Romans 15:4 "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."
8 Therefore there is now no condemnation [no guilty verdict, no punishment] for those who are in Christ Jesus [who believe in Him as personal Lord and Savior].
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father and the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now and end ever shall be, world without end, Amen, Amen.
Romans 8 shows how to live by the Spirit and let peace rule in our hearts.
The Holy Spirit within us continually testifies to us that we are children of God.
He gives us assurance with God to convince us that nothing will ever separate us from His love.
This is a passage of 100% hope because we know our future is bright in Christ.
Romans 8:1 New King James Version
Free from Indwelling Sin
8 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who [a] do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Why did the Apostle Paul feel the need to write to the followers living in Rome of their need to know and understand they have one ultimate source of hope?
Freedom from Sin
Sin is our mortal enemy.
Our battle against sin is ongoing and constantly wounding us in some way.
No matter how hard we fight against sin, we cannot keep from being hurt.
The wounds just keep coming from every directional point on the compass.
No matter our personal resolve to never surrender, we get tired of the battle.
Our wounds, our guilt, shame, remorse from our weaknesses are debilitating.
These like a diagnosis of heart disease or diagnosis of cancer threaten our will to keep going, keeping us motionless, defeated and unworthy of our calling.
If we are unable to move on, move past our wounds, move past what we have done in life, we will never fully grasp God’s grace, loving kindness towards us.
We feel the mounting urge to surrender to sin, acknowledge our defeat by sin.
Raise the white flag and wave it high and and wave it weakly for all to see that – Sin WINS.
Sin’s love for the battle is too much for us.
Our love for the battle is done – gone.
We have No love of self left to fight with.
Where now is our hope that while our love feels thoroughly depleted, that all love is not thoroughly depleted, indeed, is not, has not been utterly defeated?
God loves us, He sent Jesus to die for you and He has completely forgiven you.
So any condemning feelings you have toward yourself are not from God.
His utmost desire for us is that we become free from indwelling sin and to live and to be ultimately moving ever forward in our life fulfilling His destiny for us.
Not only so, but He wants us to ultimately experience this freedom daily, fully and completely, this Holy Spirit driven ability to stand up on our two feet again.
To walk as Christ walked.
That is why the Apostle Paul penned these words…
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” ( Romans 8:1 ).
What a glorious verse!
Paul has just unequivocally given us the answer posed in Romans 7… Who will rescue us from the left over effects of the sin nature that trips us up in life?
Praise be to God, it happens by Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
When we live according to the Spirit of God, he gives us the power to escape all the condemnation and guilt that our war like sinful nature throws into our way.
Because of Jesus, there is no condemnation unless we void this amazing gift by condemning ourselves.
Understanding this grace is the key to living free, pursuing the life that the Lord has set you apart for.
This is one of the incredible foundations of Christianity.
We are freed from the effects of guilt and shame because of the blood of Jesus, but sadly many do not know this wonderful truth.
God does not, nor will not condemn us.
We will never face judgment or punishment for our sins because Jesus has paid for each and every one of them upon the cross.
God placed all judgment and all sin upon his Son once for all in order that we would never have to bear it.
By faith in his blood, we are completely forgiven.
He has reconciled us to God the father and brought us incredible peace in the process.
We, as believers should experience this right here and right now and not let guilt or unworthiness hinder us.
(John 3:16-18, Romans 5:1, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Colossians 2:13-15, Hebrews 10:12, Hebrews 10:18, Hebrews 10:22, I John 2:2, I John 3:5, I John 3:16, I John 3:19-20 )
God provided everything with your redemption to enable you to live a life worthy of your calling.
He wants you to live a victorious life by the Spirit of God.
You are worthy on the basis of the value that Jesus assigns you.
He died for you to bring you into fellowship with the Father, who are we to disagree with such a wonderful gift.
Today, it is my prayer that you will drop whatever burdens you are carrying at the feet of Jesus.
He has already bore them so you should not have to.
Grace sets us free in Jesus from our most destructive bondage, our fear of God’s judgment.
God’s grace and our faith in Jesus liberated us from the law, which convicts and leads to death.
The Holy Spirit sets us free, not just to fulfill what the Law intended but also to deliver us from the penalty of death that the Law required.
In Jesus, by the power of his Spirit, God sets us free to be his children forever!
May you understand this incredible grace to which you were called, sanctified and set apart. Amen!
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Abba Father, thank you for your deliverance. I know you paid a very high price to give it to me. Forgive me for not letting that deliverance make my heart soar with confident joy. Lead me by the power of your Spirit so that I can experience the freedom and joy of your salvation — not just at the end of my days, but in the moments of today. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
Glory be to the Father and the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now and end ever shall be, world without end, Amen, Amen.
Days are filled with sorrow Days are filled with sorrow and care Hearts are lonely and drear Burdens are lifted at Calvary Jesus is very near
Burdens are lifted at Calvary Calvary, Calvary Burdens are lifted at Calvary Jesus is very near
Troubled soul, the Savior can see Every heartache and tear Burdens are lifted at Calvary Jesus is very near
Burdens are lifted at Calvary Calvary, Calvary Burdens are lifted at Calvary Jesus is very near
Burdens are lifted at Calvary Calvary, Calvary Burdens are lifted at Calvary Jesus is very near Jesus is very near
Everybody’s got to walk that lonesome valley,
they’ve got to walk it by their selves.
There’s nobody here can walk it for them,
they’ve got to walk it by their selves.
My father’s got to walk that lonesome valley,
he’s got to walk it by his self.
There’s nobody here can walk it for him,
he’s got to walk it by his self.
My mother’s got to walk that lonesome valley
she’s got to walk it by her self.
There’s nobody here can walk it for her,
she’s got to walk it by her self.
My brother’s got to walk that lonesome valley,
he’s got to walk it by his self.
There’s nobody here can walk it for him,
he’s got to walk it by his self.
Most sinners got to walk this lonesome valley,
they’ve got to walk it by their selves.
There’s nobody here can walk it for them,
they’ve got to walk it by their selves.
Everybody’s got to walk that lonesome valley,
they’ve got to walk it by their selves.
There’s nobody here can walk it for them,
they’ve got to walk it by their selves.
Psalm 1 GOD’S WORD Translation
BOOK ONE
(Psalms 1–41)
1 Blessed is the person who does not follow the advice of wicked people, take the path of sinners, or join the company of mockers. 2 Rather, he delights in the teachings of the Lord and reflects on his teachings day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted beside streams— a tree that produces fruit in season and whose leaves do not wither. He succeeds in everything he does.[a]
4 Wicked people are not like that. Instead, they are like husks that the wind blows away. 5 That is why wicked people will not be able to stand in the judgment and sinners will not be able to stand where righteous people gather.
6 The Lord knows the way of righteous people, but the way of wicked people will end.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
Rather He Delights Himself in the Teachings of the Lord.
Right from the start, I look at that word “Rather” and in my Christian frame of mind, I wonder – in whose other teachings would the Psalmist rather delight?
Verse 1 drops the answers into the exact center of our spiritual consciousness:
1 Blessed is the person who does not follow the advice of wicked people, take the path of sinners, or join the company of mockers.
Following the Advice of Wicked People.
Take the Path of Sinners.
Join in the Company of Mockers.
Psalm 1 is called the preamble to the book of Psalms.
That is, it serves as an introduction to the entire book.
What is said in Psalm 1 is relevant to all the rest of the book of Psalms.
Charles Spurgeon viewed it this way:
“The matter of the first Psalm, which may be looked upon, in some respects, as the text upon which the whole of the Psalms make up a divine sermon.”
The psalms begin with these words: “Blessed is the man.” In Psalm 1, God addresses man’s most basic question: How can I be happy (blessed) in this life?
Is this true? Does God really want us to be happy?
Absolutely!
And this happiness is not temporary, but perpetual.
The word translated blessed is plural in the original Hebrew.
That is, it means perpetual blessings. It can be read blessedness’s or happiness’s.
So how can I be happy, truly happy?
Not Following the Advice of Wicked People.
Not Taking the Path of Sinners.
Not Joining in the Company of Mockers.
Very wise and very sage advice when spoken with Authority in any age.
Join in with the crowds residing within the bounds of the “evils of this age?”
Join in with crowds residing within the boundless salvation of Almighty God?
Choosing the directions for our lives, Psalm 1 is called a wisdom psalm because we learn that happiness results from our choice to follow God’s direction of life.
In this psalm the writer sets forth two ways or two directions to choose in life.
One is specifically stated to the right way that leads us to happiness in the Lord, the other is specifically stated to be the wrong way that leads to worldly misery.
The Right Way
Psalm 1:1-3 Amplified Bible
Book One
The Righteous and the Wicked Contrasted.
1 [a]Blessed [fortunate, prosperous, and favored by God] is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked [following their advice and example], Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit [down to rest] in the seat of [b]scoffers (ridiculers). 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And on His law [His precepts and teachings] he [habitually] meditates day and night. 3 And he will be like a tree firmly planted [and fed] by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season; Its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers [and comes to maturity].
The wisdom of Psalm 1 captures a fundamental teaching found in both the Old and New Testaments.
In the writings of the Old Testament God teaches His people that one’s choice of one’s life’s mindset will determine both the direction, the outcome of their life.
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 Amplified Bible
19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore, you shall choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, 20 by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding closely to Him; for He is your life [your good life, your abundant life, your fulfillment] and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord promised (swore) to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
Choosing to live one’s life in the 24×7 mindset of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, by obeying His voice and holding closely to Him:
For He IS your life
For He is your GOOD life
He is your ABUNDANT life
He is your FULFILLMENT of life
He is the LENGTH OF OUR DAYS that we may live in the land which the Lord promised (swore, gave an oath to) to give to your fathers and the Patriarchs.
In Matthew’s Narrative of the Gospel,
Jesus’ message to the crowds is to choose the right way in life:
Matthew 7:13-14 Amplified Bible
The Narrow and Wide Gates
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad and easy to travel is the path that leads the way to destruction and eternal loss, and there are many who enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow and difficult to travel is the path that leads the way to [everlasting] life, and there are few who find it.
Choosing the Right Path
First, in Psalm 1:1 we learn that happiness comes by choosing to walk on a righteous path.
This determination is directly connected to other people.
Each line in this verse teaches us to avoid the wrong kinds of interpersonal relationships – our choice of friends make all the difference in our lives.
Notice what this verse says:
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.”
Choosing the righteous path includes refusing advice from those who hold godless values and whose moral and ethical choices violate the laws of God.
The second line goes a step further: “nor standeth in the way of sinners.”
It is one thing to listen to wicked counsel.
It is quite another to decisively side and to compromise with that viewpoint.
Instead, the happy person refuses to follow the worldly crowd.
You don’t see him “hanging out” with those who pursue sin as a lifestyle.
Finally, he refuses to sit and associate with those whose conversations mock and curse God: “nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”
If you and I want to choose to be miserable, we make our best friends those who are scornful, critical and disrespectful.
The three verbs—walk, stand and sit—show the oily, slippery slope of evil.
Evil is not passive.
It is ever descending.
The longer we go slipping and sliding, the worse we get -as a pattern of evil choices causes a downward spiral in our character that leads to destruction.
Hungering for God’s Word
Second, Psalm 1:2 resoundingly declares happiness comes by developing a strong appetite for God’s Word and NOT Satan’s incessant barrage of lies.
We learn to enjoy the Bible by nurturing the disciplined habit of meditation.
Meditation involves a 24/7—“day and night”—focus on the Scripture.
This means individually, in Koinonia fellowship seeking to better understand the Bible’s true meaning, as well as, its correct application to us personally.
The Spirit of God makes the Word of God satisfying to the soul of man.
The Scriptures are “sweeter than honey”(Psalm 119:103) and “more to be desired [desirable] are they than gold” (Psalm 19:10).
In some contexts the word meditate can be translated growl or groan or moan.
It conveys the idea of muttering.
