A Hope that Never Dissapoints

 

“Hopes placed in mortals die with them;

    all the promise of their power comes to nothing.”

Proverbs 11:7

 

Maybe it’s a politician, a successful businessperson, some trendy musician or a Hollywood celebrity that you have placed your hope in.

If that is the case then you will be greatly disappointed when they pass from this life.

I have watched people mourn, some even going into deep depression, after the death of the likes of John Kennedy or Elvis or Michael Jackson.

They had placed their hope in these people, these mortals.

Yes, they were gifted in their careers.

But hope placed in people is a tragically misplaced hope when it is a substitute for placing our hope in God.

Here is how Psalm 147:11 expresses it:

 

“the Lord delights in those who fear him,

who put their hope in his unfailing love.”

 

Don’t settle for the empty power promises of those who cannot deliver.

Put your hope in God.

He will never disappoint you!

Luxuriant Growth

 

“May the Lord cause you to flourish,

    both you and your children.

 May you be blessed by the Lord,

    the Maker of heaven and earth.”

Psalm 115:14-15

 

The word ‘flourish’ can be defined as:

“to grow luxuriantly, to thrive”

What a wonderful picture of believer who is blessed by God.

Psalm 1:3 describes the person whose delight is in Gods’ word as:

“That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,

    which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither—

    whatever they do prospers.”

I have no doubt that you have probably experienced seasons where you didn’t feel like there was any growth let alone luxuriant growth in the things of God.

You did not feel like you were thriving but instead that it took everything you had just to survive!

I think we probably could all say – “Been there, done that!”

But often are greatest growth, the richest intimacy we can experience with God is when we are in those seasons that may seem dry, when we don’t ‘feel’ God.

As we persevere through the desert our roots grow deeper in search of that refreshing River of God.

Declare His word over your life today –

Say –

The Lord causes me to flourish;

and my children too!

I am blessed by the Lord,

the maker of heaven and earth!

 

You are an Open Book

 

“Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

Hebrews 4:13

Jehovah sees.

Jehovah knows.

As the scripture declares, there is nothing in all of creation that is hidden from God’s sight.

That is one reason we can confidently give to the work of God and perform acts of kindness that no one but God knows about.

They will not be missed by God.

One other benefit; when we do these things in secret, without fanfare and the applause of man, we reduce the likelihood of the dangerous sin of pride grasping us and not letting go.

Listen to these words of Jesus:

 “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Matthew 6:3-4

It is a choice we make – to receive the reward of men or the reward of God.

Mans’ rewards may last a lifetime or at best a few lifetimes.

But God’s rewards are eternal.

Whose reward will you choose?

Broaden Your Prayer Horizon

 

“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—

I Timothy 2:1

 

What’s that you say?

You don’t know who to pray for or you don’t have a very long prayer list!

Well, when I read 1 Timothy 2:1 it encourages me to petition, pray, intercede and give thanks for A-L-L people.

A-L-L people means more than me, myself and I doesn’t it?

So who might A-L-L include?

Could it mean I need to include praying for my enemies?

I’d say they fall into the A-L-L category.

How about co-workers (yes, even that one you can’t stand); your mean cousin; the other political party (ouch)!

It can also include those we love but who have been guilty of hurting us.

Maybe we have been pre-occupied, not with praying for them but instead nursing a grudge over their offense.

Too often we rush right into 1Timothy 2:2 and teach others that they need to be praying for “...kings and all those in authority...”

Yes we do.

But let’s not skip past the “...A-L-L people” portion too quickly.

Let me challenge you today.

Broaden your prayer horizon.

Let the Holy Spirit guide you into praying beyond the ‘me and us three’ mindset.

 

 

Count it Joy!

 

“Lord, help me to embrace the trials, difficulties, and adversity in my life!”  I know what you might be thinking – “What did he just say?  Shouldn’t we pray to be delivered from adversity?  Has he gone off his rocker?”  Well maybe, but before you pass judgment on me, let me explain. 

Listen to what the bible says in James 1:2-4 – “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

The above verse tells us a few things - we will experience difficulties (the verse says “when,” not “if” we encounter various trials), we should receive them with joy, and if we do, they will make us more perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

If you’re like me, difficult times, as painful as they may be, cause me to press harder after God.  When I’m going through a challenging time, I spend more time in His presence, listen more carefully for His voice, and rely more on His provision.

On the contrary, when my life is absent of difficulties, I tend to let up on my pursuit of God.  He fades into the background, only to get my attention on Sunday morning.

I don’t know about you, but when I look back at my life, some of the most challenging times of my life coincide with the seasons of greatest growth and revelation in my relationship with God.

If that is true in your life too, then let me suggest that ease is our enemy, and difficulty and adversity are our friends.

I encourage you to look at the adversities in your life differently.  God might just be using them as an instrument to perfect your faith and cause you to pursue Him with greater intensity.  Instead of allowing them to discourage you, count them as joy!

When you do, you will be in good company with the psalmist who wrote “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes.” (Psalm 119:71)

He Remains the King of Glory!

