Feeling Hopeless?
Hope is the anchor of our souls (Hebrews 6:19). It keeps us from losing it all when the storms of life beat against us. What about when I’m about to give up hope? What if my situation looks so bleak that I feel hopeless? While no quick, magic answer can be given in a few words to instantly remedy the most difficult situations we face in life, there are some truths from God’s word that can help us from giving up hope.
- God created you, a human being, in His image (Genesis 1:26). You are of immense value to God (Luke 12:7). He is the Father of our spirits (Hebrews 12:9). All souls belong to Him (Ezekiel 18:4). God gave us an eternal soul, and no matter what happens to us in this life, we can choose to be faithful to Him and, after death, return to Him to live forever in a place far better than anything this world has to offer (Ecclesiastes 12:7).
- As part of the body of Christ, the church, you are important (Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 12:18-22). You may feel unloved, but you are an important part of God’s family who can help growth occur through love (Ephesians 4:16).
- