Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Faith is trusting God in all things. It does not base its hope on the visible circumstances but on confidence in spiritual realities. The same things that are the object of our hope are the object of our faith. We can put our hope in God even when we don’t physically see him. We have hope in God’s promises. We can lean on God. Since we have hope, we have the confidence in faith. The unseen things of hope become rare and real. Our hope in God is the faith we have that…
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Our Future Glory
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow – not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. Romans 8:38 Read Romans 8:18-39. The book of Romans sure does have a lot of good nuggets to learn how to live a life for God. In today’s passage, we learn three things about daily living. Life is messy in the here and now, but we can look forward to the future. God works with the messy parts of life for the good of those who…
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Hope In The Second Adam
But God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 Do you ever blame Adam because we have to work hard because of the curse? Whenever I do something that reminds me of why we have to do what we do, I blame both Adam and Eve. Read Romans 5:12-21. Adam sinned. Sinned entered the world. Sin brought death. Death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. People sinned before there was even the law was given. Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who is yet to come. Paul went back to the very beginning to help the people…
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Our Hope In Christ’s Life
. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners. Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 Read Romans 5:6-11 Let’s read Romans 5:8 in a few translations. The NIV, states it this way, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. The HCSB says, “For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly. The KJV, “for when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Do you see all the keywords from these different translations? “Just the right time”, appointed moment, in due time. Jesus…
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Against All Hope
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 Hope! What kind of hope do you have? Do you have guarded hope? Or do you have optimistic hope? Either way, there are pitfalls to both postures. IF you are overly optimistic, you might not be prepared for the outcome. However, if you don’t let yourself be too hopeful, you can miss blessings. Read Romans 4:13-25. What are you hoping for? What is the good news of hope? Paul speaks about faith, however, it brings in the connection of promises and hope. This brings us to a deeper understanding…
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Blessings in the Peace
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” Numbers 6: 22-27 What a blessing from God to His chosen people! Have you ever had a blessing over you? God shows his gracious response to his people if they maintained purity in the congregation. …
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A Great Light Of Hope
“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” Isaiah 9:2 Do you fear the darkness? Have you read the book of Isaiah? Here in this verse Isaiah is focusing on the hope of the coming light. He didn’t focus on the fear and anxiety of the darkness. In John 8:12, it is stated “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.” How exciting that after years of darkness, the light of the world finally came! Jesus was given…
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In The Silence, There Is Hope
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”” Deuteronomy 31:6 Doesn’t this verse give you peace? Has there ever been a time when you have been waiting for God to answer your prayer? How did you feel in the waiting? Did you feel forgotten, discouraged, or frustrated? Do you have any unanswered pray that you are waiting for an answer today? When we are waiting on God to answer our prayers, we can feel like God is being silent. Why do feel that God is silent to us?…
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Praying With Hope
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:14-16 Do you feel that God is accessible to you? When Christ died on the cross the temple veil was…
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Our Hope in the Unexpected
““For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.” Isaiah 55:8 Have you ever thought about your situation that you are in or were in; have your thoughts and opinions about? Have you ever thought about how God views it? Even though we are made in his image and that makes us like Him in many ways, we also have to realize that we are not just like him! Like this verse states, our thought are not like his thoughts, His ways are not our ways!! He is all knowing, we are not! We are only limited to a little bit of information…