Good Morning All,
Romans 15:13; “May the God
of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of
the Holy Spirit you may
abound in hope.”
If
you are a Hallmark movie kind of a person, this is the time of the year for
you. These past few days have had a
story of a man who has been estranged from his father for years but finally
this Christmas they get back together.
One movie took place on a ranch in the Rockies. One movie took place in Los Angeles and the
third movie took place in New England on the coast. Three different movies but the same basic
plot. Sometimes the movie is about a
single parent who finds their true love who also loves the children
involved. Sometimes it is long lost
lovers getting back together never to part again. They can change the location, the era, the
gender of the protagonist, or add either a cantankerous relative or an
angel. That pretty much sums up Hallmark
movies.
I am not trying to be cynical but these
movies all hope for the best in mankind and it always works out. The guy always gets the girl and the parents
and the kids always make up. Everyone
always lives happily ever after. There
is nothing wrong with a feel-good movie; there is nothing wrong with living
with hope but where does your hope come from?
The first thing we must do is to define
hope. Most of us use the word “hope” as
a wishy washy last desperate shot. I
hope this thing starts, knowing full well it probably won’t. Or perhaps we “hope” this stuff tastes better
than last time. When we use “hope” this
way, it takes all the power out of the word.
It makes it hollow and without form or structure.
When the Bible uses the word “hope”, it is
with a definite certainty. I “hope”
gravity still works this morning when I get out of bed. I “hope” the sun rises in the east
today. Hope is the certainty of knowing
that God has, is and will do something wonderful in your life. Our hope is in God’s promise of eternal
life. Our hope is in the forgiveness of
sins that we receive because of Jesus.
Because of God’s love for you, you have hope.
Knowing that we possess this hope, this
certainty, we can live in peace. We can
live in peace knowing that God is on our side.
His love sustains and lifts us above all our struggles and
challenges. We can face the battles
because we will eventually overcome the battles, they will not defeat us. God’s grace is there to keep us going, so we
have hope, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a salvation that has been given
to us, hope for the promise of eternal life.
We can abound in hope because of God’s love.
Father of all hope, in you are all of
our fears and battles destroyed for in you is hope. Protect us by your mighty arm. Keep us certain of our hope. Be with those who battles cloud their view of
your hope for them. Strengthen them and
give them the clear vision of your love.
In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.
God’s
Peace,
Pastor
Bret
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