Marriner’s Moment: Hope Reimagined – Part 2

By Pastor Melvin O. Marriner
Grove Church

“Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all you that hope in the LORD.”
Psalms 31:24

Let’s be real. Most of us want the stars, but we don’t want the scars. We want the glory (or blessings) but we can’t handle the story. There’s a process that we must go through to get to the product or achieve the prize, but some of us don’t want to put in the time, effort, blood, sweat and tears to get there; we just want the end result. Too many people have resigned themselves to the fact that ‘these are the cards’ they’ve been dealt, and there is nothing that can be done to change the ending of the story!
Wrong! God wants to develop us, deliver us, draw us, disclose some things to us and, yes, sometimes, He even wants to discipline us.
It’s unfortunate that some individuals who live in what they consider to be hopeless situations, eventually end up lowering their expectations to meet their reality. Just as the laboratory animals that I mentioned last week gave up after an hour, we sometimes give up on our circumstances or give up on people. Hope reimagined requires us to press onward in faith, despite what we see.
We have choices in life. We can settle for anything and live a partial or unfilled life where our expectations are lower, or we can work harder and pray longer to achieve the greatness God has promised. And, let’s be clear. Greatness does NOT necessarily mean stardom or wealth. Greatness can be as simple and satisfying as a life of peace and blessings that come in the form of a promotion, a loving and God-fearing spouse, witnessing an unsaved family member give his or her life to Christ, or leaving a legacy of faith to our loved ones.
Peace and power,

© Dr. Melvin O. Marriner,
October 2016

We invite you to join us at Grove Church, 5910 West Norfolk Road, Portsmouth, Virginia, Sundays at 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., Tuesdays at noon and Wednesdays at 7 p.m.