LifeDate Fall 2024 – Hope and a Future
by Barbara Lane Geistfeld, D.V.M.
Has the Lord placed you in a fiery forge lately? Do the circumstances in your life land on you like blows from a sledgehammer? Are you weary from following Jesus through rough times with no end in sight? I think we have all been there, and sometimes, it seems, we will always be there.
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines the adjective forged as “formed by pressing or hammering with or without heat—especially, made into a desired shape by heating and hammering.” What a great analogy to the life of a Christian! Does not our Father in heaven heat us and hammer us throughout our entire life to shape us into the son or daughter that He has desired and planned for all along? The prophet Jeremiah said:
“‘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’” (Jeremiah 29:11).
It is not easy to see God’s plans when in the middle of the forge. It is sometimes impossible to feel His love in the blows of the hammer. But our future and our hope are assured in the blood of the Lamb. Our Jesus is our hope and future.
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Tribulation sounds a lot like “heat and hammer,” does it not? The Apostle Paul spent his entire ministry being shipwrecked, beaten with rods, lashed, stoned, jailed, chained, falsely accused, and maligned. And in the end, he was martyred in Rome. Paul knew that God’s promise of a hope and a future were assured in the promises of Jesus.
While in Madagascar last October, we watched young men take a slab of iron, heat it to red-hot in a forge, and then pound the daylights out of it with sledgehammers. It was amazing to see a shovel head appear before our eyes. It took an incredible number of blows to shape it into the final desired shape. In fact, if you’ve ever watched a blacksmith or an iron worker, you know they heat the iron in the fire until it is red-hot, then pound it, heat it to red-hot again, pound it, heat it again, and so on until it is finally in its “desired shape.”
As we live out our lives to our last breath, let us continue to walk with Jesus. He is our calm in the middle of the storm. He is our cool rest in the middle of the red-hot, fiery forge. He knows our hammer blows and pains and sorrows, so He has said to each of us, in love:
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29).