A loving and patient God continues to offer hope.

A large city’s school system had a program to help students keep up with their homework while in the city’s hospitals. A teacher assigned to the program received a routine call to visit a student in the hospital. She obtained the child’s room number and name. She spoke to the boy’s teacher and found out the class was studying nouns and adverbs.

No one told the teacher the boy was in the hospital because he had been badly burned, and he was in a great deal of pain. When she saw the patient-student, it took all of her strength to continue. “I’m a teacher from your school,” she explained. “I’ve been sent here to help you with your nouns and adverbs.”

The two worked on an assignment, then the teacher left feeling defeated. She believed she had accomplished nothing, but the next day a nurse applauded her.

“I don’t know what you did yesterday, but the patient’s outlook has changed. He is fighting back and responding to treatment,” the nurse happily explained.

Two weeks later the boy explained the teacher’s visit gave him hope. “They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on homework with a dying boy, would they?”

Hope is a powerful tool of the Lord, which he continues to offer.

Max Lucado explains, “Isaiah revealed Judah’s impending doom. God vowed not to listen to the prayers of his people because of their excessive sin, but God assured he would restore Israel after purging it of sin. A loving and patient God continued to offer hope to the Israelites. He offered forgiveness if they repented.”

Isaiah 1:18 says, “Come now, let us settle the matter,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” God promised he would purge the Israelites.

The Same is true for us. Whatever is causing you and I to feel hopeless, the Lord can remove from our lives. Past mistakes and difficulties are no match for his grace and mercy. He can turn our hopelessness into pure hope.

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