 

“Who is he, this King of glory?

    The Lord Almighty—

    he is the King of glory. 

Psalm 24:10

“...he is the King of glory.” 

He hasn’t been deposed.

Never will be!

It does not say who was or even who will be the King of glory but who is.

Current events can have a way of clouding that understanding for some.

God has never been surprised by current events.

The day before and the day after some great or terrible event in human history God continues to be the King of glory. 

Let that perspective shape your thoughts today.

Remember too that no one or nothing is greater, wiser, more powerful, more loving than God.

In Him we can find peace in the most turbulent of days.

Listen to these words of encouragement from Jesus:

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33

Here are those same words from the Message translation -

“I’ve told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties.”

Are you unshakeable and assured today?

Do you have the deep peace He promised?

He remains the King of glory and He never will be deposed!

Shout it From the Rooftops!

 

“I proclaim your saving acts in the great assembly;

    I do not seal my lips, Lord,

    as you know.

 I do not hide your righteousness in my heart;

    I speak of your faithfulness and your saving help.

I do not conceal your love and your faithfulness

    from the great assembly.”

Psalm 40:9-10

 

There are many opportunities to insert your name into the word of God.

Certainly the verses above would be an ideal chance.

The Psalmist was not at all shy when it came to giving God the credit.

He was bold in his declaration in the ‘great assembly’!

He cared very much that others knew of the saving acts, the righteousness, faithfulness and love of the Lord.

Would that we were all so uninhibited when it comes to sharing with others the greatness of our God!

The world expects, or at least, is not surprised by such declarations from preachers but how about coming from your lips?

After all, your neighbor, coworker and friends are more likely to listen when it is spoken by someone they know personally and whose life is lived before them.

Can you resolve to step out of the shadows and speak clearly and boldly of His great love and faithfulness to you?

Can you give Him the glory in the great assembly at work?

How about the great assembly that will gather in your home this Thanksgiving?

Don’t conceal His love and faithfulness to others.

Shout it from the rooftops! 

“You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!”

Isaiah 40:9

Take Life Easy?

 

“for every animal of the forest is mine,

    and the cattle on a thousand hills.”

Psalm 50:10 

If you have ever heard someone say that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, then Psalm 50 and verse 10 is the reference for that statement.

And the real truth is – God indeed owns it all.

Not merely on a thousand hills but on every hill and valley across the globe.  

All that you have – whether you are the poorest or the wealthiest man on the earth – is loaned to you for your use – from God!  

He created the earth, all of the animals and the plants that we harvest for food.

It all was given to us by God.

We are to be wise and good stewards of all that we ‘possess’ knowing that we have what we have because of God’s goodness and love.

 It is so important to remind ourselves of that truth.

We can easily become selfish or stingy, preferring to think (wrongly of course) that what we have is due to our own skill, initiative and hard work.

When we do that it is as if we are telling God in so many words that we created our success and have no need of Him.

That might sound a tad familiar because Jesus spoke of that when He said in

Matthew 12:15-21

“Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

It is wise to remember who the blessings come from and

to thank God for all He has loaned to you!

 

What Would You Have Me Do?

 “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.”

Matthew 9:36

 

 

 

What moves you?

What’s stirs you to act?

A headline?

An act of injustice?

A rousing political speech?

Here is a challenge for you.

Find out what moved Jesus in the Gospels.

When you find them, ask Him to make those the passion of your heart.

He is the same yesterday, today and forever so those things that moved Him when He walked on the earth still move His heart today.

We sing a chorus that includes these words:

“…break my heart with what breaks yours…”

Those are dangerous words to sing unless we really mean it.

A heart that is moved, a person that is challenged enough to actually get up out of the easy chairs of life are the ones that can truly make a difference in the world.

Are you moved by those things that move God?

If I am honest, I have to say that I am not always moved in the same way.

My flesh wants to stay comfortable.

Yours does too.

But, compassion, mercy, justice, love – these are the things that ought to move us

from ease to action.

Led by the Holy Spirit to action we are moved from useless to useful.

So stop a moment and take stock.

Ask “What moves me?” and then let the answer bring you into a conversation with the Lord.

“What would you have me do?”

Check Up Time

 

“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.”

II Corinthians 13:5

 

Doctors advise us of the importance of self-examination to catch certain medical problems early.

My wife is a three time breast cancer survivor. At least once in those three instances the cancer was found through her own self-examination. That was followed up with tests to determine exactly what she was dealing with.

Speaking spiritually, we are told by the Apostle Paul to examine ourselves to determine whether or not we are in the faith. He then goes on to say:

“...test yourselves.”

It is essential that we, as believers, conduct this self-examination and allow the Holy Spirit to open our spiritual eyes to areas that can lead to sin or have become stumbling blocks in our relationship with the Lord.

Too often our time with the Lord can become ‘petition piracy’ where our time (and the Lords’) is taken up with our wants (even when those wants may be genuinely unselfish because we are interceding for others) instead of taking moments to examine where we need to ‘test’ ourselves and make changes to certain behaviors, attitudes or actions.   

