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
In a worship song from the early 2000s, singer/songwriter Brian Doerksen sings, “Jesus, hope of the nations/ Jesus, comfort for all who mourn/ You are the source of heaven’s hope on earth.”
Looking outward into the world for all of the hope to be found and mined from the ground in all of the far reaching places we have ever traveled on this planet?
Looking upward into the heavens and the uncountable number of far reaching constellations of stars and planets we can never hope to reach – we are limited to this time – to this place – unto these bodies – to these tents which wear out.
But, why should we seek to limit ourselves and where we look for our hope, to look in all the places where the only thing likely to be found is disappointment?
If the only thing we believe we can ever find in life is one disappointment after the other, how is we can continue to justify our personal search for true hope?
Proverbs 11:4-8 The Message
4 A thick bankroll is no help when life falls apart, but a principled life can stand up to the worst.
5 Moral character makes for smooth traveling; an evil life is a hard life.
6 Good character is the best insurance; crooks get trapped in their sinful lust.
7 When the wicked die, that’s it— the story’s over, end of hope.
8 A good person is saved from much trouble; a bad person runs straight into it.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
Where is Your Hope?
There is a well known country song with the title of “I’ve Been Everywhere.”
Some of the places which account for having “been everywhere” include:
I’ve been to Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota Buffalo, Toronto, Winslow, Sarasota Wichita, Tulsa, Ottawa, Oklahoma Tampa, Panama, Mattawa, La Paloma Bangor, Baltimore, Salvador, Amarillo Tocapillo, Baranquilla, and Perdilla, I’m a killer
I’ve been to Boston, Charleston, Dayton, Louisiana Washington, Houston, Kingston, Texarkana Monterey, Faraday, Santa Fe, Tallapoosa Glen Rock, Black Rock, Little Rock, Oskaloosa Tennessee to Tennessee Chicopee, Spirit Lake Grand Lake, Devils Lake, Crater Lake, for Pete’s sake
I’ve been to Louisville, Nashville, Knoxville, Ombabika Schefferville, Jacksonville, Waterville, Costa Rica Pittsfield, Springfield, Bakersfield, Shreveport Hackensack, Cadillac, Fond du Lac, Davenport Idaho, Jellico, Argentina, Diamantina, Pasadena, Catalina, see what I mean
I’ve been to Pittsburgh, Parkersburg, Gravelburg, Colorado Ellensburg, Rexburg, Vicksburg, El Dorado Larimore, Atmore, Haverstraw, Chatanika Chaska, Nebraska, Alaska, Opelika Baraboo, Waterloo, Kalamazoo, Kansas City Sioux City, Cedar City, Dodge City, what a pity
I’ve been everywhere, man I’ve been everywhere, man Crossed the desert’s bare, man I’ve breathed the mountain air, man Of travel I’ve had my share, man I’ve been everywhere
Where exactly in all of those places the song writer has claimed to have been, where exactly was their hope for what ever it was they hoped for, searched for, which compelled them, moved them from one geographical locale to another?
In a worship song from the early 2000s, singer/songwriter Brian Doerksen sings, “Jesus, hope of the nations/ Jesus, comfort for all who mourn/ You are the source of heaven’s hope on earth.”
Looking outward into the world for all of the hope to be found and mined from the ground in all of the far reaching places we have ever traveled on this planet?
Looking upward into the heavens and the uncountable number of far reaching constellations of stars and planets we can never hope to reach – we are limited to this time – to this place – unto these bodies – to these tents which wear out.
But, why should we seek to limit ourselves and where we look for our hope, to look in all the places where the only thing likely to be found is disappointment?
If the only thing we believe we can ever find in life is one disappointment after the other, how is we can continue to justify our personal search for true hope?
Recognizing God’s Sovereignty, Letting God Be True
Luke 12:16-21 English Standard Version
16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
In actuality for all of their bravado, sinners have a little fun – while alive.
They make huge plans for pleasure and posterity.
They expect and hope to do bigger and better things.
They plan to get everything rolling along more perfectly.
Then they die.
Then they have nothing but a casket to show for it.
Then they are nothing – except the book of memories from their funerals.
Death is the great equalizer.
It mercilessly rips from the rich all their wealth; it tears from the strong any athletic prowess; it corrupts the face, body, and hair of the beautiful; it removes the wits and memories of the intelligent; it neuters the authority and power of leaders; it takes from parents their beloved children; it leaves homeless those who loved their fine homes.
No matter what the sinners expected or hoped to do, Our Sovereign God sends His Shepherd to us on our deathbeds and just like that, God takes it all away.
And still we sinners must somehow still find and focus on these words of hope:
Job 1:20-21 English Standard Version
20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Instead of focusing on the ‘hope’ found from these words: “Curse God and Die.”
From the Parable in Luke’s Narrative, Jesus told of a rich man who planned new barns to hold his great wealth, and he said to himself, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.”
But God said to him, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” (Luke 12:16-21).
Worldly men and woman arrive in life very naked and ignorant, and without exception, they leave the same helpless way – ignorant of what heaven holds.
Ignorant of what incomparable, indescribable, hope the Hope of Heaven has.
Yet they will still waste their lives chasing goals that disappear in one second – the second they die.
They see others die and take nothing with them, yet they keep running as fast as they can on the unmerciful treadmill of ambition, greed, and covetousness until it lets them go, hurls them and sends them off into their death and hell.
Psalm 14:1 New King James Version
Folly of the Godless, and God’s Final Triumph
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
14 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.
One just wants to shout: “Curse God and Die,”
What fools!
Then they have nothing.
Then they are nothing.
Are such words too harsh?
Are such words not harsh enough?
They are nothing compared to the shock of the first second in hell.
In a horrible flash of understanding, every sinner will know there is a God, that their whole earthly life was a waste, that they’ll have an eternity of unbearable torment ahead.
They will not think for a second about the legacy of their big plans on earth, for in an instant they’ll be entirely gone – and remembered by only a precious few.
Why do we think strong warnings about such a future are unabashedly harsh?
Am I deceived by my illusion of the importance of my personal sovereignty?
