Don't Lose Hope

How can we strengthen ourselves in the Lord? Well, we already saw how the Word of God is meant to be a tool to give us hope. I’ll read that passage again:

Romans 15:4 (NIV) 4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

But sometimes that’s just not enough, is it? Just reading the Word is not enough. Just as reading the Word alone is not enough to make us wise. Reading the Word is not enough to make us righteous. It takes the activity of the Holy Spirit to make us wise, even though God will more often than not use the scriptures as His agent. It takes the Holy Spirit to make us righteous, even though, again, the Word of God is often the tool God uses to convict, admonish, and correct and train us for righteousness.

So, my prayer as we prepare to close is that we recognize that just as faith, love, any other thing is a gift from God, so is hope.

Romans 15:13 (NIV) 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope - (how?) - by the power of the Holy Spirit.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 (NIV) 16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

If it’s a gift of His grace, if it’s an action of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, then there’s not a thing we can do to work it up. The only thing we can do is ask, and receive.

I think there are many of us here this morning who are barely clinging to hope. Some are on the verge of losing hope, some may have lost hope. Some may be on the roller coaster of having hope one day, and the next day the circumstances of life batter that hope and it’s lost, or nearly lost, again.

Yet, this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. God’s compassion never fails. His mercies are new every morning.

The Psalmist in Psalm 27 knows that without hope, and not just hope, but specifically hope in the Lord, there’s nothing but despair.

Psalms 27:13-14 (NASB77) 13 I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. 14 Wait for the LORD; Be strong, and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.

We can all say that sometimes, can’t we? I would have despaired unless I believed. And though the foundation of our hope for anything in this life is firmly built on the hope of salvation through Jesus Christ, hope in Him applies to this life as well.

I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord – where? - in the land of the living. The land of the living. I think that means this life.

Back to our first passage of scripture - Psalm 33: verses 20 and 21:

20 We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. 21 In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.

And then verse 22 is my prayer for me and my prayer for you.