Notes of Faith January 22, 2025
A Balloon or a Helmet?
But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.
1 Thessalonians 5:8
There’s a new Guinness World Records holder. David Rush appeared on the television show Live with Kelly and Mark and burst six-hundred balloons with his boxing gloves in the allotted time. But there’s someone even better at bursting bubbles and destroying dreams. It’s our enemy. He wants to deflate the biblical hope that sustains us. He punches us and takes the wind out of our optimistic faith. He often does it by luring us into some sin.
Recommended Reading:
2 Thessalonians 3:16-17
When our fellowship with God is strained by sinfulness, we feel hopeless, not hopeful. But we have an Advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ—who can again fill us with His Spirit, with hope, and with joy.
One of the most enduring lessons of faith is knowing how to come back to God in confession, repentance, realignment, and rededication. Ask God today to give you strength to act decisively in dealing with your sin so you may continue to have a heart filled with hope. Hope is not a balloon to be punctured but a helmet to be worn.
Hope for the Christian is a confident expectation of a guaranteed result.
Paul David Tripp
We are often distracted and lured into sin and lose the air in our hope and faith. But God is gracious and has already forgiven that sin if you are truly a follower of Jesus Christ! Confess, repent, and stand firm in what you know to be true and righteous. God is for you not against you. Who can stand against Almighty God?
You belong to Him and will win over sin and death!
Pastor Dale