Tag Archives: hope

Feeling Defeated? Rest in the Conquering King

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Andrea Graham| Comments Off

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Troubled? Christ tells us we can turn to his speech in John 14-16 any time and receive comfort and peace from knowing the Father himself loves us and that someday he will bring us out of our present sorrow and deliver us to joy. He promises us hardship and trouble and travail in this life and that the unbelieving world will hate us if we are truly walking with Him, and has indeed often killed the saints, and many do so thinking they do God service as Jesus said.

But we are to take heart: he has overcome the world. Victory is secured for us. Keep holding the line, keep walking the walk. Stay the course. The battle rages on, but no matter what its outcome, the war is already won.  Let us abide in Christ and rest in Him. Let him fight the battle. Trust and obey him. He’s the conquering king and his enemies are defeated and routed, including the sin or the fallen condition you are struggling with, and even the great enemy, death itself, has been mortally wounded and will be only a distant memory sooner than it seems as we struggle in this life.

Turn your eyes to Christ’s cross and His empty grave and be encouraged, brothers and sisters. It is finished. God has prevailed and He will prevail in your life if you do not lose heart and desert him for his already defeated foe. So put away doubting, put away your own understanding, and trust in Him today.  Give to him any weight that hinders you from trusting him, be it sorrow, be it hurt, be it anger, be it the trust others have broken, and any nay-saying voice, be it real or imagined.  Confess it, express it, but release it into His victorious hands.

 

Posted in Bible and Theology, Faith, Lament, Prayer and Devotions, Suffering

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Faith Guarantees We Won’t Need Our Eternity Back

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Andrea Graham| Comments Off

“ Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

At the end of chapter ten, the author of Hebrews tells us we are saved by faith that is strong enough to endure through hard struggles and suffering that cause us to be destroyed if we shrink back, sorrow unto death, and lose faith in God. In chapter eleven, the author now continues on to define what faith is.

Assurance, rendered as a vague “substance” traditionally, means: a pledge, guarantee, or security that inspires confidence and frees us from uncertainty. Pledge, guarantee, or security in turn is something given to provide protection and/or ensure an obligation, such as a binding promise, is kept. This implies that our faith is not of ourselves, but a gift from God to secure our ultimate hope of spending eternity with him in Heaven.

To hope in turn means to desire and expect to obtain, with confidence and can be synonymous with “to trust.” Another way the author of Hebrews could have put the first half of this verse in English is, then, “Faith is given to us to ensure we will receive from God the promises we trust him to fulfill.”

Substance, was probably meant in the sense of “essence” and that rendering means, “Faith is the ultimate reality of the promises we trust God to fulfill.”

That leaves “Faith . . . is the conviction of things not seen.” This is a case where the KJV rendering, “Faith is the evidence,” was  clear enough. “Conviction” in this context merely means “Faith is what convinces us of the truth of things not seen.”  Evidence is still the most succinct  way to say that.

Lord, we trust you today to keep your promises just as you always have before. Remind us, when we grow weary in our struggles, of your faithfulness to keep your word to your people throughout history. We know times are hard now, we know we may not see your word come to pass in this life, but we know you are not limited to the blink of an eye our lifetimes are compared to eternity. Strengthen us, today. Increase our faith. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Posted in Bible and Theology, Faith, God's promises, Prayer and Devotions, Suffering

Tagged , , ,

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Andrea Graham| Comments Off

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” (Romans 12:12)

Pretty simple, right? Rejoice at having hope, patiently endure tribulation and pray consistently. Sure, so how about finding hope to rejoice at in the midst of tribulation? Remembering to pray consistently when your head was bashed around in a car wreck, you have add, and a pressing novel demanding to be written . . . well maybe that one is just me. Of course its when we most need to pray and when we’re the weakest that we can let ourselves be distracted.

Let’s pick ourselves up today and seek our balance in him.

Lord, forgive us when we stumble. We thank you for your grace and mercy. Lift us up today to walk closer you. Heal us of our infirmities and strengthen us to walk in your ways. Transform us by the renewing of our minds. Open our eyes to see the hope you give us even in the darkest of nights. Turn our mourning into dancing in proper season. Grant us patience, and the trust and faith required to pray for it, that we might be delivered from the strongholds of  fear and superstition. Work in our hearts, by grace, a great love for prayer, gently remind us when we are distracted, Lord, of our need to connect to you. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Posted in Bible and Theology, Prayer and Devotions

Tagged , ,

God’s Plan’s Good, but are you Following it?

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Andrea Graham| Comments Off

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

Jeremiah 29:11 is a verse many Christians have on their list of favorite verses, myself included. We all go through times where we have nothing else to hang onto in life but the promise that, despite our current evil circumstances, God’s plans for us are good, to give us a future and a hope.

One of the reasons we can find ourselves baffled, though, is forgetting to heed verses twelve and thirteen. God’s promises are often conditional on our response. God’s plans for us are exactly what he said–but we have to be following them, and that requires seeking him and being submitted to his will. The good news is he also promises we will find him when we seek him with all of our hearts. Ah, the condition again. We will obtain the inheritance, if we do not faint. We must abide in Him and stay close to him to stay filled up on the power and grace we need.

Lord, forgives us for the times we’ve let the business and cares of this world distract us and keep us from abiding in you. Deliver us from fear, bitterness, anger, sorrow, and any other thing that might be blocking us from you. We lift them up to you and surrender our plans to you today. Guide our footsteps and show us the way in which we should walk. We are deciding to trust you today. Strengthen us to follow through on our resolve. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Posted in Bible and Theology, God's promises, Prayer and Devotions

Tagged , , ,

God’s Love in Suffering’s Reality

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Andrea Graham| Comments Off

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:35,37)

Paul is long winded, so for the full scope of what he is saying, we need to read chapters seven and eight of Romans in one sitting, or at least 8:26-39. The most crucial context to these verses appears to be, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

This passage has a subtext or implication modern Christians in the first world, and America particularly, prefer to ignore or hope to never endure: that we will actually suffer with Christ as well as graciously  receive all things, that we will endure the suffering that cannot separate us from God’s love. We think we’re more special than all the saints before us and should be magically spared from the trial and tribulation that our culture’s corruption will inevitably bring upon us.

Our hope isn’t escape from and avoidance of pain–our hope is the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that we who suffer with him shall also be glorified with him. God with us though everything. He promised to be with us and love us, redeeming every sorrow so good comes from it, even should times fall that for God’s sake, “we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” as the omitted verse 26 says, persecution still suffered by many of our brothers and sisters throughout history and across our globe today. The promise is, though we suffer much here, we have our hope secure in Christ and his love so long as we hold on.

If you are at a point today where you feel you cannot hold on any longer and you are ready to curse God and die (spiritually speaking,)  remember verse 26 says the spirit helps us in our weakness. Cry out to him. Scream, moan, groan, or wail, intelligibly or unintelligibly, as inclined. Tell him the honest truth of how you are feeling, but then, once you at last reach the bottom of your grief, remember his promises and hold out your hands. He will meet you there.

Lord, keep our eyes and hearts fixed upon you today. Increase our faith and endurance, and grow in us the knowledge of your good and righteous will. Show us the path you would lay out before us and cleanse our hearts of evil so we would walk in it. Grant us confidence in your perfect work of redemption. Give us hearts tender to you today and increase our love for one another. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Posted in Bible and Theology, God's promises, Lament, Prayer and Devotions, Suffering

Tagged , ,