There is Hope

Are there areas in your life causing an internal struggle? Make a decision today to yield to the Holy Spirit and lean on His strength, not your own, and to overcome obstacles of sin and selfishness in your life. Surrender and release those areas to God, knowing He will help you.

Psalm 33:
18 But the eyes of the lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, 19 to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. 20 We wait in hope for the lord; he is our help and our shield. 21 In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. 22 “May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.”

Three times the psalmist uses the word “HOPE” in the verses above. The needs he mentions are deliverance from death and protection from a famine.
His HOPE is that God would be a “shield” for him. He recognizes the painful things that occur out in a broken world and is asking God to protect him from them.
*Has God ever been a shield for you? *Has God ever protected or delivered you from what seemed to be certain pain and suffering?
If so, what would have been His motivation to do so?
Why would He have spent the energy to break into time and space to shield you from what was going to occur?
***The answer to those questions is stated twice in the verses above.
The psalmist implies above that the Lord is a shield to “those who hope in His unfailing love…”.
God loves you! I know that phrase is said and heard more times than it is truly understood, but it is important that we do not take this fact for granted.
It is important that we do not minimize its importance in our lives.

*If God were not in His very character loving, we would have no hope.
*God’s love for us is unfailing. Even though we fail on a daily basis, He doesn’t!
*His love is not contingent upon our love.
*He loves us unilaterally and unconditionally.
* He loves you and me no matter what the circumstances might be.
** This is why we, as a broken people, living in a broken world, can still have hope.
We can hope that God, who loves us unfailingly, will hear our cries and see our need and come to shield and protect us.

Again, we look at the concept of Biblical Hope and find it to be real. It touches real people living in a real world. Today, may we hope in God to be our shield.

The battle is not our own, the battle belongs to the Lord.
*He is our rock and our fortress.
* He is our hope in times of need.
* He is our victory.
So wait for it and put your hope and trust in God. His love endures forever.

1 Peter 1: 21 Through him(Jesus) you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. 22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the HEART.

Our inner man wants to do good. The question is will our outer man (flesh) be broken enough that the inner man can perform God’s  will.

If we will only put our trust in God’s “Unfailing Love” the stuff the world throws at us will not harm us.
What we see as a challenge or threatening to our life style has to be looked at through the eyes of God’s Unfailing Love.

****Nothing the world has to offer can compare to is Unfailing Love.
1 Jn.4 :18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.

*We need to repent where our thinking is concerned as well. We need to fundamentally change the way we think(RO. 12:1-2). Some might call this a paradigm shift. A change to your whole way of looking at and understanding the world.
1 Peter 1:13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

The Bible tells us that we are no longer to see with our eyes, but rather to walk in faith.
That’s a difficult thing to do:
– Who would chose to be blind?
– Who would see what lies right in front of them and not swerve to miss it?

We’re depending on God; he’s everything we need.

What we see with our eyes is not always the true story.
*But none of that matters to God.
His eye is on those who respect Him, not on those who look the biggest or the strongest.
2 Corinthians 5:7 For we live by faith, not by sight.

When we’re going with God size doesn’t matter.
*You’ve only got a few dollars to your name? Jesus fed 5,000 men plus women and children with only two fish!
* Are you on death’s doorstep? Jesus called Lazarus, a guy dead for 4 days back to life!
You’re not strong enough, fast enough, smart enough? Doesn’t matter. GOD IS.

When you’re depending on God, He’s everything you need. Not more muscle. Not more smarts. You don’t need more money in your pocket, you NEED to change your mind about WHO God is and WHAT He’s capable of.
When You’re on God’s side, you’re on the winning side. Always!!!!
Christ sees your value and hidden potential. Do you?

What stands in your way of loving
God today with all your heart, soul
and strength?

“No servant can serve two masters;for either he will hate the one, and
love the other, or else he will hold
to one, and despise the other.”
Luke 16:13

Psalm 33 reminds me that God’s purpose will be fulfilled no matter what — for everything belongs to the Lord. He created this earth and everything and everyone in it.
–He brings to pass ‘His will’ definitively. –We can choose to glorify Him with our lives or stand idly by merely existing ‘in a Christ-needy world’.
Dear Friend, I pray today we remember that no matter what the headlines say – GOD IS!!!!!!
May God open our eyes to clearly see He is working. May we trust Him anew for our lives and may we glorify Him in how we live it.

Hebrews 11:1—Now faith is the substance ( assurance, confidence, and title deed ) to what we have hope ( confident expectation ) for or in what God has said and done. It is the evidence ( proof, conviction, and eyewitness to ) what we cannot see with the natural ability, it sees as real FACT what is not revealed by man.
Faith is substance – it is the Word of God ( Romans 10:17 ).
Faith is conviction – it is the the belief ( Romans 10:8-10 )
Faith is assurance – it the knowing of God and His plan ( Philippians 3:10 )

Dear Lord, sometimes it’s not easy to stay when conflict, disagreements or differences get in the way. Would You give me the power to love people unconditionally and the wisdom to know how to love them well?  Each person I see let me remember, they too are made in your image. Let me see them as you see them Father.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (1 Peter 1:3)In Jesus’ Name, Amen