Are you also deceived of the importance of your own personal sovereignty?
The world is insane!
They set goals of high salaries, prestigious positions, large houses, fancy cars, fine clothes, the most expensive schools for their children, and other ambitions.
Some of them say, even more will find their bully pulpits and charismatically preach and teach and so live like, “He who dies with the most toys – wins.”
They chase after their neighbors “accomplishments” daily to make sure they are not left behind in the mad rush to accumulate things, experience pleasure.
Then “here today then gone tomorrow” they lose everything in one second.
Consider what David wrote about this madness in Psalm 39.
He wrote, “Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them” (Psalm 39:6).
Solomon, after experimenting with more than you can even imagine, added this summary: “I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit” (Ecclesiastes 1:14).
Believe it!
Consider what David wrote in Psalm 49.
Psalm 49:16-20 English Standard Version
16 Be not afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. 17 For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him. 18 For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed —and though you get praise when you do well for yourself— 19 his soul will go to the generation of his fathers, who will never again see light. 20 Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.
There the Lord ridiculed the insanity of the rich and their ambitions.
It is a sermon to warn all men of the vanity of worldly riches.
Whether a man or a woman is wise or foolish, they die, and they cannot take anything with him.
There is nothing a rich man or woman can do to buy their way out of death.
Everything sinners hope for and plan for ends at death – their expectations and hopes perish.
All they valued is totally wiped out by the reality of the grave they’ll rest in.
They will never again be able to travel across the vast expanses of the earth, watch another Super Bowl, attend a World Series, or bet on March Madness.
But righteous people have eternal hope in their death (Proverbs 10:28; 14:32), for their expectation is of another world that infinitely far outstrips this world by every degree and measure as light is infinitely superior to chaos and darkness.
Centrality of Hope Found Only in the Resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:51-58 New King James Version
51 Behold, I tell you a [a]mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O[b] Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
As believers in Jesus Christ, we recognize and worship Jesus Christ as the only true hope of the world, and yet it remains undeniably astounding how often we still pin the length, breadth, depths and heights of our hopes on human beings.
In all of our history books, it is clear that people are more inclined to find hope in sinful leaders, politicians, and celebrities rather than upon the one true God.
Why do we do this?
Proverbs 11:4-8 continually warns readers even today that placing ‘forever’ hope in humans is futile because human power will 100% come to nothing.
As the apostle Paul tells us, “There is no authority except that which God has established” (Romans 13:1).
By saying this, Paul is assuring believers that in all situations, even in the midst of national turmoil and global crises, God forever remains the only one who has all the Sovereignty and will 100% perpetually hold on to all of God’s authority.
Jeremiah 29:10-14 English Standard Version
10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare[a] and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
Any human who has “power” has it only because God allows it to be so.
In other words, our hopes and desires must be found, must lie, must rely on and with the only One who created and sits upon the throne of the universe.
Our prayers must be oriented toward Christ, for he is truly the only hope—
The only one with the Authority and the Sovereignty and the Power who can change our minds, transform hearts, disperse powers, and bring restoration.
Children of God, make no boast of tomorrow, for you do not know what will happen tomorrow (Proverbs 27:1).
Proverbs 27:1 New King James Version
My Son, Be Wise
27 Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth.
While God allows us to make business plans, God expects us to do so in prudent wisdom, because we will not even, ever, know if we will be alive tomorrow, so we are to submit your plans to God’s will with these words: “For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that” (James 4:15).
We need the breath of life and the breath of God, for any of our plans to work.
In the name of God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 19 The Message
19 1-2 God’s glory is on tour in the skies, God-craft on exhibit across the horizon. Madame Day holds classes every morning, Professor Night lectures each evening.
3-4 Their words aren’t heard, their voices aren’t recorded, But their silence fills the earth: unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.
4-5 God makes a huge dome for the sun—a superdome! The morning sun’s a new husband leaping from his honeymoon bed, The daybreaking sun an athlete racing to the tape.
6 That’s how God’s Word vaults across the skies from sunrise to sunset, Melting ice, scorching deserts, warming hearts to faith.
7-9 The revelation of God is whole and pulls our lives together. The signposts of God are clear and point out the right road. The life-maps of God are right, showing the way to joy. The directions of God are plain and easy on the eyes. God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold, with a lifetime guarantee. The decisions of God are accurate down to the nth degree.
10 God’s Word is better than a diamond, better than a diamond set between emeralds. You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring, better than red, ripe strawberries.
11-14 There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger and directs us to hidden treasure. Otherwise how will we find our way? Or know when we play the fool? Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh! Keep me from stupid sins, from thinking I can take over your work; Then I can start this day sun-washed, scrubbed clean of the grime of sin. These are the words in my mouth; these are what I chew on and pray. Accept them when I place them on the morning altar, O God, my Altar-Rock, God, Priest-of-My-Altar.
Creator God, you made every living thing, and you hold all things together. Lord, bring restoration to this world that desperately needs your leadership and authority.
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.
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 So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these [others do—with total commitment and devotion]?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I [a]love You [with a deep, personal affection, as for a close friend].” Jesus said to him, “Feed My lambs.” 16 Again He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me [with total commitment and devotion]?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You [with a deep, personal affection, as for a close friend].” Jesus said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me [with a deep, personal affection for Me, as for a close friend]?” Peter was grieved that He asked him the third time, “Do you [really] [b]love Me [with a deep, personal affection, as for a close friend]?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know everything; You know that I love You [with a deep, personal affection, as for a close friend].” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.
Our Times Are in His Hand
18 I assure you and most solemnly say to you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and walked wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and arms, and someone else will dress you, and carry you where you do not wish to go.” 19 Now He said this to indicate the [c]kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And after saying this, He said to him, “Follow Me [walk the same path of life that I have walked]!”
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
(Psalm 144:4) Man is like a mere breath; His days are like a shadow that passes away.
Perhaps there exists something so natural to us we take it too much for granted.
Perhaps that something which so very natural to us is our time alive, our time allotted to us by God to simply breathing and moving and living on this earth.
