I Choose Today to Hope in the Stump: Remnant Series – Part 3

There’s something sobering about the image of a stump.

A tree once full of life—cut down.

Only the base remains. Silent. Lifeless. Forgotten.

Have you ever felt like that?

Like everything familiar has been stripped away?

Like all that’s left of a dream, a relationship, or a season is a flat, broken remnant of what once was?

In Isaiah 6:13, the Lord speaks of Israel being cut down in judgment, saying,

“As a terebinth or oak leaves a stump when it is cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”

It’s easy to read that and feel the heaviness. But tucked into that verse is a flicker of hope:

The stump isn’t dead. There’s a seed still alive within it.

It may not look like much—but with God, it’s enough.

Throughout Scripture, God has a history of bringing life from unlikely places. Sarah’s womb, declared barren. Ruth’s life, marked by loss. David’s forgotten lineage. Jesus’ death and resurrection. Again and again, God begins in places the world calls finished.

The stump may look like the end—but with God, it’s the beginning.

Isaiah 11:1 says,

“Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot—yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root.”

That Branch is Jesus.

He didn’t abandon the stump.

He grew something eternal from it.

This is the heartbeat of the remnant life—believing that even what feels cut off or destroyed is not beyond God’s ability to redeem.

Maybe it’s a dream that’s fallen flat.

A relationship that’s fractured.

A ministry that feels fruitless.

A season that feels more like loss than growth.

Let this encourage you: God preserves a holy seed in the places that look the most desolate.

He is not done. He is not absent. And He is not wasting your pain.

Hope doesn’t ignore the stump.

It doesn’t pretend it wasn’t cut down.

Hope looks at the stump and waits for the shoot.

It trusts that new life will come.

That fruit will grow.

That the One who brings life from death is still doing what He’s always done.

You don’t need to see the full tree again.

You just need to believe that He’s still growing something holy—right there in the cut-down place.

“The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope.” —Romans 15:12

“Jesus,

I don’t always understand why things have to be cut down.

But I trust that You’re still at work in the stump.

Grow something holy from what feels like ruin.

I choose today to hope in the stump.

In Your name I pray, Amen.”