Also by Max Lucado
Inspirational
3:16
A Gentle Thunder
A Love Worth Giving
And the Angels Were Silent
Anxious for Nothing
Because of Bethlehem
Before Amen
Come Thirsty
Cure for the Common Life
Facing Your Giants
Fearless
Glory Days
God Came Near
Grace
Great Day Every Day
He Chose the Nails
He Still Moves Stones
How Happiness Happens
In the Eye of the Storm
In the Grip of Grace
It’s Not About Me
Jesus
Just Like Jesus
Max on Life
More to Your Story
Next Door Savior
No Wonder They Call
Him the Savior
On the Anvil
Outlive Your Life
Six Hours One Friday
The Applause of Heaven
The Great House of God
Traveling Light
Unshakable Hope
When Christ Comes
When God Whispers
Your Name
You Are Never Alone
You’ll Get Through This
Fiction
Christmas Stories
Miracle at the Higher
Grounds Café
The Christmas Candle
Bibles (General Editor)
The Lucado Encouraging
Word Bible
Children’s Daily
Devotional Bible
Grace for the Moment
Daily Bible
The Lucado Life
Lessons Study Bible
Children’s Books
A Max Lucado
Children’s Treasury
Do You Know I
Love You, God?
God Always Keeps
His Promises
God Forgives Me,
and I Forgive You
God Listens When I Pray
Grace for the Moment:
365 Devotions for Kids
Hermie, a Common
Caterpillar
I’m Not a Scaredy Cat
Itsy Bitsy Christmas
Just in Case You
Ever Wonder
Lucado Treasury of
Bedtime Prayers
One Hand, Two Hands
Thank You, God,
for Blessing Me
Thank You, God,
for Loving Me
The Boy and the Ocean
The Crippled Lamb
The Oak Inside the Acorn
The Tallest of Smalls
You Are Mine
You Are Special
Young Adult Books
3:16
It’s Not About Me
Make Every Day Count
Wild Grace
You Were Made to
Make a Difference
Gift Books
Fear Not Promise Book
For the Tough Times
God Thinks You’re
Wonderful
Grace for the Moment
Grace Happens Here
Happy Today
His Name Is Jesus
Let the Journey Begin
Live Loved
Mocha with Max
Safe in the Shepherd’s Arms
This Is Love
You Changed My Life
To Jack and Deb Graham and O. S. and Susie Hawkins.
The completion of this book coincides with the
commemoration of fifty years of marriage and
ministry for each of these wonderful couples.
We celebrate their devotion to Jesus and each other.
© 2020 Max Lucado
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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Scripture quotations marked AMP are from the Amplified® Bible. Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)
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ISBN 978-1-4002-2649-8 (eBook)
ISBN 978-1-4002-2647-4 (HC)
ISBN 978-1-4002-2674-0 (IE)
Epub Edition October 2020 9781400226498
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020941582
Printed in the United States of America
2021222324LSC10987654321
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Catch a Glimpse of New Possibilities
PART 1: BELIEVE YOUR TRUSTWORTHY GOD 1. Trust Your Shepherd
2. Give Your Fears to Your Father
3. Seeing with Eyes Closed
4. Don’t Give Up
5. Follow the God Who Follows You
PART 2: ENJOY GOD’S GOOD GIFTS 6. Accept the Gift of Himself
7. Rely On the Holy Spirit
8. Shelter in His Protection
9. Settle Down Deep in His Love
PART 3: GROUND YOURSELF IN HIS PROMISES 10. Hold On to Your Soul Anchor
11. Choose Faith
12. Let Your Father Fight for You
13. Keep Believing God’s Promise
PART 4: INFLUENCE YOUR WORLD 14. Be You
15. Share What God Has Given
16. Love Those in Need
17. Make a Difference
PART 5: NURTURE AN ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE 18. Reserve Judgment of Life’s Storms
19. Chronicle What Christ Has Done
20. Listen for the Song of the Whip-poor-will
Epilogue: A Final Word
Questions for Reflection Part 1
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Sources
Notes
Acknowledgments
When I think about the people who made this book happen, I think about some of the finest people I have ever known. Joey Paul, Janene MacIvor, Karen Hill, Carol Bartley, Andrea Lucado, Greg and Susan Ligon, Steve and Cheryl Green, Mark Glesne, Erica Smith, Tim Paulson, and Don Jacobson. To each of you, thank you.
Introduction
Catch a Glimpse of New Possibilities
Water. All Noah can see is water. The evening sun sinks into it. The clouds are reflected in it. His boat is surrounded by it. Water. Water to the north. Water to the south. Water to the east. Water to the west. Water.
All Noah can see is water.
He can’t remember when he’s seen anything but. The world has been destroyed. It was the end of everything he had known. He and the boys had barely pushed the last hippo up the ramp when heaven opened a thousand fire hydrants. Within moments the boat was rocking, and for days the rain was pouring, and for weeks Noah has been wondering, How long is this going to last? For forty days it has rained. For months they have floated. They have eaten the same food, smelled the same smells, and looked at the same faces. After a certain point you run out of things to say to each other. You even begin to run low on hope. Can God re-create this world? Is he able to start over? Can he, and we, begin again?
Finally the boat bumped, and the rocking stopped. Mrs. Noah gave Mr. Noah a look, and Noah gave the hatch a shove and poked his head through. The hull of the ark was resting on ground, but the ground was still surrounded by water. “Noah,” she yelled up at him, “what do you see?”
