A Prayer to Keep, Hope, Alive by Christine Brown, read by Leah Martin.

But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His unfailing

love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine, Psalm 33, 18 through 19.

It was my son's fourth birthday. We'd gathered with family and friends at the local pizza

place to celebrate. After indulging in more pizza and cake than I'd like to admit, we

set our goodbyes and loaded our sleepy preschooler into the car as he gripped his favorite souvenir

from the day, a helium-filled birthday balloon. Late into the evening, our son watched that

balloon float effortlessly over the kitchen table. He loved it so much. Then, without

warning, he began praying out loud. Dear God, please help my balloon to stay alive forever.

Against all odds, our son held on to hope. As you can imagine, my mom instincts took over.

I didn't want my sweet boy to be disappointed when the inevitable happened. I dreaded the

day he woke up to find the shriveled balloon laying in a pile of curly string on the ground,

but I didn't know what to say, so I decided to trust God with this life lesson instead

of discouraging my boy's simple prayer. Psalm 33, 18 through 19, offers the same kind

of hope our son displayed when he prayed that day. I love how the psalmist emphasized

our need for hope, even in times of famine. But the eyes of the Lord are on those who

fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep

them alive in famine. In these verses, famine refers to times when

God's people literally lacked what they needed to survive. But we can also experience

spiritual and emotional famine when our hearts are parched because of our circumstances.

In those difficult times, God is our only hope, and because of his unfailing love, we can

keep our hope alive through our hardest days.

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