By Melanie Mar Chow

O Lord, you alone are my hope. I’ve trusted you, O Lord, from childhood. Yes, you have been with me from birth; from my mother’s womb you have cared for me. No wonder I am always praising you! My life is an example to many, because you have been my strength and protection. That is why I can never stop praising you; I declare your glory all day long. –Psalm 71:5-8 NLT

I am still amazed at God’s goodness being demonstrated.   In my continuous service to college students, I hear myself reminding students that I have experienced a lot of things. My words to them are not to give them anxiety but instead to rest and hold onto the proven hope we have in God.  I want to inspire confidence in them that His works indeed are good.  I have seen God work again and again, faithfully. February brings the reminder of the beginnings of my mom’s days on earth, almost 90 years ago.  How she loved the Lord and how her grandmother’s faith continues to live in me – from the days of her youth in an internment camp, to being a grade school teacher, wife, mother and in her last days of life, as a newly retired elementary school librarian who died of terminal cancer.

This week, the Asbury University revival meetings were amazing to see. My friends in InterVarsity had invited many to pray for revival almost five years ago.  From their personal experiences, renowned authors James Choung and Ryan Pfeifer challenged us — that if we pray faithfully, God is still about showing us revival in His people. Many campus revivals following the recent revival happening at Asbury University in Kentucky were the fulfillment of those prayers for revival. Young believers experienced the movement of the Holy Spirit to influence their lives for Christ.  That is why I have God’s confidence that He can bring hope into our current situation.

In the same way we are confident of this hope, the days have been full of discouraging news.  Hope for many was momentarily displaced when two discouraged shooters took away the lives of many in both Southern and Northern California days apart just as 2023 began.  In the second month of the year, I was awakened by shaking at 4 am to a 4.0+ earthquake in Malibu.  Soon after came the huge earthquakes and loss of life (33k and counting) in Turkey and Syria.  War is still happening in Ukraine.  People are still contracting COVID, some having long COVID symptoms and some passing from their illness.

In times like these, we need to seize the confidence of proven hope.  We need to cling to our communities that allow us to be redirected to God’s purposes and promises.  If we are praying, and we don’t find hope immediately, embrace the hope that others cling to, either in the historical stories of the Bible, or in the testimonies of people who navigated more discouraging times and still followed God to their eternal hope.

I was reminded of how important the intercessory prayer of others helps me to regain the confidence of God in His proven hope.  Often when I share a prayer request, I forget that my friends who received that request are faithful and are interceding on my behalf.  Recently, I had to travel in the midst of storms to serve in student ministry.  However, the flight to my destination had rough turbulence and with the storms, the possibility of making my connecting flight seemed like an impossibility.  However, in a split second I realized that my friends were praying, allowing me to shift from doubt to trusting in something — or rather, Someone — greater.   I needed to move from looking at the storm to the hope of my friends who knew the Creator of the storms.  I began looking to the ultimate Pilot who was directing the flight crew to get me to my destination.  Once I redirected my heart and thoughts, I was reassured with a new confidence.  I will testify and give hope to others of God and give Him the glory deserved.

We need to trust that when we pray for events to happen, God has something in store — even when the chaos of life comes in.  God’s answers to those prayers are an ever present reminder to God’s daily fulfillment of the promise to be our hope.  May that proof of God’s hope empower us still to dream, live, and be reassured that God is with us even in the challenges of our current days. As you read this, pause and pray Romans 15:13: 

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit (NLT).

If you need more reminders of the confidence we have in God, I leave you with this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq8PzU2W8VI

I pray as you watch the lyric video of Everlasting God, the same confident hope is rekindled and brings the remembrance of God’s presence as you shine your light to your cities and corners of the world.

Rev. Melanie Mar Chow serves God through Asian American Christian Fellowship, the campus ministry division of the Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society (JEMS). She has been an ordained American Baptist minister since 2004. A Pacific Northwest native, she currently lives with her husband and daughter in Southern California.