Do we take the time to ponder exactly how Time is so precious — time with our families, children, parents, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ – With God?
How do we invest our time?
When do we invest our time?
Where do we invest our time?
With whom do we invest our time?
Why do we invest our time with whomever we invest our times?
You know, when it comes right down to it, getting back to the basics of life, our time with God and each other is really more valuable than the money we invest.
Once the present time and its opportunities are gone, they can’t be reclaimed.
So as we begin each day, as we look at the sunshine through the rain, perhaps contemplate “time management” “thought management,” ask God we will be able to “know His time,” to see it for what it is, to use it for its greatest good.
Irretrievably so, time – God’s Time” passes quickly, like the shadows of early evening, it’s not long before it is absorbed into the gathering darkness of night.
When We Feel “Forever Stuck” In The Moment?
From time to time, while in the process of drafting a new devotional, I find myself in a deep mental conundrum – my mind and my spirit seem to go blank.
The kind of blankness I so desperately want to escape, but as every cliched movie villain always says, “escape is futile, resistance to change is futile”
Sometimes the same conundrum affects me on an emotional level, even spiritually – what difference is anything I write about a particular subject I believe the Holy Spirit provides, going to make in anyone I truly care about?
I feel a certain way and don’t want to, but the villain tells me yet again, escape is futile – In other words, I’m feeling stuck in my moment- or so I tell myself.
The first kind of hindrance is writer’s block, something every author eventually faces during his or her artistic pursuits.
Then there’s the kind of barrier we can all relate to, where we’re looking for a change on an emotional or spiritual level, but find ourselves confused, maybe even miserable – we are longing for answers but find none – That’s a life block.
We encounter them in our relationship with God, with each other.
We find them on the job and at home and on vacations.
We find them in ourselves and of ourselves.
In other words, we contend with a seemingly insurmountable problem; but only to us, the problem is not seemingly, but definitely perceived as insurmountable.
We’re stuck in a moment of time, or in a memory, or so we will take great pains to try to sell it that way to ourselves.
Escape is futile, we keep talking to ourselves and therefore we come to believe.
Yet, the reality is, deep down, we know the movie villain is 100% exaggerating.
For the dramatic effect and for their audiences, they will always exaggerate.
There is a way through the barrier, a way to get unstuck, a way back to writing those stories, transforming perspectives, having the right perspective of God.
Though the frustration and confusion may be too deep, ceaseless, unrelenting, too aggravating, too anger provoking, the solution is simple and two-fold.
First, take a break; not in the sense of giving up, but in the sense of ending your striving.
There’s only so much we can control in our lives.
The sooner we realize this, the more peace we will find.
After you take a break, either wait or look for inspiration.
Sometimes finishing a devotional requires that I stop writing for ten minutes so that I can go for a walk or have a quick moment to wander around my home.
Sometimes finishing a devotional requires me to temporarily set it aside, to pray to God and then as God will’s it, come back after a day or longer.
That time off from the writing effort is useful for conjuring up, discerning new ideas, letting the Holy Spirit work and gaining insight from God or other people.
Creating distance from the problem at hand often helps with developing a more objective perspective.
The same applies when we’re navigating relational conflict, battling addiction, battling mental health issues, family issues or just trying to discern God’s will.
After we take a break from all the struggles of doing things our own way, we can find “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” inspiration for tackling our circumstances.
Proverbs 16:1-4 Amplified Bible
Contrast the Upright and the Wicked
16 The plans and reflections of the heart belong to man, But the [wise] answer of the tongue is from the Lord. 2 All the ways of a man are clean and innocent in his own eyes [and he may see nothing wrong with his actions], But the Lord weighs and examines the motives and intents [of the heart and knows the truth]. 3 [a]Commit your works to the Lord [submit and trust them to Him], And your plans will succeed [if you respond to His will and guidance]. 4 The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, Even the wicked [according to their role] for the day of evil.
Inspiration comes only through our connection to God, sometimes through people, sometimes through nature, and sometimes through so much more.
Inspiration also finds us through God’s Word, the wisdom of the Cross, and a visit from Jesus helping us see with a perspective that doesn’t come naturally.
Stuck in His Guilt, Peter is Restored to Discipleship
John 21:18-19 Amplified Bible
Our Times Are in His Hand
18 I assure you and most solemnly say to you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and walked wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and arms, and someone else will dress you, and carry you where you do not wish to go.” 19 Now He said this to indicate the [a]kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And after saying this, He said to him, “Follow Me [walk the same path of life that I have walked]!”
On the night Jesus was arrested, Peter had instantly revoked his discipleship.
Under threat of arrest and exposure and potential death sentence, by those in the courtyard he had denied three times that he was a follower of Jesus – each time he publicly proclaimed his denials more desperate than the previous one.
Luke 22:54-62 Amplified Bible
Peter’s Denials
54 Then they seized Him, and led Him away and brought Him to the [elegant] house of the [Jewish] [a]high priest. And Peter was following at a [safe] distance. 55 After they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat among them. 56 And a servant-girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight and looking intently at him, said, “This man was with Him too.” 57 But Peter denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know Him!” 58 A little later someone else saw him and said, “You are one of them too.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not!” 59 After about an hour had passed, another man began to insist, “This man was with Him, for he is a Galilean too.” 60 But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. 61 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 [deeply grieved and distressed].
Again, to emphasis, the power of the moment, its deep significance, when he realized what he had done, he went out and wept bitterly (Matthew 26:69-75).
In that moment frozen forever in time, He was indescribably overwhelmed by incalculable shame and immeasurable guilt.
Luke 24:36-43 Amplified Bible
Other Appearances
36 While they were talking about this, Jesus Himself [suddenly] stood among them and said to them, “Peace be to you.” 37 But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a spirit. 38 And He said, “Why are you troubled, and why are doubts rising in your hearts? 39 Look at [the marks in] My hands and My feet, [and see] that it is I Myself. Touch Me and see; a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.” 40 After saying this, He showed them His hands and His feet. 41 While they still did not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave Him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and He took it and ate it in front of them.