Perhaps you know someone who walks around mumbling to himself.
We tend to view such behavior as socially odd.
But the reality is that all of us talk to ourselves inside our heads all the time.
There is a mental discussion going on continuously.
Some people simply express parts of their dialogue audibly.
This mental conversation is meditation.
God blesses us as we mull over His words day and night (Psalm 1:2).
The reason this way of life makes one so happy is that is fulfills the purpose for which we were created.
God’s first command to man was to “be fruitful” (Genesis 1:28).
Psalm 1 describes the happy man as being “like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper” (Psalm 1:3).
Fruit bearing is the result of deep roots’ finding their way, winding their way, to an abundant supply of nourishment from underground streams of water.
God’s Word is an all-sufficient, eternal supply of empowering grace for all of life – even during difficult, seemingly barren times, the Word will sustain life.
A fruitful life is a blessed life.
So David states that God’s way to happiness is being separated from the world, utterly saturated with the Word, and fruitful and successful in doing God’s will.
The Wrong Way
Psalm 1:4-6 Amplified Bible
4 The wicked [those who live in disobedience to God’s law] are not so, But they are like the chaff [worthless and without substance] which the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand [unpunished] in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the Lord knows and fully approves the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked shall perish.
David goes on in verse 4 to contrast the way of the righteous with the way of the ungodly: “the ungodly are not so.”
Charles Spurgeon makes a powerful point when he notes that the Hebrew proposes a double negative: “‘Not so the ungodly, no so.’Oh! how terrible is it to have a double negative put upon the promises! and yet this is just the condition of the ungodly.”
Ungodliness will never, never prosper!
In the end ungodly people’s lives are deemed as “chaff.”
In other words, they are deemed pointless, worthless, lifeless and useless.
They will be driven away by the wind of God’s judgment.
They will not dwell with the people of God in the congregation of the righteous (Psalm 1:5).
At the end of the passage, the psalmist sets forth two directions
—the way of the righteous and the way of the ungodly;
two decisions—to meditate on God’s Word or to listen to ungodly counsel;
and two destinies—the righteous will enjoy God’s presence forever, but the ungodly will perish.
Psalm 1 The Message
1 How well God must like you— you don’t walk in the ruts of those blind-as-bats, you don’t stand with the good-for-nothings, you don’t take your seat among the know-it-alls.
2-3 Instead you thrill to God’s Word, you chew on Scripture day and night. You’re a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month, Never dropping a leaf, always in blossom.
4-5 You’re not at all like the wicked, who are mere windblown dust— Without defense in court, unfit company for innocent people.
6 God charts the road you take. The road they take leads to nowhere.
Lonesome Valley
The Carter Family
Everybody’s got to walk that lonesome valley, they’ve got to walk it by their selves. There’s nobody here can walk it for them, they’ve got to walk it by their selves.
My father’s got to walk that lonesome valley, he’s got to walk it by his self. There’s nobody here can walk it for him, he’s got to walk it by his self.
My mother’s got to walk that lonesome valley she’s got to walk it by her self. There’s nobody here can walk it for her, she’s got to walk it by her self.
My brother’s got to walk that lonesome valley, he’s got to walk it by his self. There’s nobody here can walk it for him, he’s got to walk it by his self.
Most sinners got to walk this lonesome valley, they’ve got to walk it by their selves. There’s nobody here can walk it for them, they’ve got to walk it by their selves.
Everybody’s got to walk that lonesome valley, they’ve got to walk it by their selves. There’s nobody here can walk it for them, they’ve got to walk it by their selves.
Choosing This Day Your Path Unto True Happiness?
About You Discovering Your Path to True Happiness?
About You Walking On Your Path to True Happiness?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Lord, we ask that you will make us a blessed people who do not walk in the wicked’s counsel, stand in the sinners’s way, or sit in the scoffers’s seat, but who find such delight in your instruction that it is always on our hearts, minds, and lips.
Make us like a well-watered tree, nurtured to bear fruit and prosperous in all you give us to do. Keep us from being like those who oppose you. Their plans have the appearance of wisdom, but will ultimately come to nothing when you come to weigh and measure human works.
We trust you and know that your judgment is always righteous. Thank you for showing us your path—the path that leads to life—in your Word and through your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Faith and love are apt to be spasmodic in the best of minds. Men and women live on the brink of mysteries and harmonies into which they never enter, and with their hand on the door latch, they die outside.” ~ Christian Apologist, G. K. Chesterton
When I read and re-read this quote from Chesterton today on my Facebook feed yesterday, as I closed out the activities for my 62nd Birthday, it reminded me of that passage in Ecclesiastes, a passage that said God “put eternity in our hearts.”
All the while I was in my Mother’s womb, God weaved “eternity into my heart.”
Somewhere, somehow, God, my Creator, weaved “eternity deep into my DNA.”
Ecclesiastes 3:9-13 English Standard Version
The God-Given Task
9 What gain has the worker from his toil? 10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
“Faith and love are apt to be spasmodic in the best of minds. Men and women live on the brink of mysteries and harmonies into which they never enter, and with their hand on the door latch, they die outside.” ~ Christian Apologist, G. K. Chesterton
When I read and re-read this quote from Chesterton today on my Facebook feed yesterday, as I closed out the activities for my 62nd Birthday, it reminded me of that passage in Ecclesiastes, a passage that said God “put eternity in our hearts.”
All the while I was in my Mother’s womb, God weaved “eternity into my heart.”
Somewhere, somehow, God, my Creator, weaved “eternity deep into my DNA.”
Because God did this to me and for me, before I was even aware, of God, I can never shake the irrepressible feeling deep within my soul that there absolutely has to be something infinitely more waiting for me in eternity than in this life.
Collectively, in our response to this inner sense of eternity, we can and often do spend our lives either unaware of it, denying it, sidestepping it, fleeing from it, or attempting to resolve it without the assistance of the One who placed it there.
And this only leaves only leaves us in that empty space we call “wanting more.”
What we are called to do instead is turn to the One of whom it is said, “from him and through him and to him are all things” (Romans 11:36)(ESV).
Romans 11:33-36 English Standard Version
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
We turn to the only One in whom we find our origin, our purpose, our destiny.
We can know the only One who holds for each of His Children, in His righteous right hand, the indescribable feeling for eternity that He placed in our hearts.
Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6)(ESV).
Jesus said, unto his disciples a day before he died;
John 14:25-27 The Message
25-27 “I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.
This is the only path that will satisfy that nagging sense of greater things and the only path that leads us all to both reconciliation and an eternity with God.
The Gift of A Prayer to Live with Eternity in Mind
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 The Message
16-18 So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.
Eternity is a simple word but a complex concept.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “Time is short. Eternity is long. It is only reasonable that this short life be lived in the light of eternity.”
We waited in line for something relatively inconsequential for an eternity.
We are waiting for the blessed announcement of a baby being born.
We are waiting for the announcement that someone has passed away.
We are waiting for the arrival of family on Christmas or Easter Day.
We are waiting for laboratory and radiology test results to be read.
We are waiting for the bank to approve our very first Mortgage.
We think spring will never come; winter has lasted for an eternity.
We have a vacation planned for only a few weeks away, but it feels like an eternity on the calendar.
We are waiting for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to Return – “as promised.”
The undeniable reality is that, as humans, we cannot truly fathom eternity.
We know that God has provided eternal life to those who trust in His Son Jesus, but our understanding of the weight of eternity is beyond our comprehension.
Recently, I have come across numerous sermon series, devotional articles, and books, social media posts encouraging believers to live with eternity in mind.
But what exactly does that mean?
Paul encourages us in 2 Corinthians 4:18, “So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever (NLT).”
Life in a fallen world is tough; there’s no escaping the effects of sin in our lives.
But, we can shift our priorities, our mindsets our perspective, focusing on the things that matter to God (the eternal) and sacrificing ourselves, surrendering ourselves, letting go of those things that don’t matter (the things of this world).
Romans 12:1-2 The Message
Place Your Life Before God
12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
As one of my favorite preachers sermonized, “preaches easy, lives hard.”
We are ever so easily, quickly distracted, discouraged, and disillusioned daily.
It is impossibly challenging to “keep on persevering, keep on pushing forward in our faith, and remain steadfast and immovable always abounding in God’s work.”
The world’s message is “live your best life now,” but God’s word preaches us so utterly and radically different, stating “your forever life is yet to come.”
If we back up a verse to 2 Corinthians 4:17, Apostle Paul again reminds us,
“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”
What we are experiencing today will one day come to an end.
Even if the season of steadfast and immovable sorrow drags on forever or your difficult circumstances continue to stay the same day after day, God will still make everyone and everything new one day – and in this new world, His eternal kingdom, there will be no more tears and pain – Just LIFE(Revelation 21:1-4).
I am not sure what anyone of you readers are going through today but PLEASE be ENCOURAGED, be EMPOWERED and take heart; God sees and cares for you.
Psalm 121 The Message
121 1-2 I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains? No, my strength comes from God, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.
3-4 He won’t let you stumble, your Guardian God won’t fall asleep. Not on your life! Israel’s Guardian will never doze or sleep.
5-6 God’s your Guardian, right at your side to protect you— Shielding you from sunstroke, sheltering you from moonstroke.
7-8 God guards you from every evil, he guards your very life. He guards you when you leave and when you return, he guards you now, he guards you always.
On this side of Heaven, you may continue to experience the consequences of sin, but please be INSPIRED, be an INSPIRATION, God’s great mercy provided a way for all His Children to have eternal peace through salvation in Christ Jesus.
Be the ENCOURAGER, Pray, Cling, to the eternal hope we have in our salvation, and let the presence of the Holy Spirit fill you as you live with eternity in mind.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for being a God who cares about our burdens. We know that you are God who sees and hears the cries and prayers of your children. Help us to live with eternity in mind. Blessed Intercessor Holy Spirit of God, We pray fervently you will Be with us as we strive to focus more on the eternal, shifting our perspective from temporary things that distract us from living a life for Your glory alone. Forgive us when we sin against you, and be with us as we pursue holiness.
We love you, Lord; we are undeserving of your grace and mercy but thankful that you freely grant us both. We ask that you strengthen and help us as we share the Gospel in a broken world. Guide our conversations, and direct our paths to those who need to experience the eternal hope of salvation through Christ Jesus. In Jesus’ Name.
Author Hal Lindsey said, “Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air… but only for one second without hope.”
Hope not only affects how we live, it determined whether or not some people survive such catastrophic events such as natural disasters, devastating family, financial or healthcare news or the sudden unexpected loss of a loved one.
So, how is your hope?
Does it bounce back after being hit?
Or does it pop like a balloon lanced by a pin?
On what or WHO is your hope based?
The Bible shows us that people of faith are people of hope.
That makes sense, doesn’t it?
Those who trust God have more reason for hope than those who don’t.
But hardcore problems without visible solutions test the faith and challenge the hope of even the most devout.
Even when we are “poster children” for disappointment, guess what …
The Bible says to encourage each other every day (Hebrews 4:13).
Romans 5:3-5 The Message
3-5 There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
Romans 4, the Apostle Paul recounts the story of the Patriarch Abraham.
Romans 4:1-3 English Standard Version
Abraham Justified by Faith
4 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
For the new followers in Rome, Paul greatly emphasized Abraham’s faith.
Paul said even Abraham, who was considered a God-fearing and good man, was praiseworthy not because he was so good but because in faith, he believed God.
If we ourselves go read the story of Abraham in Genesis, we will find quite a few examples of Abraham making substantial mistakes and committing great sins.
For example, twice focused only on what mattered most to himself and he lied and told an Egyptian that his wife, Sarah, was his sister (Genesis 12 and 20).
Abraham was a good man in many ways, but he was an ordinary, flawed person, like anyone else.
The great thing about Abraham was not anything about Abraham himself; it was his focus on the “one thing:” he faithfully put his trust and hope in God.
