A Prayer and Fasting Devotional
I recently spent a week in a small village in Uganda. Manicured huts, but no running water pipes or electrical posts, lined the red dirt road. My teammates and I spent several hours a day with families in the village, and as we did we learned how many parents and children were coping amidst the hard losses of HIV/AIDS. I kept pondering the motto of one of the local ministries: “Hope does not disappoint.” When people do not hope, or rather, when they do not hope in the thing worth hoping in, they grow sick. Families in this village, though, were testifying to how hoping in God has changed their perspectives--and their lives. Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”
Part of the reason we fast is to teach our hearts that we do not hope in our own strength, nor in the satisfaction of the food we eat. We hope in Someone stronger and more satisfying, our only true hope. As you take time to put food aside today, ask yourself what you are hoping in. Let the Spirit minister to you as you search your heart. Do you believe that hoping in God is the only Hope that will not disappoint you? Where are you tempted to worry, to fear, to question, or even to expect God to act in your timeframe? Pray from Psalm 42:11, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”
Ponder God’s faithfulness to us in Christ Jesus. He promised He would rescue His people. He is faithful to the end, never failing in His redeeming purposes nor losing His power to fulfill His promises. When we have Christ Jesus the King as the aim of our hope, there will be a day to come that yields Eden-like satisfaction. Hope beyond death.
“…so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.” - Hebrews 6:18
“(for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.” - Hebrews 7:19
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” - Romans 15:13
We hope in many things, but there is only one hope that does not disappoint. As our stomachs rumble and remind us of our physical needs, let us remember that there is a hope that gives us eternal life – not just for today or tomorrow, but for all time. And that is a hope that does not disappoint, whether you are a victim of HIV/AIDS in Uganda or a harried servant in America.
Asha Garretson
Ministry Fellow at Cornell