Even as Peter with the other disciples in the Upper Room, heard the words from the resurrected Jesus – “Peace be To You,” the question – “why are you troubled and why are doubts rising in your hearts,” having been offered the opportunity to look at the marks in His hands and feet, to even touch them for his own self,
We can say that Peter’s heart, despite all of the irrefutable evidence offered by the resurrected Jesus to the contrary, Peter kept significant doubts of himself.
He looked directly into his Messiah’s eyes when he betrayed Him and wept bitterly and inconsolably – only an exchange of words with eye to eye contact would make any significant and lasting difference which did not happen here.
Such a moment required utmost discretion couples with the utmost presence of God in Christ and the utmost intimacy and the utmost compassion, forgiveness.
Jesus comes to the lakeshore.
After breakfast, Jesus and Peter together, go much further down the beach.
Jesus quietly looked into Peter’s eyes and quietly asked Peter a few questions.
But the questions were not “What were you thinking?” “Why did you abandon me when I needed you?” or “Why didn’t you have the guts to stick up for me?”
It was simply “Do you love me?”
Jesus had died on the cross for Peter’s sins.
What Jesus wanted to know now was only whether or not Peter still loved him.
Peter’s sins were in the past; Peter’s expression of love would shape his future.
When Peter said, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you,”
Jesus, the conqueror of sin and death and the Lord of life, graciously invited him to take up his discipleship again and forgiven, follow him into the future.
Doing the same with us, Jesus is astonishingly gracious.
He doesn’t bring up our past sins, betrayals, or infidelities.
He simply wants to know if we love him.
He simply wants to know, to hear He can still make a difference in Peter’s life.
He simply wants to hear Peter acknowledge he still believed in himself, in his ability to move through and beyond his transgressions, to make a difference in the lives he will come to engage with until his own death at some future point.
Did Peter believe, though still being stuck in the brutality of his mistakes, he could still make a significant difference, significant impact in God’s kingdom?
Forward through the Ages for Christ’s sake – for that makes all the difference.
Whatever horrendous mess you might be stuck in now, are you seeking Jesus?
Forward in His Forgiveness, Forward through the Ages,
Do you Still love Him as He still loves you?
Will you still serve Him as He first Served you (Mark 10:35-45, Luke 19:9-10)?
Micah 6:6-8 Amplified Bible
What God Requires of Man
6 With what shall I come before the Lord [to honor Him] And bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, With yearling calves? 7 Will the Lord be delighted with thousands of rams, Or with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my acts of rebellion, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you Except to be just, and to love [and to diligently practice] kindness (compassion), And to walk humbly with your God [setting aside any overblown sense of importance or self-righteousness]?
He invites us to go out and serve him today!
Steadfast and Immovable Gracious and Compassionate In Him.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Eternal God, please give me the wisdom to use the time given me today to do what is best, right, good, and profitable for Your Kingdom. I want to better invest my time in what is truly enduring and redemptive and transformative, living in and loving out from the depths of resurrection, from the depths of your mercy and forgiveness for all my sins. Please help me use my time to influence and bless all those with whom I may interact with so that they too are brought closer to you. In Jesus’ name, I pray.
1 1-2 I, Paul, have been sent on special assignment by Christ as part of God’s master plan. Together with my friend Timothy, I greet the Christians and stalwart followers of Christ who live in Colossae. May everything good from God our Father be yours!
Working in His Orchard
3-5 Our prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgivings. We can’t quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you! We keep getting reports on your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you continuously extend to all Christians. The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope.
5-8 The Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it. It doesn’t diminish or weaken over time. It’s the same all over the world. The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger, just as it has in you. From the very first day you heard and recognized the truth of what God is doing, you’ve been hungry for more. It’s as vigorous in you now as when you learned it from our friend and close associate Epaphras. He is one reliable worker for Christ! I could always depend on him. He’s the one who told us how thoroughly love had been worked into your lives by the Spirit.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
It is wonderful when someone comes into the kingdom of God.
That person receives God’s gift of grace through faith in Jesus, and they begin a new life of walking with the Holy Spirit.
The new believer realizes that their old life of selfish pursuits offers nothing that will ever satisfy.
They have turned their back on the darkness and are enjoying the light of the world, Jesus. Praise God for his love!
Paul is filled with thanks to hear that the people of Colossae have come to faith in Christ Jesus and are showing their love for all God’s people.
He even says, “We always thank God . . . when we pray for you . . .”
They have become wonderful examples of living by faith in Jesus.
They believe and trust, they love, and they hope in what God has already stored up in heaven for them.
Drawing all this together, we can witness and testify with Paul that the faith of the new Colossian believers was rooted in Jesus Christ.
But What of the Root Witness and Testimony of a More Mature Community of Faith Such as Today’s?
John 15:15-17 Amplified Bible
15 I do not call you servants any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you [My] friends, because I have revealed to you everything that I have heard from My Father. 16 You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed and placed and purposefully planted you, so that you would go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit will remain and be lasting, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name [as My representative] He may give to you. 17 This [is what] I command you: that you love and unselfishly seek the best for one another.
John 15:16-17 The Message
16 “You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.
17 “But remember the root command: Love one another.
The Bible is often referred to as a love letter or love story; an incomparable history of hearts laid bare, broken, hurting and taking great pains, believing.
Filled with incomparable songs of love, promises of love, and commands to love, God’s Word is clear – Love, rooted in Christ is our purpose, our mission.
I believe we embrace the Bible as a love story in no small part because the Bible shows us, testifies to us exactly and exactingly who, whose we are—sins and all.
It pulls us up by our roots, from the dirt and dust in Genesis through a far off cataclysm of warfare unto final victory through our Savior Christ in Revelation.
And yet, at the heart of it is still the refrain that God so loves the world, anyway.
It’s most interesting to note that although Jesus talks about loving God, your neighbor, enemies and more all throughout Scripture, he wraps his message of love in John 15 in that of abiding in him, even though the world may not love us.
He begins with the image of himself as the vine we draw sustenance from His roots and yet ends with the reality that the world will hate those who love him.
