The title of my blog is “Hope in a Stump!” The image of a tree stump doesn’t look very hopeful. Can you picture one in your mind’s eye? Maybe you had to cut down a tree in your yard and all that remained of that once magnificent and beautiful tree is a stump! Stumps don’t look very nice, do they? When I see a stump, I don’t think of hope. I think of loss.
The Bible refers to “stumps” a number of times. One account that recently caught my attention is Job 14:7-9. You may know the story of Job. It is a story of loss and hope. Job likens his life to a tree. The tree was chopped down and all that remained was a stump in the ground. The enjoyment of tree was no more. The shade that it provided was no more. The fruit it once bore was no more. Birds no longer found refuge in its branches. Job lost his possessions, his wealth, his social standing. All his children had died and he was losing his health.
Most of us have not have experienced the depth of Job’s loss, but we all know what it feels like to lose something or someone. Maybe you are in a season of loss and you feel and look like a stump left in the ground? You may have lost a family member in death or a job or a friendship or health or the death of a dream?
This is where the story starts to turn towards hope. There’s one thing that could not be taken from Job because he wouldn’t give it up. He wouldn’t surrender it, no matter the loss he experienced. And that one thing is hope.
Job said in Job 14:7-9:
7 “At least there is hope for a tree:
If it is cut down, it will sprout again,
and its new shoots will not fail.
8 Its roots may grow old in the ground
and its stump die in the soil,
9 yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put forth shoots like a plant.
Job never lost his spiritual sense of smell. After all the losses in his life, he could still smell the scent of water. The scent of water is God’s truth and God’s truth always set us free and releases hope. Take it from Job, a person who knows a little bit about hopeless situations. Do you find yourself in a hopeless situation today? The good news is that in Christ, you can experience God’s hope. All you need to do is trust the seed of God’s truth sown in you. It is powerful!
- The seed in the stump never stops reproducing and multiplying! Job says in verse 7: “At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.”
Though the stump looks dead & lifeless, the seed inside is very much alive! The Word of God sown in your heart will not fail! The more you give yourself to the truth, the more the seed of God’s Truth inside you will grow and mature. - The seed in the stump sends out new shoots in the new seasons of our lives no matter how difficult the season may be. It doesn’t matter how old or young you are. Your past doesn’t have the power to kill the seed, nor your present condition. God is the God of new beginnings! Notice what Job says in verse 7 “….it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.”
- The seed in the stump will follow the scent of water and will continue to grow. A new tree will grow out of the old stump! Jobs writes in verses 8 & 9: “Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant.”
What God did for Job He will do for you! If you remain “grounded” and “rooted” in God’s Truth, the Spirit of God will bring forth a new tree. There is hope within a stump. Be encouraged by God’s Word today.