Oh Christians...Are You Hopeless or Hopeful?

Do you have days where you feel down?  Do you struggle through life worried about the news/events of this world?  Do you wake up mornings dreading the day ahead?  Stuck in a rut of hopelessness?  One of the great things the Word of God states is that we definitely do NOT have to live our lives in hopelessness.  Rather, as we mature in Christ and in who God is, we MUST understand that we serve the GOD of all HOPE...who also wants us to overflow with that hope!

Romans 15:13

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

In this verse from Romans, we can see that another name for God is "the God of hope".  As we begin to trust God and understand His nature, through the Holy Spirit, we can be filled with joy & peace.  This joy & peace that God gives can then overflow in our own lives with hope...hope that we have in God.

Sometimes I look around at the state of fellow believers and wonder if they truly understand this. Even in my own walk with God, I have fallen in this area. I see many Christians struggling with day to day living that they become ineffective in their service of God...because they have taken their eyes off of Him.  It's no different than Peter who when walking on the water, began to take his eyes off of Jesus, and began to worry and sink in the water. 

A better example I like to look at is the life of Paul in the New Testament (Acts/Romans/Corinthians).  Here was Paul who was beaten, tortured, persecuted more than most people in their life..what was his response?  It was joy, patience & HOPE!

Now you may say, "Well that is Paul...who am I?"  However it was the Holy Spirit working in the life of a man, a man with a same sinful nature like you and I.  Now if Paul can proclaim God and exhibit joy through jail/torture/persecution, unlike most any we would face in our culture today...how much more should we be exhibiting joy and hope for all people around us today through the same Holy Spirit? 

I believe each day we have been given by God, we MUST be exhibiting joy/peace & hope wherever God may lead us.  This is critical for an effective ministry for those people around us.  You see we don't live in hopelessness, we are NOT like the world.  We serve a MIGHTY God, powerful beyond ALL measure.  A God who has redeemed us through His Son, and who is coming again to restore all things to Himself.  This broken world will be fixed by Him one day.  In those things that God has promised to us can we trust and in those things can we HOPE.  In fact that's exactly what Paul did.  But read it for yourself (see below).  God bless you!  Until next time.

2 Corinthians 4:7-18

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

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.