Notes of Faith January 15, 2025
Get Your Hopes Up!
The hope of the righteous will be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked will perish.
Proverbs 10:28
Charles Swindoll wrote, “When we are overworked and exhausted, hope gives us fresh energy. When we are discouraged, hope lifts our spirits. When we are tempted to quit, hope keeps us going…. When we fear the worst, hope brings reminders that God is still in control.”1
1 Thess 5:9-11
9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
Proverbs 10:28 says that hope brings gladness into our minds and hearts. That’s true even when the present circumstances are not what we’d wish. Hope is a solid expectation of certain future events, which include the fulfillment of all God’s promises for us in this life and in the one to come.
We must hold to our biblical hope when everything else feels hopeless. Hope often becomes most precious to us when our personal resources have been exhausted and we realize that amid our problems God is present. When you’re going through difficulties, be thankful in the knowledge that you can put your trust in Him. Look to Jesus, and get your hopes up!
With God life is an endless hope. Without God life is a hopeless end.
Bill Bright
Hope, trust, faith, obedience and more are intertwined in Christ! Hope that does not fail is hope that is not dependent upon ourselves but totally on God and His faithfulness! His promises never fail. Life is not easy. True hope is not easy because you must believe that God is always in control. Sometimes life seems to treat us unfairly and we tend to blame God. But God loves us more than anyone else could and this vapor of a life is a short journey, even if it includes pain and suffering. The promise of God in the life to come with Him excludes all things caused by the entrance of sin into the world. We wait in sure hope of the day when He takes us to be with Him through death or His return for His bride. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Pastor Dale