As he paints a picture of humanity stretching forth into the Kingdom of God, bearing fruit only by the power of the vine rooted securely in Christ, he says in John 15:12, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
To be sure the importance of his command is felt, he says it again in John 15:17, with greater clarity:
This is my command: Love each other.
Or as the Message Bible states it:
“Remember the Root Command: Love One Another.
John 15:1-10 The Message
The Vine and the Branches
15 1-3 “I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken.
4 “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.
5-8 “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.
9-10 “I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love.
Let’s note some general observations about how we each grow as Christians.
Let’s consider how our spiritual growth is gracious, gradual, and guaranteed.
One of the most important things we ought to notice about spiritual growth and wellness is that spiritual growth and wellness is the result of God’s work in us.
Though we each definitely have a critically important role to play, even our determination to flourish with the fruit of the Spirit is evidence of God’s grace.
The Holy Spirit is the one who empowers, inspires, stimulates our inner desire to grow in Christ, to stay rooted in Christ and to branch out from Christ alone.
Growth is gracious.
Growth is slow and steady and sometimes painful to watch and to experience.
As we watch the new sprouts emerge from the cold of winter into the spring, it takes a great deal of time and effort for that sprout to emerge from the branch.
But those new sprouts will emerge, will grow, will be nourished to full bloom only from the truest quality and quantity of the trees centralized root system.
We water the ground under the tree to give it a chance to grow deep and strong.
We fertilize the ground around the tree to provide additional growth nutrients.
Creator God does the rest underground where we cannot see, have any control.
Jesus is offering himself here, as he does for eternity, as our unseen root source of true, abundant life when our winterized lives requires us to re-emerge in the spring season, to choose to reach for the “Son-light”, choose love over death.
He is assuring us that we draw our ability to draw our nourishment, our love from Him—the only vine that makes our inept winterized branches bear fruit.
Without him, we wither and amount to nothing as he describes in verse 6.
The one who loves us so much that he gives his very lifeblood to reconcile us to our Creator knows…that as his followers, we’re up against a world of hatred.
So, he commands us: root ourselves to hatred or to love, to choose love anyway!
How?
Remain in him.
Remember His words. And, as he says in John 15:10, “keep my commands.”
So, What Did This Look Like In That Upper Room?
Luke 24:36-43 New King James Version
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
36 Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, “Peace to you.” 37 But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit.38 And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”
40 [a]When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. 41 But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” 42 So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish [b]and some honeycomb. 43 And He took it and ate in their presence.
What does this “Stay Rooted in the Vine” “Stay Rooted in Christ” look like for an imperfect human, a group of imperfect human beings, in a hurting world?
It often takes surrendering your perceptions of what being rooted in an agenda really means – rooted to the Kingdom of God versus the kingdom of our enemy.
The resurrected Jesus Himself came and stood among His frightened disciples.
And the first words out of His mouth were: “Peace to You!”
Then to further settle the moment further: He asks, “Why are you troubled?”
The resurrected Jesus takes immediate command of the moment.
Immediately turns everyone’s eyes, ears, hearts spirits and souls to Him alone.
Away from their fear of everything external over which they have zero control.
40 [a]When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. 41 But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” 42 So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish [b]and some honeycomb. 43 And He took it and ate in their presence.
For the disciples to respond, it definitely required a willingness to claim utter dependence on a love supply greater than any of them, and perfect in its plan.
It definitely required them to step away from themselves in moment of their gravest doubts and concerns over their futures – to consider sharing with their resurrected Messiah, a meal of fish and honeycomb, then to watch Him eat it!
We have to give our doubts and our fears and our brokenness permission to see the entrance of our resurrected Savior, hear His words of peace and of comfort over our paralyzing words of anxiety, our self-deprecating words of abject fear.
When Peace Like a River Attendeth our Ways and Sorrows like Sea Billows Roll, Welcome His Presence, Welcome His Words, Welcome His offer of a good meal.
Remaining Rooted in the Love of Christ, remembering to remain rooted in His Love involves our consciously seeking Him in our prayers when hatred prowls around, like a crouching lion seeking to rip away and to burn up our branches.
It means our crying, asking God for the wisdom to choose love, instead of hate.
It means overcoming, our seeing even those who hate us as needing love, too.
Does Jesus say to set those haters straight?
Does Jesus say to bear a grudge, go passive -aggressive, angry, rotten fruit?
Not at all. He later says in John 15:27 that in presence of hate, we testify.
By judging?
By dividing and conquering and failing at both?
By divisiveness?
By poking “sharp sticks” into each other’s eyes?
By casting stones and sometimes even boulders at each other?
Performing on a stage whose audience is waiting for the “last one standing?”
Well, In this passage, there’s only way – By remaining rooted in Christ’s loving.
Philippians 2:1-4 New King James Version
Unity Through Humility
2 Therefore if there is any [a]consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
So, rather than get our branches in a twist, and risk breaking off from the One strong enough to grow us, let’s not respond to the reality of hate with hate.
Let’s abide, by asking what the vine would have us do to show His love instead.
Friends, my prayer is we will have faith in Christ Jesus; my hope for us is, that in Jesus’ name we are loving others, giving ourselves up for them, and growing in hope in all that God has promised and Christ is storing up for us in heaven.
Remember the Root Command: Stay rooted in Christ,
Let’s abide, by asking what the vine would have us do to show His love instead.
Anticipating the reality of God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 46 The Message
46 1-3 God is a safe place to hide, ready to help when we need him. We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom, courageous in sea storm and earthquake, Before the rush and roar of oceans, the tremors that shift mountains.
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us, God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
4-6 River fountains splash joy, cooling God’s city, this sacred haunt of the Most High. God lives here, the streets are safe, God at your service from crack of dawn. Godless nations rant and rave, kings and kingdoms threaten, but Earth does anything he says.
7 Jacob-wrestling God fights for us, God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
8-10 Attention, all! See the marvels of God! He plants flowers and trees all over the earth, Bans war from pole to pole, breaks all the weapons across his knee. “Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me, your High God, above politics, above everything.”
