HOPE

Hope is a rare commodity these days. With the New Year in just a couple of days, I think hope is something to ponder. Not just for ourselves, but for others too. 

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17-May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. 

We can be the one God uses to encourage each other with eternal hope. 

There are times my own ‘hope meter’ runs low. I get busy, work gets stressful, a bill is demanding to be paid, and my hope begins to sink. It’s at these times, I tend to get over-busy and under-fed. Never food-wise, but Spirit-wise. The Holy Spirit will draw me back to hope by whispering Psalm 42:5 to my spiritual ears. “Why so downcast, oh my soul, Put your hope in God…” 

When things drag me down, I realize my hope is not in God but in my real estate deal succeeding , extra money in the checking account, or, can I just say, I love it when my ‘ducks are all in a row’, which is a rare occurrence. No real hope in any of this! 

God is the only real hope we have, so let’s look to eternal hope instead of temporal hope. 

All the things I see with my eyes are temporal and satisfy for a brief time. Don’t get me wrong, the temporal things certainly seem to help make life on this planet easier, but they fail so often to keep my soul hopeful. These false hopes, more than anything, distract me from putting my hope in my TRUE PROVIDER; God. There are many more disappointments in regard to these temporal things so we are often let down even when we succeed. We’ve all experienced this let down. 

But HOPE springs eternal when we put it in God, who is eternal. His promise of eternity cannot be compared to anything else. He never disappoints us when we keep our eyes on Him.  

I John 5:13-I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 

I want to depend on His faithfulness, though it may not look like what I want it to look like, but if I depend on Him, I then trust Him to do what is best for me. Very hard, indeed, because I often think I know what is best. I succumb to this deception too often. 

We can  “one another” each other through this New Year. God gives us the incredible priviledge to come along side and weep, rejoice, encourage, love, and help one another. 

These are just a few special people that have encouraged me for many years

 “Put your hope in God” is an eternal message of good cheer. 

Thank you for all those wonderful people who encourage me to keep my eyes on the “Author and Finisher of my faith.”  

Happy New Year and May God bless you all richly with spiritual blessing.