Abraham slowly disciplined his focus on what mattered most: believed God’s promises, Abraham faithfully put his hope in God’s being true to his promises.
The same is very much true for our disciplining our focus away from us today.
If we focus all of our hope in our own power or our own goodness or strength, we will constantly and continuously be indescribably hopelessly disappointed.
In ourselves, we do not have enough goodness to give us hope for the future.
Focus on faith in God, given to us by Holy Spirit, is the surest source of hope.
Do you and I have any of that self same disciplined focus on hope in God alone?
A Disciplined Focus on God’s Brand of “Sure Hope”
Hebrews 12:1-3 The Message
Discipline in a Long-Distance Race
12 1-3 Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!
A disciplined focus on Hope.
It’s the oxygen our souls need to thrive.
Hope is the wild-eyed creature that pops up after the enemy tries to eradicate the very beating of faith in our hearts.
It’s the essence of being a disciplined Christ-follower and as a hopeless, broken world watches us under an electron Microscope, as they scornfully question, “If hope does not disappoint us, why are you Christians disappointed all the time?”
However, before we can answer that question, we need to define what hope is.
Hope looks like light, seeing hundreds of fireflies lighting up a dark night.
Hope is the long barren heavily scorned and mocked Hannah praying fervently, disciplined in her knowing God hears her while she’s taken for a drunken fool.
Hope is a father staying at hope forgiving his undisciplined wayward child.
Hope is the oxygen our souls need to breathe to stay alive.
Hope is a category 5 torrential downpour that washes the world clean.
Hope is uncountable millions of little green shoots being nourished, unearthed after a long and cold winter’s nap and stretching and reaching to the heavens.
Hope is praying your loved one will be found alive after tragedy strikes.
Hope is knowing we will be reunited with our loved ones on the other side of heaven.
Hope is the soldier at war in a far away land who begged God to use His words to care for, to heal and to love his son or daughter miles away.
Hope is a foster child finally finding his forever home in a family that fiercely loves, protects and cares for them.
Hope is watching your autistic child make a friend.
Hope is walking hand in hand with God the Father, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit.
What Does ‘Hope Does Not Disappoint Us’ Mean?
The biblical definition of hope is “confident expectation.”
Christian hope is rooted in faith in the divine salvation in Christ (Galatians 5:5) and through the love poured into us through God’s Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).
What have you and I been hoping for?
Have we been trying to discipline our hope away from the world and unto God?
Where have we been disciplining our minds, where are we focusing our Hope?
Did anything above resonate with your heart?
Or have you given up?
Maybe you and I are too afraid to invest in hope again because we dread the possibility that if we try too hard to discipline ourselves, we will lose all hope?
Or perhaps we simply don’t remember what hope even feels like anymore.
We are physically, mentally, spiritually exhausted from trying to recall what hope looks, tasted, feels, sounds like – we do not care to know what hope is.
If you’re in this camp, we need to go back to the Bible, discipline ourselves back unto Word of God, to understand God’s hope isn’t the same as the world’s hope.
God’s hope is not and never will be the same as the world’s definition of hope.
Both denote a positive expectation, but the world’s hope is rooted in a fallible person, situation, or thing. God’s hope is rooted in Him.
The basis of Christian hope is found Hebrews 11:1,“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for.”
The Greek word for hope in this passage is ‘hypostasis.
The anonymous author wrote in the book of Hebrews, “Faith is the ‘hypostasis of things hoped for…” which literally means “that which underlies.”
Meaning our faith in Christ underlies our hope, the deeper our faith is, the more difficult it is for hope to be overthrown and turned into disappointment.
A hope that does not disappoint means God has given us hope that raises up to our defense – to become our sword and shield in the midst of disappointment.
This kind of hope is found not in our avoidance of suffering but our working through it with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit because, suffering produces joy, perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. (James 1:2-4)
What Is the Context of Romans 5:5?
“Therefore, since we have been declared righteous (justified) through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us,” Romans 5:1-5.
We learn what hope means in God’s kingdom through the words of Paul beginning in the fifth chapter of Romans. Full
Here, Paul tells us we have justice, peace, grace, perseverance, character, and hope which is all built on the faith we have in Christ.
The kind of hope that does not disappoint that Paul is talking about here is the kind of disciplined hope that only God can give.
This kind of hope Fully Relies On God—His power, His promises, and the sacrifices He alone made for us.
This type of hope carries a promise because of what He has accomplished.
As we read through the rest of Romans 5, we learn we have this hope because Jesus died for us while we were yet his utterly worst enemies (Romans 5:8).
We have been justified and we will be delivered from all things.
God didn’t save us based on our own righteousness.
We were saved because of our faith, hope and belief and love for God’s Son.
This hope points directly to the glory of God – “we boast in our hope of sharing in the glory of God” (Romans 5:2).
This means, no matter what comes our way: suffering, turmoil, tragedy, death, and heartbreak. God will conquer it all.
In other words, “Hope has a sanctifying effect. We who look expectantly for the return of Christ, knowing that when we see him we shall become like him, and purify ourselves “as he is pure” (1 John 3:3 ).
Hope also stimulates good works.
Following his teaching on the resurrection of the dead, Paul exhorts readers to do be “steadfast and immovable doing the Lord’s work abundantly since such “labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:51-58 ).”
Then, How Exactly Can Christians Hope When They Experience Disappointments?
Throughout Scripture, we find the same message trusting in God’s promises and hoping in the Lord:
“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” Hebrews 10:23.
“I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance”Ephesians 1:18.
“I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word, I put my hope” Psalm 130:5.
If we read in between the vast array of scriptures about hope, we will also find hundreds of people inside the Bible who experienced true utter disappointment: Adam, Eve, Hagar, Job, Hannah, Moses, Sarah, David, Jacob, Gideon, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Jonah, the exiles, Nehemiah, Jesus, the Disciples, Paul, Elijah, others.
Yes! Even Jesus experienced disappointment during his ministry: when the people didn’t receive His message, when His disciples struggled with doubt, or when He encountered those legalistic religious leaders who wanted to kill Him.
Yet, each and every one of these biblical accounts of real-life people are marked by moments of every single one of them decisively overcoming disappointment.
They also went to accomplish great things for God and some even accomplished things beyond their wildest dreams.
The common thread of each of them was their hope in God.
Their belief in God was bigger than their disappointment.
Instead of blaming God when tragedy struck, instead, they turned to God.
“Hope in God transcends the lost hopes of human frailty and sin and begins to take effect in our lives precisely when human hopes are gone” (Romans 4:18).
How can Christians hope when we experience disappointments?
We put our hope in the Lord as we look at Paul’s example in Philippians 4:4.
Here, Paul was suffering greatly but he was writing to the church in Philippi which happened to be a church that was exceptionally poor.
But Paul was writing to them from a Roman Prison to encourage them to keep a disciplined, focused hope as they learn to be content with having much or little.
Paul wrote to encourage them through his example walking with Christ, even in the midst of disappointment, he could deal with humble means or prosperity.
No matter the circumstance Paul persevered through hope because no matter what came, he “can do all things through Christ’s strength, (Philippians 4:13, ESV).
The exact same One whose Grace strengthened Paul and provided contentment, courage, and a disciplined and focused hope is exact the same One working all things together—even disappointment—for our good too (Romans 8:28).
Because of the Sovereignty of God, Jesus’ resurrection power at work in us, the Holy Spirit interceding and praying for us when we have not the wherewithal to intercede for self, we can breathe in His kind of Hope that does not disappoint.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Prayer for a Hope That Does Not Disappoint
Lord God, our Creator, Author of our Life and Perfecter of our Hope, we raise our hearts, our souls, our hands high to thank you for your peace and for being our true source of hope. No matter what we walk through, may we lean on you. I believe that the hope you give us will not disappoint. You are working through every struggle and hardship we face. We will not be disappointed because of the salvation and blessing of a heavenly inheritance through Jesus Christ. Help us to abound in joy and to rest in your loving arms. Give us grace, strength, to lean on your powerful promises today.
Dear God, we praise you because you are true to your promises, we thank you that you are the true source of hope. Help us, by your Holy Spirit, to put our hope in you.
These commanding words of Paul are so simple and yet so very profound.
As Children of God, as Christians, we are all to covenanted by God to love one another and be devoted to each other as cherished members of the same family.
We should consider each other over our own self interests and give precedence, shared support, uplifting and honor to our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.
There should be no quarreling or factions between us, and we should consider how to build up in the faith and encourage each other continually in the Lord.
This image of God’s family is what we are expected to outwardly portray to the world; united by grace, loving, caring, and abundantly devoted to one another.
Romans 12:10-13 New American Standard Bible
10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; [a]give preference to one another in honor, 11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, 13 contributing to the needs of the [b]saints, [c]practicing hospitality.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
“Be Devoted to One Another in Brotherly Love …”
These commanding words of Paul are so simple and yet so very profound.
As Children of God, as Christians, we are all to covenanted by God to love one another and be devoted to each other as cherished members of the same family.
We should consider each other over our own self interests and give precedence, shared support, uplifting and honor to our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.
There should be no quarreling or factions between us, and we should consider how to build up in the faith and encourage each other continually in the Lord.
This image of God’s family is what we are expected to outwardly portray to the world; united by grace, loving, caring, and abundantly devoted to one another.
Called Away, and Separated by God, to Serve Others with Love
Mark 1:16-20 English Standard Version
Jesus Calls the First Disciples
16 Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”[a]18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.
Many new cars today are equipped with a global positioning system (GPS).
These little gadgets-with soothing voices and readable maps-once these things are programmed with an address, it can tell you how to get from here to there.
Except that Jesus did not provide Simon and Andrew with anything like a GPS or even a map.
Instead, without social media he simply walked by the lake where they were conducting their day to day business of providing for their families and their community, invited them to follow him on an adventure with a risky Teacher.
Our passage from Mark’s Gospel today pulls us into our immediate response to the call to “come away,” following Jesus, without knowing the way ourselves.
In Galilee, Jesus began telling others that God’s kingdom had arrived in him.
The good news of Jesus came after a four-hundred-year silence since the last Hebrew Testament prophets had brought the words of the Lord.
Immediately Jesus wanted to announce, to introduce people to God’s plan: in him, God is among us; in him, God’s kingdom has come; and the call to believe in him is the best invitation people will ever receive, be honored to respond to.
This Itinerant Master Rabbi Jesus was intervening into their lives, calling men and women into places where there would be little, if any, comfort and security.
An intervention, an adventure with Jesus led his disciples to places they would never have imagined, witnessing to all of God’s miraculous redemptive work .
Could they have known what miracle signs and wonders were ahead of them?
Despite their not knowing the magnitude of what they would witness, they all would testify that following Jesus would mean plenty of risk and inconvenience.
They would testify “inconvenience with Jesus” makes living life worth living.
Learning to Serve Others with Love
Romans 12:9-13 The Message
9-10 Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.
11-13 Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.
“Ministry” is derived from the Greek word diakoneo, meaning “to serve.”
Every believer is called into ministry to serve Jesus and His body.
Jesus came to earth to serve others and calls us to follow His lead in selflessness and compassion for others, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ.
It is human to seek after the cravings of our flesh, but in Christ Jesus, we can turn away from old ways (Colossians 3:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:24).
The Holy Spirit empowers us to set our selfishness aside to follow Savior Jesus’ example of being in service of others.
That Kind of Lifestyle Begins by Giving Our Mindset Unto God.
Psalm 119:1-8 The Message
119 1-8 You’re blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by God. You’re blessed when you follow his directions, doing your best to find him. That’s right—you don’t go off on your own; you walk straight along the road he set. You, God, prescribed the right way to live; now you expect us to live it. Oh, that my steps might be steady, keeping to the course you set; Then I’d never have any regrets in comparing my life with your counsel. I thank you for speaking straight from your heart; I learn the pattern of your righteous ways. I’m going to do what you tell me to do; don’t ever walk off and leave me.
