Hope in God

The restless nights, the tear-filled eyes;

The soul in anguish, the cloudy skies.

A weary body, a fragile mind;

Worrisome thoughts, and hope declined.

 

A mist of doubt and fear arise;

Obscuring light and God’s sunrise.

Where once I bathed in help divine,

A deafness to my prayers I find

 

No strength I gain from stained-glass towers,

Birds are hushed, and bloomless flowers.

The world I view is monochrome,

Depression comes and makes its home.

 

Can confidence and hope emerge,

Where pain and worry do converge?

Is there buoyancy in tempest tossed,

A lighthouse beam for one who’s lost?

 

Depleted strength- no plan revealed;

My heart recalls a truth concealed-

A God who stills the raging sea,

Delights to save and set me free.

 

From my dark and cheerless place,

I call for intervening grace.

He lifts me from the waves below,

To heights of joy I did not know

 

He leads me to the waters still;

My soul restored – His perfect will.

All failure, fear and worry cease,

And in His presence perfect peace

 

My anxious soul has found its rest;

All waywardness and sin confessed.

A joy-filled path through valley deep,

A God of hope- my soul will keep.

 



The Wastelands of Discouragement

The beauty of the meadows fair

Replaced by barren deserts bare.

Eden’s lush and fruitful land

Exchanged for rocks and scorching sand.

 

The Scriptures read, the prayers are prayed;

The nights are cold- the soul dismayed.

The howling wolves; the bitter thirst;

Sojourning through a land accursed.

 

En Gedi’s springs cannot be found;

Pilgrim’s corpses all around.

Sinai’s burning bush concealed;

Canaan’s path is unrevealed.

 

All strength is sapped, no fight is left;

The spirit crushed, the soul bereft.

Abandoned, lost, and heart forlorn;

My friends-  the brier and the thorn.

 

Waterless dunes and arid planes;

The sandy storms and hurricanes.

These all attempt to overthrow

The truth within my soul I know.

 

Like Jesus from the Jordan led,

By Spirit to the tempter’s dread.

Though hungered, weary and deprived,

Strength to fight from God derived.

 

O weary desert trav’ller see;

Beyond Elijah’s juniper tree.

A rigid hope that stands secure-

The cross, the grave, the double-cure.

 

The wastelands of discouragement,

Fought by gospel armament.

Only by God’s truth applied,

Are desert seasons sanctified.

 

~ By Daniel Kriss, June 27, 2018

(Dealing with Discouragement)



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