My hands shook as I clutched the positive pregnancy test. Could I really be seeing that second line just one month after my miscarriage?
As quickly as feelings of hope rose within me, fear swept in and took over. I refused to get excited.
“Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD”—(Psalm 31:24 NIV).
I didn’t want to say anything to Jonny, my husband, just yet. After the heartbreak of losing our first baby at ten weeks in January, I couldn’t face the thought of more grief and disappointment. So I prayed.
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer”—(Romans 12:12 NIV).
Cautiously optimistic, I prayed to the One who was already knitting together this little life in my womb.
I thanked Him for the hope that this new life promised.
I cried to Him in fear as I worried about losing this newfound hope.
I prayed when I didn’t even have the words to say. He knew.
“There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off”—(Proverbs 23:18 NIV)
However, as the weeks went on, I began to celebrate the new life and gift of hope that God had given us.
I had come to the realisation that the outcome of this pregnancy did not lie within me but in the hands of the Life-giver, the very Author of breath!
He had carried me through the loss of one little life and I could be confident that He was going to be with me should I have to face another.
“Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God”—(Psalm 42:11 ESV).
I am still pregnant and clinging to this hope that God has given us.
No matter what the outcome of this pregnancy, I have learned that God is still good. His ways are higher than my ways and my job is simply to trust Him whilst praising Him for how far He has brought me.
“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 ESV).
How can I be so sure that God is good when I suffered such a big heartbreak and disappointment?
I can be sure because God gives me a hope that goes far beyond this world and this life. I have eternal life and the hope of heaven because I have put my faith in the Lord Jesus.
“That at that time you were without Christ…having no hope and without God in the world”—(Ephesians 2:12).
The Bible tells us that every one of us is born with the problem of sin, and if we die with this sin unforgiven our eternity will be spent perishing in hell. Hope sure seems lost!
But the amazing news is that the Lord Jesus died for our sins. He took the eternal punishment that sins deserve, meaning that we have the opportunity to go free!
When hope seemed lost, He offered us eternal life.
This hope is different from the hope I have for giving birth to a healthy baby in November. That may or may not happen. The hope that the Lord Jesus offers is a certain hope. A guaranteed home in heaven.
You can have this certain hope if you will only trust the Lord Jesus as your Saviour and Forgiver of sins.
“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 ESV).