Bible study and prioritizing spiritual discipline of prayer allow the Holy Spirit to go to work, renew our minds, shifting our focus to eternal and spiritual matters.
The longer we walk with the Lord, the more we discipline ourselves to walk with the Lord, the more we train and retrain our eyes and ears, hearts, minds, souls, hands and feet and the rest of our bodies the more able we are to hold up under the impossible array of temptations of our worldly thinking and fleshly desires.
Our behavior and attitude change as God gives us the desire to love, obey, and serve Him fervently!
Selfish living isn’t an option for Christ followers!
The Apostle Paul encouraged believers to become committed to the Lord and our brothers and sisters in Christ:
Romans 12:9-13 English Standard Version
Marks of the True Christian
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit,[a] serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica, “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us” ( I Thessalonians 2:8 ).
The Gospel is what brought them together and gave them a common bond.
What grew from that foundation was a great friendship with Savior Christ as the center.
The Apostle Paul rejoiced that he was able to share in their lives also because these people were so dear to him.
This bond transcends time and distance because it is based on the groundwork of God’s redemption, salvation work, through His Son Jesus Christ at Calvary.
This is why it is so important to surround yourselves with other brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, who are readily willing and able to share of their lives.
Proverbs says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17).
“As for reputation, though it be a glorious instrument of advancing our Master’s service, yet there is a better than that: a clean heart, a single eye, and a soul full of God. A fair exchange if, by the loss of reputation, we can purchase the lowest degree of purity of heart.” Reverend John Wesley (founder of Methodism)
Being in the company of other believers will encourage you and everyone who is around you in your personal connection, fellowship, relationship with the Lord.
It is impossible to be around another person who is excited about God and not have a measure of that excitement rub off on you.
“I have seen (as far as it can be seen) many persons changed in a moment from the spirit of horror, fear, and despair to the spirit of hope, joy, peace; and from sinful desires, till then reigning over them, to a pure desire of doing the will of God.” John Wesley (Founder of Methodism)
We are called to speak to each other, see each other, hear each other, listen to and love each other and to be devoted to one another, as a close knit family.
We now belong to one another.
We have been adopted into the family of God and our lives now reflect His life.
No longer do we ‘go it alone’, instead we are called into fellowship with other brothers and sisters in Christ.
The writer of Hebrews said, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25).
We are to share our lives, encourage and serve each other in the Word and spur each other random acts of radical hospitality, and towards love and good deeds.
This is a most wonderful thing about being part of God’s family, having other brothers and sister to encourage us and help us grow, that we may reciprocate.
Intersecting Faith and Life:
In dying to our selfish ways, our lives bring glory to God.
We may feel pain and joy as the light of God shows up in other people’s lives.
He does not leave us to our strength to follow the command to love and serve one another.
God empowers us to surrender to Him and His ways entirely. Our love for Him and others will steadily grow stronger and disciplined with each obedient step.
Every passing day, by God’s grace, we mature and cultivate a heart to serve others for His glory!
Who is God asking you to serve?
What selfish desires do you need to put aside to put someone else’s life before yours?
Are you too busy or distracted to serve or pray for others?
Let’s take some time and write down those who might come to mind.
Being “devoted to another in brotherly love” requires our church talk — we are family, brothers and sisters, children of God — must be more than mere words.
We must enter each others lives, getting to know one another so that we can serve, love and bless each other.
What have any of us done lately to get more involved in the lives of your fellow Christians?
Devotion to others follows a commitment to know and be known by them!
Who can you minister to, even if it is just a simple phone call to encourage someone or simply invite a new couple from your church over for dinner?
May God empower us His Children to choose others above ourselves and show their love of Christ over their love for the world, with ever greater compassion.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Almighty Father, thank you for giving me a world wide family. Thank you for loving me so completely. Father I ask that you help me be more open with myself and my time to those in your family. Lord, help me to assess my value in terms of living for you. I need your courage to lead me and guide me into places where I can make a difference today.Give me a contrite and disciplined heart which burns to bless others and be blessed by those you have made your children. Through Savior Jesus I pray.
20-21 God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
Glory to God in the church! Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus! Glory down all the generations! Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
A lack of, or troubled faith may make us expect far less than God is willing to do.
An unexpectant faith may make us feel far less able to be bold and courageous in these days when too many people do not hold God in high regard or at all.
Too many people, believers and non believers alike have the idea that with so much turmoil going on, so much division and rancor, strife of every imaginable description behind every single blade of grass every weed, both alive and dead, it is simply not possible for everyone to believe God cannot raise to the moment.
Yet the Word of God from Paul’s letter to the new followers at Ephesus is clear when it tells us to exceedingly expect our God to answer when we pray in faith.
But, nowadays, who is it with any exceeding boldness and abundant courage does anything to go above and beyond to raise OUR expectations beyond ZERO?
What are your expectations?
Specifically, what are your expectations of God and what are your expectations of yourself this day?
Consider these words from Ephesians chapter 3:
Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21 NLT)
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21 NKJV)
Apostle Paul is writing to both believers and skeptics God is able to accomplish infinitely more or do exceeding abundantly more than we can ever ask or think.
Matthew Henry commenting on this truth wrote:
“There is an inexhaustible fullness of grace and mercy in God, which the prayers of all the saints can never draw dry. Whatever we may ask, or think to ask, still God is still able to do more, abundantly more, exceedingly abundantly more. Open your mouth ever so wide, still he has the wherewithal to fill it.”
What are your expectations?
What are your all too human expectations of God?
What are your eternal expectations from God
Do your all too human expectations of God include the steadfast belief God is able to do more in your life and mine than we can hope or think or imagine?
There may be many things we believe we can not ever do in our own strength or our own ability as we acknowledge what Jesus said in Matthew 19:26 “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”
When we pray according to God’s will all things are possible.
Perhaps our problem when we pray is we often put limits on what God can do.
Often we can think our problem or circumstance or situation is beyond the scope of God’s ability.
If we think that our problems are bigger than God is able or willing to handle,
then we show a lack of faith in the God who loves us and cares for us.
A lack of faith may make us expect far less than God is willing to do.
Yet the Word of God is clear when it tells us to expect God to answer when we pray in faith.
Luke 18:1-8 English Standard Version
The Parable of the Persistent Widow
18 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Listen to these verses to encourage your expectation:
Psalm 16:11 – You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 23:1 – The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Isaiah 43:1-3– But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. 3 For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
Jeremiah 33:1-3 –
The Lord Promises Peace
33 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the guard: 2 “Thus says the Lord who made the earth,[a] the Lord who formed it to establish it—the Lord is his name: 3 Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.
Matthew 18:19– “I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you.
Matthew 21:22 – You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”
Mark 11:24 – I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.
John 14:13 – You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father.
John 15:7 – But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!
John 15:16 – You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.
John 16:23-24 – At that time you won’t need to ask me for anything. I tell you the truth, you will ask the Father directly, and He will grant your request because you use my name. You haven’t done this before. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy.
James 1:5-6 – If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask Him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.
James 1:17 – Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.
1 John 3:22 – And we will receive from Him whatever we ask because we obey Him and do the things that please Him.
1 John 5:14-15 – And we are confident that He hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases Him. And since we know He hears us when we make our requests, we also know that He will give us what we ask for.
Fellow Children of God, the eternal truth of the matter is this: when we pray, we need to pray in faith, we all need to pray expectantly, expect God to do infinitely more, exceedingly and abundantly above all that we all ask or think or imagine.
Be exceedingly and abundantly honest with God who 100% already knows what is going on, when you pray, what are all those things you think about, that you do not, wont, pray about because you are too worried that God will not answer?
Are there things that you do not pray about because in your heart you do not want or do not expect our exceedingly abundant God to answer your prayer?
What?
Let me give a couple of examples:
What if the thought of sharing your faith with other people scares you, you may choose not to pray for God to provide those exceedingly abundant opportunities to share the truth of Jesus with others.
If you are exceedingly, abundantly comfortable being in a small church where everybody knows your name, you will never pray for God to grow your church.
The truth is we may expect many things of God, but He also highly expects us to be abundantly willing to follow His purpose for us, our church, our community.
We need to pray in an abundantly expectant faith, trusting God, obedient to His plans, His Word, His Truth, His life, His covenanted precepts, His perfect will.
We can expect God to answer prayer in the right way at the perfect time.
One thing God keeps teaching me through prayer is patience.
His timing is perfect in every situation.
God will act at the right time and He is willing to do far more than we ever ask, or think, or imagine.
What is going on in your life right now that needs a touch from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?
Your health… your relationships… your family…
your work… your prayer life… your faith…
your daily walk… your witness for our Lord.
Don’t try and carry it on your own, don’t let it draw your attention away from God.
Joseph Scriven wrote some very appropriate words in his hymn ‘What a Friend we have in Jesus’:
What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry, Everything to God in prayer!
Whatever the situation, whatever the circumstances, take it to the Lord in prayer.
Pray and ask God to speak, to act, to move, to bless.
Pray in faith and expect God to move.
Here is another question:
How Big are Your Expectations of God?
How big is your expectation of God?
When you pray do you limit your expectation of what God can do?
Are you praying for someone in your family who as yet does not know God?
Are you praying in faith that God will change their heart?
Or have you given up praying for that person because your expectation is they will never turn to Jesus and be saved?
The Bible from our passage from Ephesians 3 is clear when it says God can and will do infinitely more, exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.
Don’t let your expectations limit your prayers.
Don’t limit what God can and will do!
Remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 16:20,
“I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”
Throughout the Bible, we can read of many people who dared to ask God to do make the impossible possible.
God answered their prayers.
Maybe in your own life you have experienced God doing the impossible.
When you thought there was no hope,
when you thought the odds were against you,
when you thought it was impossible for circumstances to change,
when you expected the worst,
God stepped in and everything changed.
God stepped in and did infinitely more, exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ask or think or imagine.
God is Almighty, God is exceedingly incredible, God’s mighty power works an exceedingly abundant array of miracles in this messed up world every day.
God’s love and mercy is poured out into our lives every day; we are His children; our salvation is secure and certain in Jesus Christ; we are empowered by the Holy Spirit; God listens when we come to Him in prayer, God answers prayer.
God can abundantly exceed our expectation in every area of our everyday lives.
As I was reflecting on this devotional message, God laid an important truth on my heart to share with you:
Philippians 2:5-11 English Standard Version
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a]6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,[b]7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
With the Like Mind of our Savior Christ, We must always make time to pray.
It is equally important for us to pray in times of joy as well as times of trouble.
Expectant Prayer Builds Abundant Relationship With God
Romans 12:12 simply tells us we should:
Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying (Romans 12:12)
This is an essential command for each of us to follow isn’t it?
Joyful hope and patience in affliction go against the grain of our own natures.
Excessive Despair and exceedingly abundant self-pity come much more easily.
In times like that, it’s important to turn to God in prayer.
We pray for many reasons: to thank God for blessings, to praise God, to confess sins, to seek God’s exceedingly abundant leading, guidance and direction for us.
In good times and bad we are to speak to God,
we are to draw near to Him,
grow in our relationship with Him.
The truth of the matter is this: Sometimes God answers our requests for help exactly as we ask, but sometimes not – sometimes the answer comes back: NO!
Either way, the Bible calls us to be faithful in prayer.
Prayer—thanking, praising, confessing, asking for help—connects us with God.
Prayer builds relationship.
Prayer strengthens the bond between God and us.
When we all have a good relationship with someone, hopefulness and patience become a little easier, especially when Someone is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.
We can have a confident and expectant hope in God.
The fact that you are here this devotional suggests that you have hope in God,
it suggests you want to know more of our exceedingly abundant God,
that you want to draw exceedingly and abundantly closer to Him,
that right now you want to be in a real relationship with Him,
that right now you are expecting God to be abundantly active in your life today.
How is your relationship with God?
Have you felt His presence and experienced His touch upon your life today?
When you woke up this morning was it with an expectant heart?