11 Jacob-wrestling God fights for us, God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
54 Then they seized Him, and led Him away and brought Him to the [elegant] house of the [Jewish] [a]high priest. And Peter was following at a [safe] distance. 55 After they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat among them. 56 And a servant-girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight and looking intently at him, said, “This man was with Him too.” 57 But Peter denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know Him!” 58 A little later someone else saw him and said, “You are one of them too.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not!” 59 After about an hour had passed, another man began to insist, “This man was with Him, for he is a Galilean too.” 60 But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. 61 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 [deeply grieved and distressed].
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
I remember a secular song popular many years ago called “River”.
To this day, lines from that rather somber Joni Mitchell song stick with me.
She sang, “I’m always hard to handle. I’m selfish and I’m sad. Now I’ve gone and lost the best baby that I ever had.”
The words came to mind again this week while reading a post from a Christian who said, “I still struggle with being angry, ungrateful, and cranky.”
I added her words to what several people have written recently about Apostle Peter in today’s discourse from Luke 22.
As much effort as Peter made to assure and then reassure Jesus and the other disciples to never give up on Jesus – no matter the circumstances – He failed.
He failed in the worst way possible.
He failed himself.
He failed his friends and fellow disciples.
He failed his mother and his father
He failed to uphold every single thing he held to about his faith in God.
He failed his sworn and covenanted oath to God.
He failed his Messiah – denying him thrice times and very publicly.
When his Messiah needed and required him to be there for Him, as Messiah had predicted, before the cock crowed three times, Peter was nowhere declaring his his utmost confidence and faith in his Messiah nor his willingness to even die.
How much worse could it possibly get in that moment?
Then that fateful glance in the courtyard where Peter’s and Jesus’ eyes met after Peter thrice times emotionally, very publicly refuted his association with Jesus.
61 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 [deeply grieved and distressed].
They have preached this passage, taken a long look at this passage, been very self-introspective of this text as it was preached to them – and they CRIED TOO!
We can probably, without much effort, safely guess what emotions were going on in Peter’s much anguished heart and soul: “Will God Now Give Up On Me?!?”
They cried, proclaimed – “I was not there when my Savior needed me most!”
They cried and declared – “I got so very tired, so very much worn out by it all!”
The cried and declared – “I feel like I have simply given up on God, My Savior!”
They have likewise asked of themselves, “Will God ever give up on me?”
Gravely worried because they think they have already and repeatedly done the one single thing that’s “finally too much for God to take,” they are feeling fear.
Many Will Worry About Keeping God’s Love
Now, their concerns aren’t just about their repeated failures toward conquering their anger, their fears, their broken promises, their ingratitude, or crankiness.
Some are worried about other things like unrelenting unswerving doubts, their waning and waxing faith, a fresh sin committed, or a repeated sin committed.
But, this lingering question comes rushing back to many people at different times, at too many inopportune times
“Does God give up on us as we all too often give up on Him?”
A significant question with what they believe has severe eternal implications.
I can safely confess here that despite what I staunchly believe is a steadfast and immovable faith – a “Superman Faith” if you will, I’ve certainly had that fear.
Have you?
At times, I’ve wondered if I have let God down too much or too severely or made that “one too big a mistake” with the severest of eternal implications possible.
It hurts my spirit.
It puts a giant strain, an immovable millstone upon my heart and upon my soul.
I will simply never have the necessary knowledge nor the required wisdom nor any of the maximum allowable strength to even begin to move it or remove it.
Responding to the Lord’s “Once In a Lifetime” Look
Luke 22:61-62 Amplified Bible
61 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 [deeply grieved and distressed].
Two captivating stories are happening at the same time.
Inside the high priest’s court Jesus reveals his true identity as the Messiah.
Outside near the fire in the courtyard Peter denies his Lord three times.
Then the climax brings the two story lines crashing together.
Jesus’ eyes look directly at Peter’s eyes and quite literally changes everything.
Peter surrendered to the paralyzing fear of his faith’s ability at standing alone.
But fortunately Jesus enabled Peter to break out of the cage of conformity.
The rooster’s crow activated the alarm of Peter’s conscience.
Immediately he repented.
In extreme sorrow, Peter wept bitterly.
Do We Lose God When We Are Selfish and Sad?
As in Joni Mitchell’s sobering song, do we lose the best loved one we’ve ever had – our God and our Savior – when we are selfish and/or broken or sad?
No!
Absolutely Not!
It’s a guarantee that after we receive Jesus Christ as Savior, we still won’t be perfect!
And God knows that!
Instead, we all have a lot of “cleaning up” to do even at that point.
But, that is something onlyGod can do in your life.
Yes, you and I must cooperate, we must be and remain willing participants.
The way we do that is to believe Him that He loves us and has changed us.
That He IS always and forever changing us.
And, in addition, you and I must learn, and re-learn, how to receive His love.
With regards to Peter and His coming to terms with his catastrophic failures;
Later in the Upper Room he reaffirmed his love for Jesus by being there and not running away, fleeing from His presence, when Jesus appeared to the disciples.
Still later, doubts intact, Peter is recommissioned as the Lord’s representative.
John 21:15-17 Amplified Bible
The Love Motivation
15 So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these [others do—with total commitment and devotion]?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I [a]love You [with a deep, personal affection, as for a close friend].” Jesus said to him, “Feed My lambs.” 16 Again He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me [with total commitment and devotion]?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You [with a deep, personal affection, as for a close friend].” Jesus said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me [with a deep, personal affection for Me, as for a close friend]?” Peter was grieved that He asked him the third time, “Do you [really] [b]love Me [with a deep, personal affection, as for a close friend]?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know everything; You know that I love You [with a deep, personal affection, as for a close friend].” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.
In John 21 we find that Jesus refused to let Peter cover up his unresolved past.
Three times the Resurrected Jesus asked Peter how much he loved his Lord.
And Peter asserted repeatedly, “Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus then empowered Peter, gave divine approval and permission, God’s own blessings, to just put his past behind him and walk confidently into his future.
