ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

 SAPATE ME 31, 2026

SIOPE 17-20; SAAME 121:1-8

Amid all the questions, stresses, disappointments, and hardships of life, it is heartening to be able to say, "I know that my Redeemer lives."

‘I he uhouhonga ‘o e ngaahi fehu’i, mafasia, mamahi mo e ha’aha’a ‘o e hala fononga, ‘oku fakalotolahi ke te lava ‘o lea’aki, “Oku ou ‘ilo ‘oku mo’ui ‘a hoku Koeli.”

Everybody has it, even people who consider themselves to be completely irreligious. It gets you up in the morning and motivates you throughout the day. It comforts you when you are sad. It gives you hope when your dreams have been dashed. It causes you to endure when suffering enters your door. You use it to encourage others. What am I talking about? Faith. Everyone looks to someone or something for security. Everyone has some kind of rock of hope. Everyone hooks his life to something he thinks is secure and will always be there. Everyone has faith in something. What makes Christians different is not that we live by faith. No, what makes us different is the object of our faith.

The things that most people have faith in ultimately will fail them. Only one source provides unshakable security and hope in this fallen world. If you want sturdy peace of heart and mind, quit looking horizontally and lift up the eyes of your heart. God is the only reliable, unfailing, never-changing, and always-faithful rock of security and hope. You can put your hope in him-not just because he has awesome power and makes wonderful promises, but because he rules over every situation and relationship you will ever have in your life. This is where Job's heart goes in the middle of horrible suffering and loss, the faulty counsel of friends, and confusion about what God is doing. The words he speaks in the midst of his hardships have given strength and courage to generation after generation of believers. Job might not know and understand much at

this point in his life, but one transformative thing he knows for sure:

I know that my Redeemer lives,

and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

And after my skin has been thus destroyed,

yet in my flesh I shall see God. (Job 19:25-26)

Speaking as a prophet, uttering words that have meaning beyond his understanding, Job reminds himself where unshakable hope and help can be found. What gives Job hope? God is alive and will never go away. After everything else has passed away, God will still stand. But there is more. Job knows that even though he is suffering, even though God has confused him, and even though God seems distant, God has not forsaken him and there will be a day when Job will see God.

Even if you're not facing hardship now, you will someday. In your tears and loss, may you look up with confidence and hope and say, "I am unsure of many things right now, but this I know for certain: I know that my Redeemer lives!"