Were you thrilled by the thought God would work in you, through you today?
Did you come to this devotional writing today with an utterly expectant heart?
Expecting to worship an exceedingly abundant God…
Expecting to feel His exceedingly abundant presence…
Expecting to the Word of God speak into your life…
Expecting to see and believe in the exceedingly abundant miracles of God …
Expecting to feel your life changed, transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit…
Expecting to be uplifted, refilled, renewed, restored, revitalized…
Expecting an exceedingly abundant revival get all revved up inside you …
Did you expect to come to “church” today expecting infinitely more, far exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ask or think or imagine?
What is God’s Abundant Expectation of You Today?
What is God’s exceedingly abundant expectations of you today?
As disciples of Jesus, God expects our daily commitment to Him.
God expects us to trust Him.
God expects us to follow Him.
God expects us to love Him.
God expects us to serve Him.
God expects us to speak to Him in prayer.
God expects us to learn more about Him.
God expects us to think about the things of God.
God expects us to tell others about Him.
God expects us to give Him first place in our lives.
God expects many things of each and every one of us.
Are you meeting God’s expectation of you?
One more thing God exceedingly and abundantly expects is for us to fill our minds, hearts with the #1 hard core Truth of God’s Word: “God is 100% #1!”
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Almighty God, we serve and worship you, the One, True, Everlasting God, Who, when we are in absolute surrender to your Holy Will, show your incredible Power, your Omnipotence, Omnipresence and Omniscience, which is beyond limits of description and human comprehension. Your exceedingly abundant wonders and miracles, your exceedingly abundant love, goodness and mercy, exceeds all known perceptions and expectations goes beyond borders and boundaries into unlimited infinity.
You can create, recreate, do or undo anything, for the end of the greatest length of any of man’s abilities, is just the beginning of the endless possibilities and the wondrous working of your Mighty Hands. This amply demonstrates that for those who walk exceedingly abundantly according to your Holy Will and find favor in your eyes by their dedicated faith, your great outpourings of graces and blessings manifest your vast Glory and are exceedingly and abundantly visited upon them endlessly.
Lord, we are grateful beyond measure to worship and serve you, who dares the impossible and does the unthinkable. You work in us through the power of your Holy Spirit to increase our faith, and preserve to salvation all believers in Christ our Lord. His immense sacrifice of washing us pure of all sin, has made the gift of eternal life available and attainable by all who give Christ the glory in his Church, and in his far exceedingly abundant Name forever and forever and forever more. Amen.
18-19 “If you find the godless world is hating you, remember it got its start hating me. If you lived on the world’s terms, the world would love you as one of its own. But since I picked you to live on God’s terms and no longer on the world’s terms, the world is going to hate you.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
A Hated People
John 15:18 Amplified Bible
Disciples’ Relation to the World
18 “If the world hates you [and it does], know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
This may be one of Jesus’ hardest teachings—especially if anyone of us tends to prefer being a people pleaser.
Jesus wants us to understand that his followers will sometimes be at odds with the values of the world.
As a result, there will be times when we pay a relational price for following him.
But will we be hated?
Disliked? Probably.
Misunderstood? Sure.
But hated? That sounds pretty extreme.
Well, hatred is a pretty extreme and polarizing emotion.
Hatred is a high energy radically divisive way of immediately shutting down the course of events of that moment – say the words “I hate you” and life just stops.
Yet Jesus deliberately chooses this strong language here for a reason.
And Jesus knew that it absolutely had to be said and Jesus knew his disciples had to be prepared to receive the hatred – even to the point of their death on a cross.
Putting God first in our life will absolutely create friction—being different from everyone around you — well, guess what? it’s going to be a significant threat to people and unto world systems which have a deep and vested interest in their own selfish ambitions and much preferred ways of doing “their own” things.
Jesus invited people into the kingdom of God, to hate the world, and this will result in his arrest, public humiliation and his suffering and death on a cross.
Why? Because his teachings represented a threat to the religious leadership.
Following Jesus meant great personal sacrifice, having less power, status, and attention, so their response was to get rid of the competition and protect their own interests (see John 11:48 Amplified).
48 If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our [holy] place (the temple) and our nation.”
Since we read in Scripture this is how Jesus was treated, should we be surprised to encounter such a hardship in our own lives because of our faith in him? No.
Yet, in spite of resistance in this world, God remains faithful to his people.
Through the Holy Spirit, we can be emboldened, empowered and inspired and refreshed to continue the most challenging of Kingdom work God calls us to do.
And in community we can find the prayer and support to keep following Jesus, no matter what it costs us.
John 17:6-12 Amplified Bible
6 “I have manifested Your name [and revealed Your very self, Your real self] to the people whom You have given Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept and obeyed Your word. 7 Now [at last] they know [with confident assurance] that all You have given Me is from You [it is really and truly Yours]. 8 For the words which You gave Me I have given them; and they received and accepted them and truly understood [with confident assurance] that I came from You [from Your presence], and they believed [without any doubt] that You sent Me. 9 I pray for them; I do not pray for the world, but for those You have given Me, because they belong to You; 10 and all things that are Mine are Yours, and [all things that are] Yours are Mine; and I am glorified in them. 11 I am no longer in the world; yet they are still in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, so that they may be one just as We are. 12 While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and protected them, and not one of them was lost except [a]the son of destruction, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.
With the power and strength of Such deep Prayerful Support – what becomes possible?
The COURAGE to be DIFFERENT!
John 15:19 Amplified Bible
19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love [you as] its own and would treat you with affection. But you are not of the world [you no longer belong to it], but I have chosen you out of the world. And because of this the world hates you.
Against the Grain
My father who grew up in the Depression era and was a combat veteran of the Korean Conflict, used to say the times have changed, a sentiment I now echo.
A child of the sixties and seventies, the world looked so very different during my own childhood; some resulted from my idyllic imaginings, and some from a much darker more brutal and bullied reality now most thankfully long past.
Today, the world, especially whether it is my country, or most anyone else’s country, looks darker, uncertain, bullied, terrorized and war-like and divided.
My Judeo-Christian faith now shines brighter than ever, and too many days I have never felt so alone, misunderstood and out of place.
Born and baptized a Christian, My family and I grew up Jewish when being Christian was much more in fashion, even ubiquitous.
Kids pretended to be Christian even when they weren’t.
I do not guess that is as true now as it was then – Not anymore.
It was the sixties and seventies – Haight Ashbury, the Vietnam War, Protests, Anti War Sentiments and campus riots were 5 minutes from my parents home.
There was the iconic transformative Woodstock on a farm in Bethel New York.
There was the Watergate Scandal and a US President was compelled to Resign.
This was our era – which we and my family lived, grew up in, were shaped by.
Each era seems to have its own iconic mind-bending, setting, transformative events which served to change the thinking of those who were born and raised.
Nowadays, many people hide their faith for fear of being offensive.
There seem to be fewer open prayers when out in public and less mention of God in school.
The challenges are mind bending, mind setting, controversial, transformative, divisive, politically high charged: Abortion. Homosexuality. Race. Transgender.
Violence, school shootings, walk into a church or any other place and spray bullets and bombs all over, among many other things which could easily take their place in bending, breaking, shaping, transforming billions of minds.
Uttering an unpopular opinion or a fact that goes against the grain is far more consequential than just merely taboo.
So for those of us seeking to stand firm in the faith, our absolute belief in God, the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, what exactly are we left to do?
Finding the courage to be different today comes with consequences like job loss, public ostracization with threats of physical violence, legal repercussions, fines, and maybe at some point, death.
From those first century days, it is not too far fetched to believe or wonder if it’s not significantly more counter-cultural to be that faithful, faith-filled, hopeful hope-filled, publicly prayerful, publicly praying Christian in today’s society.
The question is, do we have even the the minimal courage to be max different?
Intersecting Faith and Life:
The world hated Jesus.
There should be no surprise when we receive the same treatment.
If you are a Christian who finds yourself in harmony with the world, that’s an indication to rethink your faith.
We are called live differently, like Christ.
He didn’t have an easy life.
Why would we?
Why should we?
Christ told His disciples there would be suffering in the world.
Yet, despite suffering, through Him, they could find peace.
Through Him, they found the strength needed to live out their faith.
That same peace and strength are available to us today.
We’ll need it if we are to be different.
Different in the Way We Talk
Scripture prescribes a certain way to communicate.
Our words are supposed to build another up, those in the faith and outside.
That doesn’t mean every word spoken from our mouths is soft and gentle, but that also doesn’t mean our words should be extremely harsh and ultra divisive.
Where the world seeks to offend, we should make peace.
Where the world stresses peace, we should boldly speak the truth of the Gospel of our Lord, Savior Jesus Christ in “tough” love to people who need to hear it.
Different in the Way We Walk
Modern society glorifies the value of an individual’s happiness, priorities, needs, and wants. Our faith prioritizes the values of God.
We recognize we are not the center of the universe, which causes us to value getting married and starting families.
We value impartially serving others as opposed to serving ourselves. (James 2:1-13)
We value children in and outside of the womb. (Psalm 139:13-18)
Different in How We Think
Our primary motivations as Christians should be to love God and, secondly, to love our neighbors as much or as little as God commands us to love ourselves.
These are the greatest commandments.
Society commands the love of self.
If we aren’t happy, the culture encourages us to change our circumstances through divorce, jobs, etc.
Scripture helps us understand happiness is not just transitory but something we are not entitled to for simply existing.
God blesses us with good, but He also blesses us, allows for the bad and even the catastrophic and for very good reasons!
Different in What We Believe
Those in the world reject God when they can’t see the evidence but are quick to believe science without viewing the evidence – the methodology, the variables, the data, etcetera.
Knowing ‘the science’ proves something is enough for some people.
As Christians, we believe science helps us understand the natural world, but we also recognize there is also a supernatural one.
God allows us to see where conventional insight fails or deceives.
Being different is a challenge today, but walking with God was never meant to be easy.
Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are proof.
Proverbs 29:18Amplified Bible
18 Where there is no vision [no revelation of God and His word], the people are unrestrained; But happy and blessed is he who keeps the law [of God].
Choosing courage over comfort means embracing the unknown.
It pushes you to new experiences and makes you open and accommodating when you are tired of working for world instead of working for Savior Jesus.
Serving as Jesus did? It requires courage and confidence to do what your mind would otherwise assume and ignore because it anticipates failure or challenges.
Comfort will keep you back from pursuing your goals, fulfilling your dreams, and living up to your potential.
Courage, on the other hand, gives us prophetic vision (Proverbs 29:18) to see what others cannot see, to pursue what others would not dare to go after.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
God Almighty,God my Father, I come before you now with a fresh anointing of your Gospel from John 15:18-19, with a plea and a prayer for courage. Please be with me on these dark and challenging days. No matter how alone I may feel, remind me you are my ever-present company. Whatever obstacles I face and my mindset faces, help me to live out the faith consistently and constantly. When the world seeks hate me as it hated your Son Jesus, seeks to deceive and sell me on falsehoods as Satan did your Son, direct me again towards truth. Please direct me to you. Being different is hard and scary, and some days God, I wonder what life would be like to be of the world. But I want to remain steadfast. I wish to remain with you. So, Lord, please give me the courage to be different, especially when I need it the most. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
1 These are the words of the Quester, David’s son and king in Jerusalem:
2-11 Smoke, nothing but smoke. [That’s what the Quester says.] There’s nothing to anything—it’s all smoke. What’s there to show for a lifetime of work, a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone? One generation goes its way, the next one arrives, but nothing changes—it’s business as usual for old planet earth. The sun comes up and the sun goes down, then does it again, and again—the same old round. The wind blows south, the wind blows north. Around and around and around it blows, blowing this way, then that—the whirling, erratic wind. All the rivers flow into the sea, but the sea never fills up. The rivers keep flowing to the same old place, and then start all over and do it again. Everything’s boring, utterly boring— no one can find any meaning in it. Boring to the eye, boring to the ear. What was will be again, what happened will happen again. There’s nothing new on this earth. Year after year it’s the same old thing. Does someone call out, “Hey, this is new”? Don’t get excited—it’s the same old story. Nobody remembers what happened yesterday. And the things that will happen tomorrow? Nobody’ll remember them either. Don’t count on being remembered.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
The timelessness of Ecclesiastes is evident in our modern, existential age of excess with every possible pursuit, pleasure, and provision readily available through the click of a mouse or touch screen, and yet, people are still miserable.
