Hope

Facing Giants With Prayer

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord and He heard me and He delivered me from all my fears. Psalms 34:1-4

When anybody mentions King David, probably the first story that comes to their mind is when he fought and beat Goliath with a only sling. But the main reason behind David’s victory was not just his courage. There were many courageous soldiers in the army of Israel but they lacked something one thing that David had. What was his secret? David’s victory in battle was because, long before he knew how to fight, he had learned how to pray. He had the confidence to face Goliath, and later rule a kingdom and maybe most important of all; find forgiveness when he had sinned, because he had cried out to God in prayer God all his heart! Here are just a few of the treasured truths we have today, because David sought the Lord:

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Psalm 27:1

The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts Psalm 28:1

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Psalm 51:1

Today’s video leads us through that attitude of surrender and praise that will help us face whatever giants that we are facing in our own lives. This session includes I Surrender All and My Jesus I Love Thee

Reconciled

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But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. Genesis 33:4

You might have heard the question about what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. Let me say that for those of us who have raised boys – we know that answer!. We who have pleaded or even demanded our sons to: “Just be nice to each other!” or asked; “Can’t you two get along for five minutes?”

A Rare and peaceful monet

this scene of reconciliation between Jacob and his brother Esau is a greater miracle than even walking on water. These guys had lied, cheated, and tricked one another and in Esau’s case even plotted the murder of his brother. Our son’s battles evidenced by assorted holes in walls, a broken door and angry accusations flying across our home seem mild by comparison. But we have also been blessed to live long enough to see these same guys giving each other cars; sharing their homes when divorce came knocking on the door and most importantly learning to listen to one another.

In light of the current chaos in America today we can draw hope from the reconciliation of these radically different brothers. It took a crisis to force them to finally focus; not on what separated them but on remembering that they were family. As family God is calling for us to meet together for embracing not injuring; weeping not shouting and forgiving as God has freely forgiven anyone who kneels where the ground is level at the foot of the cross.

A Landscape of Hope!

/ pastorpete51 / 5 Comments

But I say, love your enemies!Pray for those who persecute you! Matthew 5:44 NLT  

This morning Deandra who writes Imago Dei on WordPress got me thinking about the issue of complaining. (I have done more than my fair share) and how it affects our lives and my initial comment on her blog led me to an entire post. So thank you Deandra and here is my story of hope for complainers like me. The link to her post is here…

https://deandrahurst.com/2020/07/09/a-thankless-job-part-2/

Back when I worked as an apprentice landscaper I had a boss named Al who specialized in making me crazy. When I struggled making a straight line on the edge of a flower bed   he’d say, “That looks like a dog’s breakfast!” Or he’d take a look at the bush I had just trimmed, snatch the tool from my hand and re-trim it then give the tool back and ask; “What are you Polish?”

One night when I was bringing my complaint session about Al home to my wife, God began to convict my heart that I needed to be praying instead of griping. Even though I wasn’t a bit excited about the idea I knew it was the right thing to do. So I began with short prayers like, “Bless Al and his family.”  Now it would be great to say that immediately things got better; but the reality was that at first I just didn’t get so mad about his remarks. Also my own attitude started changing and I began to try harder to improve my work.

The best day happened some months later when just Al and I were working together on a job out in the country. At noon Al glanced at his watch and said “Go ahead and take lunch. I’m just going to keep working.” So I sat down on a big rock and opened my lunch pail and saw an entire loaf of my wife’s home made zucchini bread. “Hey Al, don’t you have anything to eat?” I asked. “Don’t worry I‘ll get something later.”  “Hey, at least take five minutes and try some of my wife’s home made zucchini bread.” I insisted. It didn’t take much to convince him to sit down and try a sample. “Wow! That’s amazing!” he mumbled between bites as I shared my extra bottle of water with him to wash it down. My life wasn’t perfect after that lunch, but breaking bread with Al gave me hope. I had hope because I saw that God cares about changing tough circumstances and difficult people. I knew it- because he changed me. Now that’s a landscape of hope!