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Hi there. Welcome to Well Lit Soul. Where we seek God, face darkness, and shine brighter. This season of the blog is all about encouragement. So, today’s blog is called: Hope Starter Pack.

For the longest time, I’ve been thinking about how to articulate to someone in the depths of their darkness why they should continue to have faith in God when it feels like He isn’t anywhere to be found. It’s tough because every situation is different, but this week, the internet offered a really helpful perspective that I want to share with you. 

It linked some key patterns in God’s process by looking at many of the notable men and women in the bible and reviewing how they started their walk with God and comparing it to how they finished. The idea is to offer hope and encouragement by remembering their journeys in full. There were several examples shared, but I’ll give you three:

First is Abraham, and God’s promise to him in Genesis 17:4-6 was that he would become a ‘father of many nations’. But the start of Abraham’s story is a man named Abram and his wife Sarai who were barren and unable to have children. But as we can see in Matthew 1:1-16, Abraham eventually did have his son Isaac and that genealogy extended all the way to Jesus.

Next is Joseph who dreamed that the sun, moon, and stars would bow down to him in Genesis 37:9. However, quickly thereafter he was stripped of his colorful coat, thrown into a pit, and sold into slavery by his brothers as seen in Genesis 37:23-28. And Joseph continued to have a treacherous journey, but if we keep reading, we learn he eventually gained the trust of Pharoah and was put in charge of distributing all of the food during the seven years of famine as seen in Genesis 41:55.

Last is Mary who was told by the angel Gabriel that she was ‘highly favored and blessed among women’ in Luke 1:28. However, her story began with a pregnancy before she was married by someone who was not her future husband, Joseph. And he was so ashamed he wanted to put her away as we can see in Matthew 1:19. But we learn that the child was from the Holy Spirit and would ultimately save people from their sins (Matthew 1:20-21).

There are countless other examples of men and women who started off in less than ideal circumstances or encountered profound trials throughout their walk with God. But as long as they remained faithful, God blessed them physically and spiritually. Because as we saw a few weeks ago, God is never slack concerning His promises 2 Peter 3:9.

It’s important to note that we will never fully understand how or when God works. But we can examine the scriptures to learn how He has worked in the past and allow that to encourage us moving forward into the unknown. So when we encounter our own trials, we must not be dismayed or deterred. We can look at God’s track record and see how He takes care of the righteous. 

And at no point in time did any of these people know what the future held or how things would work out. But they remained obedient and kept going. The same applies for us. We will experience ongoing frustration and heartache if we get so focused on trying to figure out and understand God’s process because His ways are not our ways. We know this from Isaiah 55:8-9 which reads,

8 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. 

So, our job is not to think about the ‘how’ or focus on the ‘when’. The ‘how’ does not concern us and the ‘when’ is none of our business. Our job is to focus on today and trust God with tomorrow because He has a plan far greater than our understanding.

Connection Question: What examples in scripture help remind you that God is faithful to those who remain faithful to Him? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to connect with you about it.