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Excerpt from:

101 Most Powerful Promises
of the Bible

Your Part in an Eternal Drama

There is surely a future hope for you,
and your hope will not be cut off.
—Isaiah 55:7

What is your hope for the future? Not the things you wish for—such as lots of money, world peace, good health—but the dream that finds its home in the yearnings of your heart. Can you even articulate what that is? Many of us can’t; we become tongue-tied as we grope for a way to explain those things that lie deep inside of us. Words prove to be an inadequate means of getting the depth of the message across.

Author John Eldredge describes our hope as the profound aware- ness that we were created for something more than this, whatever our daily life looks like. God created us to be part of a larger drama set on a larger stage—the story of redemption that God has been telling ever since the moment he created the first man and woman.

We get glimpses of this future hope throughout our lives, sometimes in fleeting moments of pure bliss that we wish could last forever. In those moments, we absolutely know we are a part of that larger story and that our role—no matter how small it may seem—is meaningful, significant, and vital to moving the plot along. We may just be an understudy, but when it’s time to join the unfolding drama taking place on the stage of history then every moment we spent waiting in the wings proves its value and worth. 

How can we ever see our puny lives in terms of the larger unfolding of redemptive history? Whether we can see it or not—and I suspect God keeps us from seeing it for a very good reason—the seemingly mundane decisions we make often have greater consequences than we will ever know. A simple change of jobs could set into motion a series of life-changing actions in the lives of others, such as the person who took the job you vacated or the house you vacated when you accepted a transfer to another city. Each person affected by your decision will be coming in to a new environment, with new prospects and new relationships—and quite possibly, a new opportunity to come to faith. What’s more, even though you’ve moved on, you’ve left behind a witness for Christ that could change the life of someone who once brushed you off. You can’t see the larger unfolding drama, only your “little” part in it.  

Proverbs 23:18 promises that you have this future hope, this hope that you will find a place in the unwritten story of redemption, just as so many believers found a place in the written story of redemption—the Bible. And in the meantime, God has not left you without hope for the here and now. Your “future hope” is not just for heaven and eternal life. It’s also for your literal tomorrow, that your day-to- day life on earth can be both full and meaningful as you find God at work in the midst of it.

Lord, I feel this hope in the pit of my being that you created me for more than I am experiencing right now. I ask that you become so active and alive in my life that I will sense my role in the unfolding story of redemption that you continue to convey to me. Thank you for using me to move the story along, even though my part seems small. I trust that with you, even the insignificant can produce great and mighty results.

© 2004 Marcia Ford . All rights reserved.

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