Tag: faith

Yes, there IS Hope – April 2014

Job 6:11 (NKJV)

11 “What strength do I have, that I should hope? And what is my end, that I should prolong my life?

There is no worse place to be than in a place of hopelessness.  It is a place that will engulf you and hold you hostage in the darkness of despair.  It is this despair that leads to a place of complete desperation.  If you have never been to that place, you are among the very fortunate few.  Job, in the Bible, had reached this place of loss.  He no longer had the strength to go on and began to question his very existence.  “What strength do I have, that I should hope? And what is my end, that I should prolong my life?” He lost it all.  His family, his fortune, his health and it seems even his friends only showed up to kick him while he was down.  His wife encouraged him to curse God and die.  It was a place of total and complete hopelessness.

 Whether it is from a major loss of a loved one, loss of your means of supporting and caring for your family, loss of your health, whatever the cause of the feeling of despair,  it is good to know that it does not have to last forever.  Wounds heal, new employment opportunity’s become available and hope keeps us moving closer to a God that loves us without fail.  That is what God offers each of us. HOPE.  Without it we remain stuck in a cesspool of despair.   Without hope, the light that should be at the end of the tunnel goes out.  I am happy to be able to tell you that there is a light that will not be extinguished.  Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” John 8:12.  Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NIV.For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope Jeremiah 29:1.

Even in what may feel like the most desperate situation, even in the darkest night, God has promised us that trust and believe in him, a future AND HOPE. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  We may not be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but faith (the substance of things hoped for) provides us with hope (the evidence of things not seen).  So no matter what you may be going through right now in this season, holdfast to the  hope which is in Christ Jesus, 20 For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us 2 Corinthians 1:20 (NKJV).Image

Prayer:  Father God we thank you that our hope abides in you.  We thank you that because of your grace and mercy we have a future and a hope.  Father we pray that those seeking hope in the midst of hopelessness would come to know you as the light that shines in darkness

 

 

 

by shespeaksencouragement