A New Day

By: Pastor Johnie Akers     

Lamentations 3:26, “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.”  A group of behavioral Scientists put some rats in a tank of water, and observed them to see how long they would survive before drowning. The average time was 17 minutes. Then, they repeated the experiment, but this time they “rescued” the rats just before the point of drowning, dried them off and returned them to their cages.  They fed them, and let them play for a few days, and repeated the drowning experiment. This time, the average survival time for these rats increased from 17 minutes to 36 hours.  The scientists explained thephenomenon by pointing out that the second time around, the rats had hope. They believed that they could survive this, because they had done so before.  One scientist said, “They were able to survive because they had previously been saved.”  Hope is an incredible thing.  Hope gives strength, endurance, and life.  It is amazing that even the smallest rodents, as illustrated by this experiment can develop an innate sense of hope.  It has been said that a person can live 3 days without water, 40 days without food—but not one second without hope.  Hope is a powerful commodity.  So often the difficulties that arise in our lives challenge our ability to maintain hope.  We often feel so overwhelmed by circumstances beyond our control that we feel like we are drowning.  Yet, if there is a glimmer of hope within us that we will be saved from our impending difficulties, we maintain enough strength to keep afloat.  Friend, the good news for you today is, there is hope.  In spite of the difficulties Jeremiah lamented over regarding the condition of Israel during the time of the writing of our Scripture lesson today, the weeping prophet still uttered these words, “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.”  It has been said, “As long as there is life, there is hope.”  Well, let me say, “As long as there is the Lord, there is hope.”  It is our hope, our confidence, in a heavenly Father that will not allow us to drown beneath the challenges that we face, but will keep us afloat with each new day.