Hope Transferred

It seems like oftentimes lately my hopes go unfulfilled.  I'm reflecting on a passage Tim preached on a few weeks ago.  It is after Jesus' crucifixion and two of his disciples are headed out of Jerusalem.  Jesus appears to them on the road.  They don't recognize Him.  As they are telling this "stranger" the story of Jesus' crucifixion, they say, "But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel."  (Luke 24:21)  Imagine their disappointment.  Imagine their broken hopes. Yet God had something so much better.  He had an ETERNAL king, rather than just an earthly one.  He also had much suffering and tribulation ahead for them, which carries with it a reward far greater than earthly rule.  

I struggle with wanting what I want and wanting it now.  Yet God often has something so much better.  And I don't mean that the thing I want is a lesser version of the thing I will get, if I will just wait.  I mean that in the waiting, in the longing, I find a treasure worth far more than the thing I am wanting.  I find Jesus.  I find intimacy with the Lord.  And my hope transfers to Him. 

Yet I still struggle.  Even after I have found this treasure.  Even after I have had sweet intimacy with the Lord, I still long.  I still want the earthly thing more than the heavenly thing.  Such is the life of a sinner.