Month: September 2017

From Hope to Praise

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Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. Psalm 43:5

Have you ever been so down that you just couldn’t even sing even in church? You don’t need to feel alone because even King David the writer of the song book of the Bible, came to that place; and said so not once, not twice but three different times. David had bravely faced had Goliath and defeated him, but when he found himself hunted by his father-in-law and some of the same soldiers with whom he had fought beside in battle he became discouraged. Then his wife was taken from him and given to another man and he was separated from his best friend Jonathan and was forced to hide in the countryside. That was when he reminded himself that he would again praise God because all his hope came from Him. Yes, there are times when we as believers struggle to praise God. But God’s word gives us hope so that at those exact moments we can say, “Hold on! This is not the end! There is still hope! I will praise Him again!

Hope for the Soul

High Hopes

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Sailboat

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 1 Thessalonians 5:8

In both his letter to the Ephesians and here Paul talks about salvation being like a helmet. That is interesting because a helmet is the piece of God’s armor that protects our mind and here Paul adds that it is tied together with the hope that salvation brings.

Certainly no 1st century Roman  soldier went rushing to the front lines without his helmet. In that same way none of us should go out even for a single day without first putting over our thoughts, motivations and plans the hope that God gives. There is no need so urgent, no demand so important and no emergency so grave that we cannot pause to remind ourselves that our hope of success lies 100% on the shoulders of God.

Interestingly the Greek includes the idea of trusting expectation with most Latin based languages using the words hope and wait interchangeably. As believers in the Lord Jesus we not only simply wish for better things but we wait with trusting expectation to see God bring about His will in our lives. He is our hope of salvation. He is our living Savior and as we trust in Him, He fills us with the High Hope of His salvation!

 

 

 

God in Hiding

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And I will wait upon the Lord , that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
Isaiah 8:17 KJV

As I drove up the road this week I was greeted by a mother deer with two fawns. They lingered just long enough for me to snap a few shots then bounded off to a hidden place in the woods.

But God does not hide His face in that way. In fact it is our own sin and selfishness that hides his face from our eyes. No in fact our greatest hope is in a God who longs to be found!