We get a little older and think,
"Maybe if I'm rich, maybe if I make it to the top of my profession,
maybe if I achieve success in the eyes of my peers-then I can have some hope
in these things." Same song, different verse! As adults we hang our
hopes on things that are just as shallow as those hooks we ridicule others
of using.
An intelligent, educated visionary who was a prolific writer and thinker
gave us solid advice years ago in a letter he wrote to some friends in Rome.
He insisted that if you do anything in this life, you must put your hope in
a sure thing. |
|
Hope doesn't disappoint - at least not REAL HOPE. False Hope does - and if
you are disappointed in your life, if you are discouraged, you need real
hope. And God says you can develop the right kind of hope in your life.
"... let our faith and love be like a suit of armor. Our firm hope
that
we will be saved is our helmet."
1 Thessalonians 5:8 (CEV)
You can become a hopeful person. You can make it part of your equipment. Do
you have a helmet? Now, a helmet is a crucial piece of equipment. Have you
ever played football? Did you wear a helmet when you played? If you didn't,
you wouldn't remember if you played or not!
A helmet is critical for protection and hope is what enables you to endure
the battles in life. There are no fatal blows when you have the helmet of
hope that God offers.
Are you grabbing hold of your hope?
There is an interesting story about the nation of Israel that illustrates
having hope in something secure . . . like God! In the book of Numbers we
discover that Moses sends out 12 spies that look at the Promised Land. Get
that? The promised land. This was the land that had been promised to Israel
by God.
God says, "The land is yours. It's in the box, it's in the bag, I'm
going to give it to you. All you have to do is trust me. All you have to do
is persevere. All you have to do is cling to the hope. It's yours."
Moses sent out 12 spies. They all see the same things. They all see the same
way. They all see it flowing with milk and honey. They see the
possibilities. They see the same people that are living there.
Two of them come back and say, "We've got to go there. We've got to
take that land. God promised it to us and it's really good. This is no time
to give in." That's what two of them say. Ten of them come back, the
same set of circumstances, and the other ten say, "We saw the land and
it is flowing with milk and honey, but we saw the obstacles.."
In other words, their thought process follows this line: "The whole
task rests on our strength and our ability and we're too weak." The ten
were living in the same set of circumstances as the two, but they didn't get
it. It's not the circumstances that determine someone's response, it's real
hope.
You know what? I want to hang my hope on the same hook the two spies chose.
How about you? Have you hung your hope on the right hook? And are you
grabbing hold of that hope with all your might. I hope you hang your hope on
the right hook-that's God.
Because when you do, God promises you a life. He promises you freedom. He
promises you forgiveness. He promises you a life beyond your wildest dreams.
Presbyterian simply means connected. We are connected to the Associate
Reformed Presbyterian Church. To find out more, visit www.arpsynod.org
.
|