“Water.”
He sent a raven on a scouting mission; it never returned. He sent a dove. It came back shivering and spent, having found no place to roost. Then, just this morning, he tried again. He pulled a dove out of the bowels of the ark and ascended the ladder. The morning sun caused them both to squint. As he kissed the breast of the bird, he felt a pounding heart. Had he put a hand on his chest, he would have felt another. With a prayer he let it go and watched until the bird was no bigger than a speck.
All day he looked for the dove’s return. In between chores he opened the hatch and searched. The boys wanted him to play a little pin the tail on the donkey, but he passed. He chose instead to climb into the crow’s nest and look. The wind lifted his gray hair. The sun warmed his weather-beaten face. But nothing lifted his heavy heart. He had seen nothing. Not in the morning. Not after lunch. Not later.
Now the sun is setting, and the sky is darkening, and he has come to look one final time, but all he sees is water. Water to the north. Water to the south. Water to the east. Water to the . . .
You know the feeling. You have stood where Noah stood. You’ve known your share of floods. Flooded by sorrow at the cemetery, anger at the disability in your body, fear of the uncertainty of a pandemic. You’ve seen the floodwater rise, and you’ve likely seen the sun set on your hopes and dreams as well. You’ve been on Noah’s boat.
And you’ve needed what Noah needed; you’ve needed hope. Hope doesn’t promise an instant solution but rather the possibility of an eventual one. Sometimes all we need is a little hope.
That’s all Noah needed. And that’s what Noah received.
The old sailor stares at the sun bisected by the horizon. One could hardly imagine a more beautiful sight. But he’d give this one and a hundred more for an acre of dry ground and a grove of grapes. Mrs. Noah’s voice reminds him that dinner is on the table and he should lock the hatch, and he’s just about to call it a day when he hears the cooing of the dove. This is how the Bible describes the moment: “When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf!” (Gen. 8:11).
An olive leaf. Noah would have been happy to have the bird—but to have the leaf! This leaf was more than foliage; this was promise. The bird brought more than a piece of a tree; it brought hope. For isn’t that what hope is? Hope is an olive leaf—evidence of dry land after a flood. Proof to the dreamer that dreaming is worth the risk.
Are you in need of some hope? Could you use a fresh start? A redo? A mulligan? At some point in life we all could. The oh-so-welcome news of Scripture is this: God is a God of fresh starts. He is the author of the new chapter, the architect of the new design, the voice behind the new song.
God knows the way forward. No matter what kind of disappointment or grief or trouble or heartache you’ve encountered, God offers an opportunity to begin again. In his plan prodigals get a new robe, the weary find new strength, and the lonely find a friend.
Those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint. (Isa. 40:31 NKJV)
Your current circumstances will not get the final say in your life.
To all the Noahs of the world, to all who search the horizon for a glimpse of hope, God proclaims, “Yes!” And he comes. He comes as a dove. He comes bearing fruit from a distant land, from our future home. He comes with a leaf of promise that he can make all things new.
That is the theme of the book you hold, a combination of new thoughts and some favorite ones from prior books. The theme is simply this: Your hope can be restored. Your dreams can be renewed. By God’s grace you can find your way to dry land, watch the waters subside, and step out on fresh soil.
With God as your guide, you can begin again.
part one
Believe Your Trustworthy God
My dad decorated our den with a stump. I was just a kid at the time, eleven years old, maybe twelve. The perfect age to be fascinated with the idea of a tree stump sitting next to the fireplace.
>
Over the fireplace, a clock.
Next to the fireplace, fireplace tools.
Next to the tools, a stump.
Awesome.
He came home from work with it one day. It took up the better portion of the bed of his pickup. That’s where it lay when I first saw it. Dad pulled it out of his truck and let it fall onto the concrete driveway.
“What is it, Dad?”
“It’s a tree stump,” he answered with no small amount of pride.
Dad worked in the oil fields of West Texas. It was his job to make sure the pump machinery functioned smoothly. Apparently this tree trunk was interfering with his work. Quite honestly I don’t remember why it troubled him. Perhaps it blocked his access to an engine. Maybe it leaned too far across a dirt path. Whatever the reason, it kept him from doing his work in the way he wanted to do it. So he yanked it out of the ground. He wrapped one end of a chain around the trunk and the other end around his trailer hitch. The contest was over before it began.
But dislodging the tree wasn’t enough for him; he wanted to display it. Some men hang antlers on their walls. Others fill a room with deer heads or a taxidermied bass. My dad opted to decorate our den with a tree trunk.
Mom was less than enthused. As they stood on the driveway and exchanged animated opinions, I examined the bagged quarry. The trunk was as wide as my size twenty-nine waist. The bark had long since dried and was easy to peel away. Thumb-thick roots hung limp from the base. I’ve never considered myself to be a connoisseur of dead trees, but this much I knew: this trunk was a real beauty.
Over the years I’ve often reflected on my dad’s decision to turn a trunk into decor, especially because I consider myself to be a tree trunk of my own making. When God found me, I was a fruitless stump with deep roots. I offered no beauty to the landscape of the world. No one found shade under my limbs. I even interfered with the work of the Father. Even so, he found a place for me. It required a good yank and no small amount of cleaning up, but he took me from badlands to his home and displayed me as a work of his own.