Hope In The Lord And Renew Your Strength

Hope in God and Renew Your Strength (Isa 40:27-31)

In a cynical age it a great assurance to know that we can spread the message that by hoping in God we can renew our strength. Too many people give in to the prevailing winds of cynical, skepticism and nay-saying but this command carries a promise of hope, renewal and great strength.

Isaiah wrote to the people of Israel at a time when King Cyrus was oppressing the people. As a result many of the Israelities complained and wondered out loud, "My way is hidden from the Lrod my cause is disregarded by my God." Nevertheless, Isaiah reminds them that the Lord is our everlasting source of strength, renewal and hope. He writes, "The Lord is the everlasting God the creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak." (Isa 40;28,29)

Abraham Lincoln: At the worst part of the Civil War when victory seemed hopeless he said, "Without Christ I cannot succeed. With Christ I cannot fail."

Here are some guidelines to increasing your moment by moment hope:

1. BELIEVE - Greater faith increases our hope as we believe God has the power to create anew, refresh and revitalize worn out people. Trust God in greater ways for the enabling power to do great things to help expand His kingdom and His righteousness.

2. PRAISE - Praise God for His ability to provide you with all the provisions to sustain you through dry, difficult and discouraging times. Too many people forget to praise God for His capacity to never grow tired or to lack any good thing. When we praise God for His limitless resources we can overflow with hope.

3. KNOW - Realize that your hope in God provides you with greater certain in the midst of an uncertain world. We can increase in our knowledge as grow in our intimate experiential knowledge of the Lord’s wonderful attributes. Go to key word and write "attribues of God". There you will find 641 attributes of God that I have written along with prayers of praise for each one. This will enhance your inimtate knowledge of God as you increase in your understanding and application of knowing God more fully

4. SING - Increase your hope as you rejoice in hope through song of praise, worship and reflection. Let us rejoice in the hope of the glory, love and wisdom of God that re-configures our thinking. Go to www.cyberhymnal.org and sing along with hundreds of wonderful hymns that inspire new hope in God’s almighty power, purpose and perspective.

5. RENOUNCE - Renounce your hope in possessions, people or preoccupations on earthly things. Paul wrote, "Fix your thoughts on things above instead of on things of the earth. For your life is hidden with Christ in God." (Col. 3:1-4)

6. RELINQUISH - Relinquish your hope that things in the world are going to get better. Read in 2 Tim 3,4 how the conditions in the world will continue to deteriorate as we get closer to the second coming of Christ. As we yield up our rights and realize that we can be rejoicing in hope, patient in afflication and faithful in prayer (Rom. 12:10-12) then we can more easily surrender all to the hope we find in Christ, in His word and in His Spirit’s fellowship.

7. RECHARGE - Praise God that through your morning and evening devotions in His word and prayer you can renew your hope in God. Without this time alone with God, Jesus said, "Apart from me you can do nothing... but if you abide in me and my words abide in you then you can ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you." (John 15:5-7) Take time every morning and evening to recharge your spiritual, emotional, mental and attitudinal batteries so that you can overflow with hope that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. (Phil. 4:13)

8. REASSURE - Reassure your heart and mind with the confidence in God’s precious and magnificent promises. Peter wrote, "Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who calls us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises so that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature having escaped corruption that is in the world through lust." (2 Pet 1:3,4)

9. REMEMBER - Remember what you were like before Christ became your Savior and remember Jesus Christ as your source of the everlasting spring of hope. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:12, "Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ." (Eph. 2:12-13)