Jesus’ aim is to come to us, bless us, reassure us, reconcile with and rehabilitate us whenever we feel the full weight of our millstones, when we fall from grace.
And our conscience can halt us before we yield to temptation.
But even when if we inevitably slip back into sin, God wants to restore us.
God does not stand behind home plate like an umpire at a baseball game with a great cloud of witnesses present waiting to signal and then shout, “You’re out!”
Instead, He comes to us on our lakeshores, draws us to Himself with kindness.
For us this means responding to the raucous alarm of our conscience, removing ourselves from the moment and place of temptation, repenting of our sin, give God permission to take our millstone, to reaffirming our loyalty to Jesus Christ.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 13 The Message
13 1-2 Long enough, God— you’ve ignored me long enough. I’ve looked at the back of your head long enough. Long enough I’ve carried this ton of trouble, lived with a stomach full of pain. Long enough my arrogant enemies have looked down their noses at me.
3-4 Take a good look at me, God, my God; I want to look life in the eye, So no enemy can get the best of me or laugh when I fall on my face.
5-6 I’ve thrown myself headlong into your arms— I’m celebrating your rescue. I’m singing at the top of my lungs, I’m so full of answered prayers.
Psalm 139:23-24 The Message
23-24 Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong— then guide me on the road to eternal life.
Lord, we read Your text from Luke’s Gospel and we know that your convicting look is filled with thy convincing, affirming grace. Thank you for your transforming power!
19 So when it was evening on that same day, the first day of the week, though the disciples were [meeting] behind barred doors for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “[a]Peace to you.” 20 After He said this, He showed them His hands and His side. When the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with great joy. 21 Then Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you [as My representatives].” 22 And when He said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of anyone they are forgiven [because of their faith]; if you retain the sins of anyone, they are retained [and remain unforgiven because of their unbelief].”
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
In those moments of the death and resurrection, behind those barred doors of the Upper Room, can we even begin to imagine those disciples’ state of mind?
Many of Jesus’ followers had scattered for fear of their lives, and his closest disciples were hiding behind closed doors in fear of the religious authorities.
Their much beloved Rabbi (“Teacher”) had been crucified and then buried.
They had walked with Him for three long years and witnessed much, they had believed in him as the Messiah (the “Anointed One”), their promised deliverer.
Now, “cast off” doubts came rushing in – had it all been “too good to be true”?
Sure, they had just heard Mary’s highly excited message that Jesus had risen.
Peter and John had run to see the now-empty tomb, but that wasn’t even close to being the same thing as what Mary had experienced – seeing “Jesus IS alive!”
Was Mary mistaken?
Was it all “wishful thinking?”
Standing at the tomb in the dark, in her indescribable, immeasurable grief, had she only imagined seeing Jesus, through tear stained eyes, in an empty garden?
Did she see only what her impossibly desperate state of mind needed, wanted, to see, that she might find the only means of coping with the unbelievability?
Had others taken the body?
And Mary could not “handle the gravity” nor implications of, that possibility?
Where was her Rabbi that believed in her when no one else had dared to believe?
Bad news can be so easily believable!
Good news can seem so easily unbelievable!
Crucified and buried men don’t roll away unmovable stones, walk out of graves!
Were they being asked to believe: “impossible” witness and testimony of Mary?
Jesus didn’t keep his disciples waiting long.
That evening, “Jesus came and stood among them and said,‘Peace be with you!’”
He stood before them, and then He spoke these words to them.
He showed them his wounds.
He greeted them with a familiar blessing, “Peace Be With You.”
Jesus gave them the peace and presence they had been missing.
And they were overjoyed.
Things had not been the way they were supposed to be, but now they were!
Today we too celebrate that God is with us!
God’s Peace is With Us!
Christ has risen!
He is alive, and he lives in us! Hallelujah!
Peace is possible!
But, how can we know such a magnitude of God’s Peace through Christ is real?
I cannot claim any similar experience as those disciples in the Upper Room.
I do not know if anyone outside of those disciples in the Upper Room can claim the Resurrected Jesus just appeared to them in their homes or anywhere else?
So we read the post resurrection texts from the Gospels of Luke and John and because I believe in the Word of God for His Children, I “accept” their efforts.
But still, there are the questions being asked by everyone of this moment such a sequence of events are wholly, miraculously unique to the Christian experience.
How about our giving God, through Christ Jesus the benefits, prayers of doubts?
How about our confidence in the Word of God regarding “God’s Perfect Peace?”
How about our confidence in ourselves such a magnitude of Peace is achievable?
You know, actually believing more in the promises of God than the promises of our enemies rust laden promises which we grow fat on, we obsessively feed on?
How Can We Know God Will Keep Us in Perfect Peace?
Isaiah 26:1-4 Amplified Bible
Song of Trust in God’s Protection
26 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city; He sets up salvation as walls and ramparts. 2 “Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter, The one that [a]remains faithful and trustworthy. 3 “You will keep in [b]perfect and constant peace the one whose mind is steadfast [that is, committed and focused on You—in both [c]inclination and character], Because he trusts and takes refuge in You [with hope and confident expectation]. 4 “Trust [confidently] in the Lord forever [He is your fortress, your shield, your banner], For the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages].
Peace is possible even in our stressful, troubled world.
In Isaiah 26:3, the Bible promises that God and God alone “will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.”
Here’s what it means to do that, so you can experience peace in any situation.
What Does ‘He Will Keep in Perfect Peace’ Mean?
Everyone who chooses to keep their minds steadfast because they trust in God can count on experiencing perfect peace while they do so, according to this verse.
That means you can enjoy a state of perfect peace as long as you focus your mind from beyond your circumstances to God, and trust him to help you no matter what.
As a result of choosing to trust God, you welcome God’s peace into your mind.
Some people chase after peace of mind from worldly achievements, such as through the wanton pursuit health and wealth and wellness.
Good circumstances may help you enjoy a temporary feeling of peace.
However, only God can actually provide complete and lasting peace.
God, who alone is perfect, is the only reliable source of peace.
Thankfully, God is willing to give that perfect peace to everyone who decides to trust him to provide it.