Money cannot buy happiness.
The Preacher in Ecclesiastes clearly demonstrates this point by cataloging all his attempts to gain meaning and joy in life, and still concludes, “All is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2).
But what is vanity?
Is vanity just a piece of bathroom furniture with a countertop and mirror for getting ready in the morning?
My mental image for vanity is the witch in Snow White, seeking affirmation for her beauty and worth with her magic mirror every morning, expecting to be the center of attention to her daily request of “Who is the fairest of them all?”
Does vanity mean that life is empty, worthless, or meaningless?
It is like washing your car in the rain or polishing the brass on the Titanic as it sinks – “What’s the point?”
The first chapter of Ecclesiastes seems to present a hopeless image of life, reporting “I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after the wind” (Ecclesiastes 1:14).
All Is Vanity
The author explains the cycle of life, noting how each generation will come and go, striving and seeking meaning and purpose, but die all the same, not even leaving behind a lasting memory (Ecclesiastes 1:11).
The author proceeds to detail his vast wealth and pursuits for pleasure and meaning, describing how nothing was outside his access or ability, and yet, he concludes this pursuit of pleasure by saying,
“What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night, his heart does not rest. This also is vanity” (Ecclesiastes. 2:22-23).
If all of life is meaningless and we simply strive to suffer and struggle each day, what is the point?
Where is our hope and where is our purpose to be found in life if ultimately life is meaningless?
There seems to be no hope in life.
If this were the meaning of vanity, life would be meaningless, but the Preacher is instead explaining a critical truth that we have yet to grasp these thousands of years later.
Vanity does not refer to absolute meaninglessness, but instead to a cyclical repetitiveness.
Our experience of life is such a small slice across all of human history, the value of our contribution and purpose for living gets utterly lost in this broader scope without an anchor for context to the bigger plan across time.
Hope is found in the meaning and purpose God provides to connect us to His story as integral players for His purpose and glory.
The theme of Ecclesiastes is that life is short, death is certain, and seeking meaning apart from God is like attempting to grasp the wind or wrangle vapor.
Meaning is not something we can control. Hope is found in the meaning and purpose provided as a free gift in love from God through His Son.
The Genre and Authorship of Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes sits at the end of the Wisdom literature in Scripture, preceded by Job and Proverbs, but all three tied together to provide critical lessons about the meaning of life.
Mirroring the virtues of faith, hope, and love, with love as the greatest (1 Corinthians 13:13), Ecclesiastes, Job, and Proverbs provide meaning to these ultimate questions of boredom or empty pursuit with the necessity of faith in God’s provision (Ecclesiastes), suffering is resolved through hope in God’s care (Job), and love as the ultimate meaning of life (Song of Solomon) demonstrated through God’s pursuit of us as His beloved.
Proverbs unites all these themes with a contrast between Wisdom and folly, or pursuit of God versus pursuit of self, proclaiming faith, hope, and love are found in a life lived in pursuit of Wisdom (Proverbs. 3:1-8).
Historically attributed to Solomon because of the opening credential of the author as “the son of David, king in Jerusalem” (Ecclesiastes. 1:1), the writing style, language differ from Proverbs and Song of Solomon, which are directly attributed to Solomon within the texts (Proverbs. 1:1; Song of Solomon 1:1).
While the exact dating and authorship are uncertain, the timelessness of Ecclesiastes is evident in its vivid descriptions of our modern struggle for meaning and purpose.
The book introduces the content of the book as “the words of the Preacher” (1:1), used alternatively throughout the book as Qoheleth (which is the Hebrew word for preacher, convener, or collector), suggesting that an editor or disciple of Qoheleth has compiled his teaching for this book at an uncertain date.
This authorship does not negate the possible influence or content from Solomon, but just that the book is not directly from Solomon but compiled and edited by another to provide a call to elevate faith in God for the people of Israel.
How Does Hope Play a Part in a World of Vanities?
If life is just vapor or breath, like “chasing after the wind” (Ecclesiastes. 1:14), from where does our hope come from?
The Preacher described his ceaseless pursuit for knowledge, self-indulgence, and pleasure, wisdom for wisdom’s sake, and work, concluding that everything comes from the hand of God and attempting to live apart from God is “vanity and a striving after wind”(Ecclesiastes 2:26).
Ecclesiastes 3:9-13 provides the context and answer to this issue.
The Preacher combats the cyclical repetitiveness inherent in vanity by proclaiming there is a fixed and appointed time for everything and it is according to this timeframe, which is outside of our control, that God orchestrates His purpose and plan provided to us as a gift (Ecclesiastes 3:13).
Life is short with our appearance on the planet like a breath compared to eternity, but this awareness of scope is given to us by God to provide an unsettling or discomfort in this place as a distant reminder of a home we have lost, a motivation to pursue God who controls time, place, purpose (3:14-15).
As C. S. Lewis stated, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world” (Mere Christianity).
Eternity in our hearts is the echo of the Garden, the place of perfect relationship with God, self, others, and creation.
We were made in the image of God, designed to be “naked and unashamed” (Genesis 2:25) with the purpose to image God through our creating, ordering, and sustaining His creation (Genesis 1:28).
Hope is the recognition of this glimmer, this reminder of God’s continued connection, continued relationship with all of us, as is realized through the incarnation and provision of new life through Christ’s death and resurrection.
Ecclesiastes is the echo of the Gospel message that we are more sinful than we ever thought but more loved than we could ever imagine.
In the Fall, we sought independence from God in desiring to define good and evil for ourselves, seeking meaning and purpose apart from our Creator.
God demonstrated mercy and grace by limited our lives in this empty pursuit in blocking continued access to the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:24), providing hope in the promise of a Savior (Genesis 3:15).
The message of the Gospel is the message of an upside kingdom because our values and desires have flipped with the influence of sin.
Our pursuit of independence and pleasure leaves us isolated and in despair while our dependence on God provides a connection to Him in His love for us and for the world (John 15:9-12).
Mark 8:35-37 summarizes Ecclesiastes well by noting,
“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?”
While our lives feel short and quick, our hope is found in the timing and plan of God, who has ordered our lives and “every matter under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).
How to Live with Hope in the ‘Already but Not Yet’
Hebrews 11 provides a glorious parade of faithful followers of God designed to bolster the endurance of the author’s audience and reinforce their faith in God’s promises.
The author of Hebrews is speaking to an audience struggling to retain the truth of God’s promises within the overwhelming appearance of reality as enveloped by meaninglessness and vanity.
Suffering and struggles are real and in the midst of these experiences we lose sight of the bigger picture and the “now” feels all-consuming.
The author of Hebrews seeks to encourage his audience by reminding them of God’s bigger plan and purpose while providing concrete examples of those who lived according to this faith and assurance in unseen things.
Hebrews demonstrates scope and context for God’s provision and plan, opening our eyes again to the hope of our calling to something greater (Ephesians 1:18).
The suffering, struggle, and death of these saints did not consume their vision.
They did not lose sight of the bigger purpose of God even when the breath of their life exhausted without receiving what was promised, their faith remained (Hebrews 11:39) because their hope was on something more permanent, an “anchor within the veil” (Hebrews 6:19).
The faith and hope of these saints looked backward to the promise of the Messiah (Genesis 3:15) with a culmination in their future, fulfilled in Jesus Christ (Mark 8:29).
Our faith and hope also look backward to Christ’s death and resurrection and forward to His return (1 Peter 5:10-11; Revelation 22:20).
We live in the joyful expectancy of the “already but not yet.”
We live in the Saturday of passion week, assured in the provision of redemption through the cross and resurrection while awaiting our own resurrection and glorification to follow Christ (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).
In the same way that the saints of Hebrews 11 endured in their faith, waiting in “the assurance of things hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1), we retain our purpose and meaning in time, awaiting our own resurrection, looking to Jesus as the anchor point to “run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).
Because we only perceive life through this finite experience, it is so easy for anyone and everyone to get caught up inside the vanity of repetitive pursuit, feeding our desire for independence and pleasure.
The Preacher calls us to attention, however, to remind us that because life is short, this reality should spark our motivation to get working and make sure our direction and desires align with God’s purpose and plan for us.
It is easy to become distracted and lose sight of the hope of our calling and the author and perfecter of our faith.
The scope of our task and role is bigger than us and extends beyond us.
Just as we have the hopeful, hope-filled example and encouragement of a great crowd of witnesses who have gone before us (Hebrews 12:1), so too we are all now leading others in the hopeful, hope-filled treads of our footsteps as well.
Maintain your hopeful, hope-filled, faithful faith-filled perspective as meaning it all comes from God and in spite of all the “vapor-ness” of life, motivates us all to significantly fruitful, fruit-filled Kingdom of God action in this short time.
Our hope in God is unaffected by circumstance or situation because God is always in control and we receive what He provides as from His hand, both, whether good or bad or completely catastrophic all is for His glory alone. (Ecclesiastes 7:13-15; Job 2:10; Romans 9:22-24).
Keep your eyes on Jesus.
Look full into His Wonderful Face.
And the Things of This Earth Grow Strangely Dim.
In the Light of His Glory and Strength.
In the name of God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Lord, my teacher, I’m often confused when I need to make important decisions about my life, my family, my work, my relationships, my health, or finances. Show me the way I should go when I don’t know which way to turn. Help me remember to come to you, rather than trying to figure everything out on my own. Guide me along the best pathway, your pathway for my life. Lead me and Advise me and watch over me. Help me to give both of my ears to listen to your guidance and not resist it as much as I have been. I thank you that your unfailing love surrounds those who trust you. Amen.
3 Blessed [gratefully praised and adored] be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts and encourages us in every trouble so that we will be able to comfort and encourage those who are in any kind of trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as Christ’s sufferings are ours in abundance [as they overflow to His followers], so also our comfort [our reassurance, our encouragement, our consolation] is abundant through Christ [it is truly more than enough to endure what we must]. 6 But if we are troubled and distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted and encouraged, it is for your comfort, which works [in you] when you patiently endure the same sufferings which we [a]experience. 7 And our [b]hope for you [our confident expectation of good for you] is firmly grounded [assured and unshaken], since we know that just as you share as partners in our sufferings, so also you share as partners in our comfort.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
Come! Listen! Let Me Tell You What My Savior Has Done For Me.
Psalm 66:16-20 The Message
16-20 All believers, come here and listen, let me tell you what God did for me. I called out to him with my mouth, my tongue shaped the sounds of music. If I had been cozy with evil, the Lord would never have listened. But he most surely did listen, he came on the double when he heard my prayer. Blessed be God: he didn’t turn a deaf ear, he stayed with me, loyal in his love.
The writer of Psalm 66 wants to tell us his “GOD story” when he says, “Come and hear, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me.”
The psalmist does not want to talk about his accomplishments or achievements.
The Psalmist wants to talk about what God has done for him throughout his life.
His life had not been easy.
He had been tested and refined like silver.
He had experienced many burdens.
But through it all God had been with him and by listening to his cries for help,
God had led him, guided him, directed him to “a place of abundance.”
Like the Psalmist, each and every one of us has a strikingly similar story to tell.
All of us can bear great witness to the weight of burdens we have had to carry.
All of us can testify to hardships in our lives—but also to the one irrefutable fact that God, and God alone, has always been there and always acted on our behalf.
We must make sure we tell our story.
We must make sure you tell about God’s presence in our life and about his amazing grace in the midst of our much diverse and various degrees of trials.
