Our Hope is In the Lord

When our barns are filled
Or the fields are dry
Our hope remains in the Lord
Not a grip of despair
On the wheel of our life
But a joy and a rest on His Word


When grief comes to steal 
Our song in the night
His melody’s rings out so strong
That tells of the stream
And His pasture that’s green
And our Shepherd who leads us along


Our Hope is in the Lord by Peter Caligiuri copyright 2021 all rights reserved

Now More Than Ever!

The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom then shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1 KJV

When I go for a quiet walk in the park or wade in the waves at the beach, peace seems an easy concept to get a hold of. But with our nation in crisis, and people lining up for miles just hoping for a plane ride out of Afghanistan, peace sounds more like a fairy tale than a reality. In Psalm twenty-seven, King David found himself in a similar circumstance, surrounded by an army, as powerful and deadly as the Taliban. His enemies had already wiped out nearly every man woman and child in the town of Anathoth, for simply giving him and his men a few loaves of bread and a single sword. But on that evening as David looked down at the encampment of blood thirsty men, God asked Him what he was afraid of and on David’s darkest night, the answer came. “The Lord is my light and my salvation. Why should we be afraid?” Just as in David’s day, the Lord remains our light and the only one We can depend on to help us through. Our current state of helplessness does us the favor of reminding us that He alone is true strength!

So what are you facing? What challenge is on your path this morning? God has allowed this situation. At times like these people often say, “God is still in control.”. While that of course is true, it would be even more accurate to say that, “God is more in control now than ever: because we are not!”  He wants us to see that now more than ever, He is our hope and our salvation and we don’t ever need to be afraid!

In God We Trust

Lord you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them. Psalm 10:17

Here in the United States our national motto is “In God We Trust” and it is interesting that it appears, not on our flag, nor directly in our constitution but on our money. But it was not at the height of our prosperity that we adopted this phrase, but during the dark days of the Civil War. Despite the ultimate victory of the Northern States, the reality was that both sides suffered devastation, death and tragedy on a scale never seen before or since in our history. When our hopes were at their lowest it was introduced on the 2 cent piece in 1864. Maybe that is instructive for our day of social upheaval, violence and division. We must remember that our trust in God is not a bold boast but a cry to Him for help. Today’s verse reminds us that hope is not in victory or success, but in the promise that God will hear our cry. He is our hope this morning and forever. So what is your disappointment? What is your despair? Where are you feeling the weakest? Remember that He has promised to hear, to come and to comfort. If we put our trust in God, we are saying not that things are great but that whatever comes we will fully and only belong to Him!