In the Old Testament the priest was the one to examine a person who may or may not have a disease and to declare that person clean or unclean.

In the New Covenant you and I are priests in the Kingdom of God and can use the act of regular spiritual self-examination to strengthen our walk with the Lord.

When was the last time you went in for a check-up?

 

Promises Made and Promises Kept

 

God is not human, that he should lie,

    not a human being, that he should change his mind.

Does he speak and then not act?

    Does he promise and not fulfil?

Numbers 23:19

 

 

Promises, promises.

We all make them.

We all break them.

With one notable exception.

God is a promise keeper!

The verse posted above is so good I want to share it with you a couple of other ways:

The King James Version translates is this way -

“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

Here it is in the Message  -

“God is not man, one given to lies, and not a son of man changing his mind.

Does he speak and not do what he says? Does he promise and not come through?”

Any way you look at it God is faithful to the words He has spoken.

I can’t always say that.

So what does this mean?

It means He can be trusted.

When God declares that something will come to pass we can confidently expect it.

So many people go through life with fear and trepidation wondering what tomorrow will bring.

We have our future written in God’s word and so we move as people of faith.

We are not to be moved by circumstances, the words of man or our emotions.

What strength and encouragement is ours when we rely on the surety of God’s promises.

Stand strong on the bedrock of God’s promises today!

 

 

I Sure am Hungry

 

What do you have an insatiable appetite for?

Some lust for power, some for praise and some for position.

We all have appetites and we all feed those appetites.

How is your appetite for the things of God?

Do you desire, more than anything, to feast in His Word?

Is intimacy with God a priority of your day?

Or do you find, when you lay your head on the pillow at night, that you are filled with thoughts of coulda, shoulda, woulda?

In other words – does your day end in regrets or in joy?

Did your appetite – your hunger – for the things of God exceed the self-centered and mundane things of life?

They say that time is the great equalizer.

I have the same 24/7 that every other human on the earth has.

And we all can fill those seconds, minutes and hours with a million different things.

  As you set about the tasks and activities today make the time to spend time with God.

Develop an appetite that fully blossoms into the desire to be with Him, communing with the Lord in sweet fellowship and fulfilling His purposes for your day.

Close Your Mouth!

                               

 

“Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices”

Colossians 3:9

 

Sounds like a simple enough charge from the writer of Colossians doesn’t it?

“Don’t lie to each other....”

But maybe you can agree with me that sometimes it can be the simple truths that trip us up most often.

We fail to take them seriously or we water them down.

“Who doesn’t lie every now and then?”

But although it may be more common than we want to admit, that does not justify it.

This is the admonition of Zechariah 8:16

“These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other,

and render true and sound judgment in your courts;”

God will honor you as you speak the truth and do not lie.

But what about the times the truth may hurt someone?

Ask yourself this: Is it necessary to speak at all?

Sometimes that old adage rings true –

If you can’t say anything good, then don’t say anything at all.

Yes, sometimes wisdom is found in a silent tongue.

Just ask the writer of Proverbs -

“Sin is not ended by multiplying words, but the prudent hold their tongues.”

Proverbs 10:19

The best counsel against lying may simply be – close your mouth!

Setting Aside the Good Things

 

What would cause you to set aside something good in your life?

Suppose you had the ability to know your future?

Would that modify some of your actions today?

Would it cause you to lay aside something good to take up the best?

What if I could show you in God’s word that it is possible?

“How”, you say!

I’m glad you asked.

Here it is:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11

 

Sure, you know that verse but have you ever stopped and really considered that the God of the Universe, the God of all Creation, the one who created you has good plans for your future.

Gods’ plans beat ours every day of the week and twice on Sunday!

The challenge comes in setting aside the good and trusting God by placing our future in His hands.

The good place we are in is comfortable.

It is familiar.

It is a hard place to leave.

But consider what you are surrendering in light of what you are receiving – His plan for mine.

We used to sing a song:

“I’m trading my sorrows, I’m trading my shame

I’m laying them down for the joy of the Lord.”

 

C’mon- set aside the good things of life and take up the best!

 

Surrounded by the Good Things of God

 

“Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.”

Psalm 62:5

 

Here’s a little observation from the verse above –

The word God is in the center of the verse with the word rest to the left of God and hope to the right.

So you might say that when you center your life on God, you will find rest on your left and hope on your right.

In other words – you are kept – you are surrounded – by the good things of God.

There is no rest and no hope in a life devoid of God.

But center your life on Him and He brings you to a place of rest and a place of hope.

 

“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”

Psalm 91:1

 

“You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety.”

Job 11:18

 

What a wonderful place to be – resting and hoping in God who is the center of your life!

Take the time today to shut off the television, tune out the social media, step away from all of life’s distractions, quiet yourself and come into His presence.

Find in Him both rest and hope.

Find yourself surrounded by the good things of God!