We must wake sure we tell, re-tell it to our children and our grandchildren.
Someone once said to me,
“If something were to ever happen to you, I am sure I would not know anything about any legitimate kind of relationship to God or His Son or the Holy Spirit.”
Don’t let that happen to you.
Start contemplating your story.
Start writing or telling your story today!
A story which begins with (Song by Bill & Gloria Gaither and Ladye Love Smith)
Days are filled with sorrow Days are filled with sorrow and care Hearts are lonely and drear Burdens are lifted at Calvary Jesus is very near
Troubled soul, the Savior can see Every heartache and tear Burdens are lifted at Calvary Jesus is very near
and ends with ….
A repetition of this guided affirmation of faith in our Savior Jesus Christ ….
Burdens are lifted at Calvary Calvary, Calvary Burdens are lifted at Calvary Jesus is very near
Burdens are lifted at Calvary Calvary, Calvary Burdens are lifted at Calvary Jesus is very near
Burdens are lifted at Calvary Calvary, Calvary Burdens are lifted at Calvary Jesus is very near
Let Us Now Lift Up Our Hearts Unto Calvary Because Jesus is Very Near
I want us to imagine that we are each standing at the end of a long hallway.
The hallway represents the entirety of our life so far on earth.
To begin with, look down to your feet, where you are standing is todays date; all the way down at the far distant other end of the hallway is the day of your birth.
Now, just begin walking – please do not run, skip or jog or sprint or fast walk, Neither get on your skateboards, roller blades or roller skates or your bicycles.
Leave your car keys, your truck keys, your mini-van, your hybrid or EV car keys.
You are not driving anywhere – you are only and just walking with Savior Jesus.
Go outside of self and stretch your legs a bit, start working that heart muscle.
As you begin walking down the hallway heading back in your life, I want you to take notice of all of the notice various and diverse sizes of pictures on the wall.
These pictures are all of the “events” from your life; it’s like a photo album of your entire life which someone has taken the time to paint or print and hang.
Some are large framed pictures; they are the most significant experiences you have had so far.
Some are good; some are bad; some are happy; some are sad.
As you steadily walk down this hallway of your life, I want you to take a long and considered look at the content and context of all of these large pictures.
What significant events from your life do you see that stand out?
Is there a wedding?
The successful purchase of your first home?
The Birth of your first child?
Are there family vacations or sporting events pictured on the walls?
Is there an achievement like a high school or college diploma or an award?
Is there a significant milestone depicted – high professional achievements?
Is there a significant milestone depicted – your long awaited retirement?
Are there spiritual experiences like your coming to faith in Christ or a time God miraculously entered into your sub-conscience, especially touched your life?
Are there significantly painful experiences—a divorce, the death of someone you really loved, a failure, a betrayal, abuse, alcoholism, a difficult to care for child which leads to a hardcore challenging, difficult marriage, a significantly threatening health diagnosis, an over abundance of “no money,” an addiction?
Take some time now to walk beyond all of that, walk all the way to the end of this hallway of your, notice “self-portraits” in all these significant experiences in your life… contemplate, take notice of all the ones named “my aloneness.”
[NOW TAKE SOME QUALITY TIME WITH GOD IN SILENT REFLECTION].
As I pray, for you like the Psalmist did, I plead with you to realize that all these experiences have actually shaped who you are today, whether you like it or not.
I pray for you to realize there is no time for self-blame, or blame God, He didn’t cause all of these hard things to happen, but did allow them to happen to you.
What GOD wants to do with us, within us, is to use all of these experiences–Good and Bad–to grow us spiritually and mold us into the likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus and to shape us for the unique purposes He has for our lives.
His intent is not to cause us any harm (1 John 4:7-12 The Message)
God Is Love
7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.
11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
By the unmeasurable enormity of this love He expressed through Calvary,
He does not intend nor want even one of our life experiences to be wasted.
With a very God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit specific long term intention:
Romans 8:28-30 Amplified Bible
28 And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew [and loved and chose beforehand], He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son [and ultimately share in His complete sanctification], so that He would be the firstborn [the most beloved and honored] among many believers. 30 And those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified [declared free of the guilt of sin]; and those whom He justified, He also glorified [raising them to a heavenly dignity].
God takes every single one of our life experiences—whether positive or painful, intentional or accidental, known or unknown, avoided or not, caused by you or by someone else, to shape all His Children for His unique calling in their lives.
Romans 8:28-30 may be, for some of us, the most personal verses in the Bible:
We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.
Your life experience and my own are one of the most overlooked ways that God uses to mold, shape, and transform us for the way He wants each of us to serve Him and others in this world, to edify, that is, to build up, His Kingdom alone.
The Bible says that God is working in every experience you have—our mistakes, our decisions, our successes and failures, our education or lack thereof, all of our different jobs, relationships, our lack of relationships, our unemployment, our disabilities, our marriages, our health issues, our finances—you name it.
God is working in every single thing in our lives—even in and through our own continued and continuous bent to our sins–to accomplish His purpose for you.
What Is The “God Specific” Purpose For Which God Is Even Now Working In Every Single Thing In Our life?
He is always working for the good in our lives.
Reverend Rick Warren puts it this way:
God can take the mess in our lives and bring a message out of it.
He can take the tests in our lives and create a testimony out of it.
He can take any crisis and show all of our Savior Jesus Christ through them.
GOD does not, never will, waste any experience any one of His Children have.
Moses murdered a man and had to flee into the wilderness between Egypt and Israel to save his life.
Some 40 years later God came to him in the vision of a burning bush and said, Moses, I have chosen you to go back down to Egypt to set my people free from slavery and guide and lead them through the wilderness to the Promised Land.
Moses knew the wilderness; he had lived there, learned its ways for 40 years.
Likewise, as Moses did, that through God, not our wits, God wants to use the wildernesses of our lives to help guide others, to find God’s way for their lives.
Joseph, his father Jacob’s favorite, was conspired against, thrown down a well and eventually sold to merchants into slavery by his hyper jealous brothers.
He ended up a slave and a prisoner in Egypt, but God gifted him and made a way for him to become the Prime Minister of Egypt and second only to the Pharaoh.
When famine threatened the very existence of God’s people, God used Joseph to plant, grow, harvest, store, manage the supply the grain that His people needed.
And when his brothers came to him starving, Joseph said to them: You intended to harm me, but God long intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the housing, settling and feeding, ultimately the saving of many lives.
But notice carefully God does not just do this for everybody.
God works His good for those who love Him and follow His plan.
The promise of Romans 8:28 is not for everybody.
God does not work His good in our lives when we don’t love Him or we turn our backs on Him.
It’s not that God turns His back on those who don’t follow His plan for their lives – God loves everybody, but He cannot help and use those who close their hearts, souls, minds, strengths and lives to Him and His plan for their lives.
One of the most common ways God uses our life experiences for good is to help others – to empathize, give comfort and encouragement while God works.
God can and does take each and everyone of our experiences, especially the painful ones, and turns them around, transforming them in a positive way.
Who better to help someone who is struggling than another person who has gone through the same struggle?
2 Corinthians 1:4 says, God, through Christ at Calvary, comforts and encourages us in all of our troubles so we can then, in turn, comfort and encourage others.
From Calvary then, when others are troubled, we will be able to reciprocate, to give them the same comfort and encouragement from Calvary God has given us.
Our troubles can become the very ministry God will use to help other people.
That uniquely painful experience in your life that you keep locked in the inner recesses of your soul could become your singularly unique, greatest ministry.
God has used the failures and hurtful experiences of my own life more than anything else to mold, shape and transform me exclusively for His purposes.
Those bad life experiences of my have helped me grow uniquely, spiritually.
Truthfully, in the good and happy times of my life, I have usually just coasted spiritually, taking God’s grace for granted that He will always, forever be there.
I have to see, from the long shadow extending outward from Calvary, and into eternity, God does not want me to allow my experiences to count for nothing.
I have to become the better person, through Christ, God needs me to become.
Now, it is my relationship with God which continues to keep me looking more forward versus more backwards, instead, a day at a time – Sweet Savior Jesus.
He was my Best Forever friend, much better than a brother I never had.
I was so “at ease, more comforted, more encouraged” with my Sweet Savior Jesus, stark comparison to the “disease of sin” I was struggling to recover from.
He truly brought wholeness to my life, an indescribable joy and immeasurable degrees of comfort that will always and forever be etched deep in my memory.
In His time on earth; Jesus had completed God’s mission for His life; and there is no doubt God touched uncountable many lives through him.
Through Calvary, by my walk to Calvary, My Sweet Savior Jesus helped me to see how life is supposed to be lived—in tune with my GOD and the Holy Spirit.
He helped me to find God and my family, the church to which my wife and I go.
On more than one occasion, the Bible says that God chooses to use weaker vessels to do His work so that He may get the glory.
In 2 Corinthians 12:9, God says: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Paul responds: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
God can help people more through their weakness than we can through our strengths.
That’s why we need each other; it’s why we need the supportive fellowship of the church.
You can learn from others who have gone or who are going through the same struggles you are.
Perfection, if we could achieve it, would help nobody.
What experiences have we had to confront in our own lives which GOD could use to help comfort and encourage others?
“I Thirst” and then “It is Finished”
John 19:28-30 Amplified Bible
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said in fulfillment of the Scripture, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar full of [a]sour wine was placed there; so they put a sponge soaked in the sour wine on [a branch of] hyssop and held it to His mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and [voluntarily] [b]gave up His spirit.
At Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, At Calvary, the death of the perfect Son of God was the darkest moment in world history, but look back at the portraits in the length and breadth and width of your hallway at how God used Jesus’ death.
Jesus’ death atoned for every single one our sins and everybody else’s sins and made for each of us an unobstructed way back to God, into heaven when we die.
Out of Christ’s crucifixion, God brought to all mankind the ultimate comfort and encouragement – God brought salvation for all who trust and follow Jesus.
This is our hope in Jesus Christ!
On that first Easter Sunday two millennia ago, God brought life out of death.
Jesus Christ died, three days later he arose from the dead and is now a living presence among us right now— forgiving us, delivering us, shaping us, guiding us, loving us, living in and among us and wanting to use us for His purposes.
God can use all your life experiences, good and bad, to shape you for His unique calling in your life—if forego any resistance to any, all change, if we let Him.
Hebrews 3:12-16 Amplified Bible
The Peril of Unbelief
12 Take care, brothers and sisters, that there not be in any one of you a wicked, unbelieving [a]heart [which refuses to trust and rely on the Lord, a heart] that turns away from the living God. 13 But continually encourage one another every day, as long as it is called “Today” [and there is an opportunity], so that none of you will be hardened [into settled rebellion] by the deceitfulness of sin [its cleverness, delusive glamour, and sophistication]. 14 For we [believers] have become partakers of Christ [sharing in all that the Messiah has for us], if only we hold firm our newborn confidence [which originally led us to Him] until the end,15 while it is said,
“Today [while there is still opportunity] if you hear His voice, Do not harden your heart, as when they provoked Me [in the rebellion in the desert at Meribah].”
16 For who were they who heard and yet provoked Him [with rebellious acts]? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?
“Today, while there is still opportunity, if we WILL hear His voice …”
“Do not harden your hearts again and again, with further acts of open rebellion …”
God’s Call and Invitation to each and everyone of us through Mount Calvary:
God has 3 callings in the lives of each and everyone of His Children:
(1) He calls you to salvation and a new life in Jesus Christ;
(2) He calls you to be an active part of His church;
(3) He calls you to serve Him and comfort and encourage others in the unique way He has gifted and shaped you.
Encouraging one another is an important part of our daily walk with Christ.
Comforting one another is an important part of our daily walk with Christ.
We live in a world corrupted by unbelief, sin, and, at times, persecution.
How can we stay firm in our faith?
Scripture gives us this recipe:
Comfort, Love, Encourage, and Daily Pray for one another.
