L.Y.F.E. is…
Blessings and greetings L.Y.F.E. family!
Welcome to another edition of “L.Y.F.E. is…”!
We hope and pray that your hearts are encouraged and that you are blessed by this devotional!
Title: Don’t Let Go Of Your Hope!
Scripture: ROMANS 8:22-25 (NIV)
Undoubtedly, we live in an evil, mean, and harsh world. The Corona virus and its variants; blatant, overt racism and sexism; an unstable economy; and continued police brutality and state-approved murder of unarmed Black people-are just some of the harsh realities of the last 18 months. And to make matters worse, we have our own personal issues as well. These troubling times make it really hard to hope in God.
The enemy wants to rob us of our hope, but God assures us in God’s Word that we have hope for the present and for the future. No matter what’s going on around us; we have hope in God.
Hope, Christian hope can only come from God. Christian hope isn’t an escape or denial of life’s harsh realities nor is it wishful or positive thinking. This hope, Divine Hope, is the confident expectation of something good from God. Hope is the blessed assurance that what God has done for us in the past guarantees our participation in what God will do for us in the future. Christian hope helps us to endure even the most hopeless situations to wait on God to move in our circumstances.
It is because of the life, ministry, death, burial, and resurrection of Our LORD and Saviour, Jesus Christ that we have hope, Resurrection hope for today. This Resurrection hope is not just good for eternal purposes but also life’s present day challenges. We have Resurrection hope because of God’s grace through Jesus Christ and because of Christ’s finished work on the Cross and the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.
In our scripture text, Paul writes that hope that is seen is not hope at all. Paul tells us this is because if we already possession something; there can be no expectation and no anticipation in something we already have. And we struggle with hope today because we have put our hope and trust in things that we can readily feel, see, and touch. This is not hope at all.
Hope stays the course and keeps the goal in sight no matter how bad our situation looks on the outside; the God we love and serve tells us there’s hope, even if we don’t see it.
Hope calls us all into action and compels us to move forward pressing toward the mark when there is no proof or evidence of physical, seeing, or hearing. This is faith. Faith and hope go together and work hand-in-hand. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1) Hope believes with confident expectation for something good while trusting in all of God’s promises. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
In his book, Dare We Speak of Hope?[1], Rev. Dr. Allan Boesak who has preached many times at Allen Temple Baptist Church says that, “hope is not barren. Hope does not stand alone and aloof. Hope is not a shimmering mirage in the heat of the desert. Hope is not unreal or unattainable.”
Hope is real. Hope is alive today. We all need hope! We all need to put our hope and faith in God through Christ Jesus!
Memory gives us hope.
Don’t be discouraged! Take HOPE!
No matter how hard the test; no matter how long the trial; no matter how bad it seems; no matter how worse it gets-DON’T LET GO OF YOUR HOPE!
Our hope tells us:
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name
On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
Hallelujah LORD!
[1] Boesak, Allan Aubrey. Dare We Speak of Hope? William B. Eerdsman Publishing Company: Grand Rapids, Michigan. 2014