Trusting God involves being at peace with God through Jesus Christ since Jesus made it possible for all humanity to have relationships with God.
Ephesians 2:14 says about Jesus: “For he himself is our peace” and Ephesians 2:17-18 points out that, “He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”
When we have that close connection to God, we can experience peace even during the most challenging circumstances, because “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
“this peace is true, real, and solid; in which sense the word “perfect” is used, in opposition to a false and imaginary one; and it will end in perfect peace in heaven: moreover, the word “perfect” is not in the Hebrew text, it is there “peace, peace”; which is doubled to denote the certainty of it, the enjoyment of it, and the constancy and continuance of it; and as expressive of all sorts of peace, which God grants unto his people, and keeps for them, and them in; as peace with God and peace with men, peace outward and peace inward, peace here and peace hereafter; and particularly it denotes the abundance of peace that believers will have in the kingdom of Christ in the latter day.”
What Is the Context and Background of Isaiah 26:3?
Isaiah 26:3 is part of a song of praise in which the biblical prophet Isaiah celebrates God’s trustworthiness to provide all that people need, including their ultimate need: salvation.
Isaiah sings about how Israel will be judged for their sins yet also restored by God, in his mercy. Isaiah predicts that God will save people from their sins.
Although people may sometimes be faithless toward God, God will always be faithful to his people, Isaiah emphasizes.
God is willing to redeem and restore, and his perfect peace enters the souls of all who decide they have worn out their trust in the world to just trust in Him.
So, Isaiah urges readers to trust in God.
He writes that it is “because they trust” in God that God “will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast”.
The very next verse after Isaiah 26:3 emphasizes trust: “Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal” (Isaiah 26:4).
How Can We Be Sure That We Will Be Kept in Perfect Peace?
We can be sure that God will keep us in perfect peace.
The Holy Spirit will renew our minds whenever we ask for help doing what’s necessary to be at peace: focusing on God and trusting him.
Romans 12:2 urges us all:
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his pleasing and perfect will.”
The Spirit will help us access the perfect peace that God offers us.
Jesus promises in John 14:26-27:
“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
Peace is one of the nine “fruit of the Spirit” listed in Galatians 5:22-23.
As you invite the Holy Spirit to renew your mind, you can count on the Spirit’s help to do what Isaiah 26:3 calls you to do: trust in God with a steadfast mind.
A powerful way to pursue peace is to pursue wonder because experiencing wonder expands your awareness of God’s work in your life, and that gives you the assurance you need to trust God and be at peace.
And it can be a wonderful way for anyone to seek the perfect peace that only comes from God.
Here’s how it works:
Visualize Jesus on the cross, visualize the specific things that are troubling you.
Then see yourself walking toward Jesus and laying those things down at the foot of the cross for him to take care of for you.
Through a brief prayer, ask Jesus for help with every specific thing you’ve left there for him.
Entrust it all to his care.
See yourself walk away afterward, with your mind and heart open to receiving peace from Jesus.
Prayer ushers peace into your heart and mind,
according to Philippians 4:6-7, which says:
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Characteristics of God’s Perfect Peace
We can be confident that the perfect peace God gives us will last.
The temporary peace of mind we may find from good circumstances in our lives can relieve some stress and anxiety for a while.
However, the peace that God gives isn’t limited to certain times or tied to specific circumstances.
The perfect peace of God is much more than simply the absence of stress and anxiety; it’s a deep and abiding knowledge of being loved and cared for by God no matter what.
Although that peace is beyond our understanding, it will guard our hearts and minds, promises Philippians 4:7: “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Psalm 139 describes how near God’s Spirit is to us at all times and in all places.
Verses 7-10 point out:
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”
We can be sure that we’re never out of the Holy Spirit’s reach.
So, we’re always able to access the perfect peace that God offers us through his Spirit.
After celebrating God’s sovereignty over all circumstances in life, the psalmist ends with a plea for God to renews his mind:
“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
That can be our prayer in any situation.
When we pray to experience God’s peace through a steadfast mind that is focused on him, we can count on that happening.
The Holy Spirit will strengthen our faith by renewing our minds, and peace will come to us as a result.
“Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” Romans 5:1 explains.
When you follow the advice of Isaiah 26:3, you can be confident that you’ll experience perfect peace from God.
Simply pray and ask the Holy Spirit to renew your mind whenever you need help centering your focus on God.
The Spirit may direct your attention to a wondrous sign of God’s work in your life, or simply quiet your mind.
In the process, perfect peace will flow into your soul!
Perhaps that is why John added the words ofJohn 20:22 to this narrative:
John 20:22 Amplified Bible
22 And when He said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
Words of Purpose!
The first words Jesus spoke to his frightened disciples after his resurrection were words of reassurance: “Peace be with you!”
Then he quickly gave them a renewed sense of purpose: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
With those words, Jesus was passing his mission on to his followers.
Perhaps you’ve seen a relay race in which one runner comes up behind the next and passes off the baton.
That’s what Jesus was doing here.
He was passing off the baton to his followers and saying, “Go! Finish the race!
Carry on the mission I began!
I ran the first leg; now you run the next.
Just as God the Father sent me into the world, now I am sending you into the world! Go!” (See John 17:18.)
18 Just as You commissioned and sent Me into the world, I also have commissioned and sent them (believers) into the world.
Later, Jesus would remind his disciples again of that mission:
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).
With whom can you and I share this good news of God’s Ultimate Peace today?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Dear Lord, Help me daily to remember you are indeed Lord of my life. You have the right to rule all that I think, believe and do. When I allow my mind to run to places that destroy my peace, remind me these are unauthorized thoughts. You do not want me to dwell on thoughts and emotions that contribute to unreasonable fears.I know my mind will remain in perfect peace as I fix my thoughts on you; so Lord Jesus, let your peace rule in my heart. Remind me of the peace I have in the shadow of Your Cross and in your family, and I pray the Holy Spirit to teach me how to be thankful for those circumstances that cause me to run to you, focus on you, and abide in you. I never need to live with fearful, anxious thoughts. Truth is, you alone are in control!
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). 