In God’s grace, the Holy Spirit uses these acts of mutual and shared comfort, care and encouragement to guide us, see us, through the most trying of times.
When fellow believers are struggling, be quick to extend your helpful, sharing hand.
Be graceful and be generous.
Be gentle and be merciful as unto the Lord.
Be comforting and be encouraging.
Offer words of comfort and prayer, as well as tangible acts of help, encourage people around you, and be surprised by how much you are encouraged yourself!
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Would you pray this prayer with me?
Almighty God and my Everlasting Father, Lord of my life, I offer back my life to You. Everything I’ve been through, Lord, use it for Your glory. Jesus, I give You my all. In your name I pray and commit myself to Your continuing work in this world. Lead, Guide and Direct my Steps back towards Calvary from whence comes my Savior. That I may be a comfort as I was comforted, I may be an encourager as I was encouraged. For indeed, there is no other name under heaven through which mankind is saved.
15 Now when they had finished breakfast, Jesus *said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you [a]love Me more than these?” He *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I [b]love You.” He *said to him, “Tend My lambs.” 16 He *said to him again, a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you [c]love Me?” He *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I [d]love You.” He *said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” 17 He *said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you [e]love Me?” Peter was [f]hurt because He said to him the third time, “Do you [g]love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I [h]love You.” Jesus *said to him, “Tend My sheep.
Our Times Are in His Hand
18 Truly, truly I tell you, when you were younger, you used to put on your belt and walk wherever you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will put your belt on you, and bring you where you do not want to go.” 19 Now He said this, indicating by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had said this, He *said to him, “Follow Me!”
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
The Gift of Failure
“You’ve got to crack a few eggs to make an omelet. Sometimes you’re the eggs; a baker’s dozen, But dang it, I’ll be the finest of all omelets one day.
Failure is a fact.
Repeated Failure is a fact.
Recovery from repeated failures – not so much a fact but a condition for living.
We could sugar coat it and dress it up as something out of my control but that won’t tell the whole story.
We fail and we repeatedly fail.
Sometimes privately, but most times our failures are cannon fodder for the public eye, a place for others to publicly point their fingers and opinions in our general directions – at every opportunity I remember I am embarrassed about it and the thought of repeatedly coming back empty handed makes me nauseous.
Failure is an inevitable part of life that everyone experiences at some point.
It is a natural occurrence that shapes our character develops our resilience, and teaches us valuable lessons that can eventually, by God’s Grace, lead to success.
Many people see failure as the end of their journey, but in reality, it is just the beginning of a new one.
Failure is an opportunity to learn, grow, and become better.
By embracing failure, we open ourselves to new experiences, perspectives, and opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable.
Failure is not a measure of our worth as a person.
We are not defined by our failures but by how we respond to them.
The fear of failure can prevent people from pursuing their dreams, trying new things, and taking risks, risking humiliation and public defeat and reputations.
But it’s important to remember that failure is necessary for success.
Even When We Do Everything Right, We Can Still And Do Fail
Despite our very best efforts and intentions, we may still experience repeated failures of various and diverse degrees and measures and resultant setbacks.
This can be a brutal reality, the more times we fail, the harder we fail, and the harder we fall but we must understand success is not always within our control.
Many believe success results only from remembering what our parents taught us, their discipline, hard work, determination, and making the right decisions.
While these qualities are essential, they do not guarantee success.
No matter how well-prepared or competent we are, sometimes things don’t work out as planned.
Whether due to internal or external factors, wrong timing, or bad luck, bad calls by the umpires, failure can occur even when we have done everything “right.”
By learning that failure does not define us, by embracing this perspective and focusing on the process rather than the outcome, we can develop a healthier relationship with failure and be more “God” resilient in the face of setbacks.
Doing so can increase our chances of success, success being not letting failure win, and experience greater fulfillment in our personal and professional lives.
Peter’s Very Public “Catastrophic” Failure in the Courtyard
Luke 22:61-62 New American Standard Bible
61 And then the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.” 62 And he went out and wept bitterly.
These verses are right after Peter has denied that he knew him the third time, and thus fulfilled the prophesy earlier in the evening.
The Peter that we see here is a very different Peter than we see Peter become later in the scriptures.
This Luke 22:61-62 Peter’s world is shattered, and what he has trusted in for so long seems to be lost.
He did so many things, he said so many strong, brave, bold and courageous things because he trusted in Jesus as the Christ, but now that seems to be gone, he’s in a severe state of spiritual crisis–not sure what to do, or how to stop it.
God’s Gift of Grace For Every Failure
Luke 24:28-35 English Standard Version
28 So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, 29 but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” 33 And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
The New Testament mentions twice that the risen Christ appeared to Peter: once in this passage from Luke 24 :34 and again in 1 Corinthians 15:5.
Why would the poster boy for failure Peter, of all people, receive such special treatment from the writers of the New Testament Canon?
After all, not long before this event on the Road to Emmaus, Peter had quite severely failed himself, his friends, his family, his Master in His darkest hour.
Just before Jesus was arrested, He told Peter that a trial lay ahead:
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” Peter responded, rather audaciously, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.”
But Jesus knew Peter’s heart: “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me” (Luke 22:31-34).
As it turned out, Peter heart and soul were not as ready to face prison and death as he had boasted, blustered and falsely allowed himself, everyone else around him within ear shot, to have imagined – quite a public display of false bravado.
We all know now, as did Jesus that very day, that Peter would, did indeed go on to very publicly and very loudly deny his Lord three times in the courtyard.
And afterward, when Peter recalled what Jesus had predicted and realized what he had done, he was suddenly reduced to tears (Matthew 26:75; Luke 22:62).
So why does the New Testament emphasize that the risen Lord Jesus appeared specifically to the afore named Peter – why are our eyes, ears and souls here?
Certainly not because Peter deserved it more than anybody else.
But it’s fair to wonder if Jesus appeared to Peter because in these make or break moments, the resurrected Jesus knew Peter needed it more than anybody else.
Peter knew that he had blown it completely—and yet while Peter had denied Jesus, Jesus didn’t deny Peter.
What mercy, what goodness, what kindness, what grace, what compassion, what forgiveness, what Grace that Jesus still chose to go to the cross for His flawed disciple and then specially chose to make a special appearance to him!
We have stumbled. We have been deniers, deserters, swaggerer’s.
We know that we do not deserve for God to specifically, especially, come to us.
And yet as we go to God’s word and as we open our lives to its truth, it’s almost as though Jesus comes, sits right down beside us, and says, “I’m here. I LOVE you, I want to speak to you. I want to assure and reassure you. I want to forgive you. I want you to be able to forgive yourself and I want to send you out in My power.”
John 21:15-19 English Standard Version
Jesus and Peter
15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
Peter knew he had failed Jesus.
No one had to tell him twice.
But the resurrected Jesus used that catastrophic failure to help Peter grow.
How can Jesus use failure for our spiritual growth?
Failure in whatever measure or degree is never fatal in the eyes of Jesus.
God’s Gift of Failure teaches us that we have an answer – we need a Savior.
God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are the only answer!
From the inconceivable depths of his failure, Peter suddenly, repeatedly and quietly heard the word “love” from the lips of the resurrected Jesus again.
Jesus was not testing him but reaffirming His unconventional, everlasting love for Peter by gently and repeatedly asking him to reaffirm his own love for Jesus.
Peter also learned the answer to the most important question on his mind – that Jesus had cast him aside, not forsaken him, and had not given up on him.
Jesus came directly to him and called him to lead again.
Jesus offered Peter an opportunity to lead by dying to himself.
Jesus even predicted that in his death Peter would glorify God.
Peter had wandered, so Jesus had to get him back on track.
As Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, He calls all of the shots in our lives.
Failure of whatever degree and measure mankind can generate, can bring us back to the Lord, who finds us and gives us another opportunity to follow him.
From behind our own eyes, behind our own thoughts and application of justice, from behind our own reluctance to forgive as Jesus did, Peter didn’t deserve one ounce of the compassion he received from Jesus—and honestly, neither do we.
Our failures show us time and time again that we are immeasurably far from being .0000000000000000000000000000000001% worthy of God’s grace.
But in His mercy, He is pleased to give it anyway—and then give some more.
He is just that kind of Best Forever Friend. (Proverbs 17:17, 18:24, 27:17)
He is just that kind of God. (Isaiah 53:5)
He is just that kind of Savior. (Romans 5:7-10)
And you and me, like Peter, get to be His beloved disciple.
Acts 10:34-43 English Standard Version
Gentiles Hear the Good News
34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Later though, after Christ has been resurrected and returned, Peter transforms, and instead of just being an advocate, believer in, and supporter of Christ’s teachings, he starts becoming more like him… taking on his characteristics.
To be clear, I’m not trying to knock Peter at all.
He was an amazing man, and stronger than I will likely ever be.
I think his story is highly instructive and valuable because it shows us so much growth, and it is a transition that I think maybe we all have to make in our lives.
We have to move beyond just praising God and believing that God can do anything, to believing that WE
“can do all things through Christ which strengthens” us (Philippians 4:13).
That’s a tough transition.
Although we have a lot of pride to believe we know which way things should go, having confidence and a steadfast and immovable faith in ourselves is different than, and mostly opposite to, our pride–especially when we have to be humble enough to kick failure to the curb, to listen to God’s plan instead of our own plan.
Peter learned God was always going to be there for him even when he wasn’t always going to be physically present.
He learned that he could be powerful and lead and help and work to feed God’s sheep, even without his Lord and mentor beside him.
He still worshipped and praised God, but now he worked and loved and spread the gospel further, not just as a follower, but as a leader of others.
Today, let’s try working on that same transition.
Let’s realize how powerful we can be, echelons beyond our failures, as we work to forgive ourselves, love and have mercy upon ourselves, to do the Lord’s will.
Let’s stop ourselves every now and then from knocking ourselves to the ground, talk to God, discern what He wants to do for us, by us, to help us feed his sheep.
Let’s not deny our beliefs out of fear of failure or shame.
Let’s not deny ourselves access to the Gift of God’s Grace and His Favor.
Let’s stand up for God, and share our hope and blessings with others.
Let’s walk for awhile, sit for a while longer with the resurrected Jesus.
Listen to His Words. (Hebrews 4:12)
Digest His Words. (Psalm 34:8)
Receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit that we may recall the works of the Lord!
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 34 The Message
34 I bless God every chance I get; my lungs expand with his praise.
2 I live and breathe God; if things aren’t going well, hear this and be happy:
3 Join me in spreading the news; together let’s get the word out.
4 God met me more than halfway, he freed me from my anxious fears.
5 Look at him; give him your warmest smile. Never hide your feelings from him.
6 When I was desperate, I called out, and God got me out of a tight spot.
7 God’s angel sets up a circle of protection around us while we pray.
8 Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see— how good God is. Blessed are you who run to him.
9 Worship God if you want the best; worship opens doors to all his goodness.
10 Young lions on the prowl get hungry, but God-seekers are full of God.
11 Come, children, listen closely; I’ll give you a lesson in God worship.
12 Who out there has a lust for life? Can’t wait each day to come upon beauty?
13 Guard your tongue from profanity, and no more lying through your teeth.
14 Turn your back on sin; do something good. Embrace peace—don’t let it get away!
15 God keeps an eye on his friends, his ears pick up every moan and groan.
16 God won’t put up with rebels; he’ll cull them from the pack.
17 Is anyone crying for help? God is listening, ready to rescue you.
18 If your heart is broken, you’ll find God right there; if you’re kicked in the gut, he’ll help you catch your breath.
19 Disciples so often get into trouble; still, God is there every time.
20 He’s your bodyguard, shielding every bone; not even a finger gets broken.
21 The wicked commit slow suicide; they waste their lives hating the good.
22 God pays for each slave’s freedom; no one who runs to him loses out.
Lord, forgive me when I fail, and help me to learn that even my failure can be used for your glory. Keep me focused on you, and help me to serve you faithfully. In Jesus,
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 