.
I heard a story recently about two little girls. The older of the two was reading a storybook to her little sister. At one particularly exciting part of the story, the littlest one exclaimed, “That’s impossible!” To which the older (and wiser) sister responded, “You aren’t the boss of possible.”
Maybe you need that reminder today. If the road before you seems unpromising, bleak, lonely, and frustratingly joyless, remember that the God who is the boss of possible is with you. He is the one who makes “a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19). And when your downcast heart tells you that there is nothing more to do than groan and sigh, tell it: “You aren’t the boss of possible!” Then point your heart to God, with whom all things are possible (Matthew 19:26), lay your requests before him, and “wait expectantly” (Psalm 5:3).
Expectant
How is your sense of anticipation these days? In many ways, being able to anticipate something good is as important as the actual experience of that good. It’s what keeps a person from despairing in long stretches of sorrow and struggle. We anticipate weekends, vacations, holidays, special events, changing seasons, the visit of a friend, etc. The expectation of relief and refreshment just around the corner adds joy to everyday drudgery. But without it, despair and discouragement set in.
We are walking a stretch of road right now that seems to have no such corner in sight.
Years ago, during a class I was teaching on discouragement in hard times, a quiet, gray-headed woman—whose life modeled joy and faith in hardship—shared the verse she recalled every morning: “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly” (Psalm 5:3). In context, that verse is from a prayer that cries out for help, described in various translations as groaning or sighing (Psalm 5:1-2). It is on those mornings when all we’ve got is a groan and a sigh that such a psalm helps us look to God with that important anticipation factor.
I heard a story recently about two little girls. The older of the two was reading a storybook to her little sister. At one particularly exciting part of the story, the littlest one exclaimed, “That’s impossible!” To which the older (and wiser) sister responded, “You aren’t the boss of possible.”
Maybe you need that reminder today. If the road before you seems unpromising, bleak, lonely, and frustratingly joyless, remember that the God who is the boss of possible is with you. He is the one who makes “a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19). And when your downcast heart tells you that there is nothing more to do than groan and sigh, tell it: “You aren’t the boss of possible!” Then point your heart to God, with whom all things are possible (Matthew 19:26), lay your requests before him, and “wait expectantly” (Psalm 5:3).