Lesson 7

Can I find hope in difficult circumstances?

Life is full of choices.  We can choose to focus on the difficulties we experience or we can choose to look deeper into what God is developing in us and in our husbands.  God does not desire evil for us, but He promises that He will be with us through everything in our lives and our marriages.  In Jeremiah 29:11, it says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Sandra knew that she had a choice in how she responded to her husband’s struggle to rid himself of impurity.  “My greatest hope is that, regardless of circumstances, the Lord will continue to provide all I need.  Particularly, He will enable me to have hope and joy in the midst of suffering.  I spend a lot of time resisting or succumbing to the temptation to fear suffering.  I cannot expect that I won’t suffer, but that Christ will never leave me, and His Spirit will ever be refining me into His glorious image.  I can also hope in the fact that our God delights in blessing and only allows suffering as it pertains to completing His wise and perfect plan.”