Hidden Doors to Something New

 

...and make the Valley of Achor

        a door of hope.

                Hosea 2. 15

(We are not stuck here

      in this miry bog

      or deep valley of despair.

God redeems the broken

            and troubled places

and reveals His hope 

     right here in the midst.

Life can be very different,

   even in the hard stuff.

He does not necessarily provide

              a door of escape

              but always of enduring,

   a new strengthened heart

   even in familiar surroundings.

We don't just face the difficulty,

      but walk with Him in it.

And that changes everything.)

O LORD,

We are all surrounded by

      troubled situations,

      in one manner or another,

           things visible to others,

     and monumental issues

                no one else can see.

Open to us Your way

          and Your redeeming in this.

Help us to know

        that hope is not

        just wishful thinking,

but in Your hope

         we can stake our lives.

Open Your way to us

       even in impossible situations

   that we can follow You into it.

Be Thou our vision

    that we would trust You

    as you reveal open doors

 all around us,

          Your redemptive way in this.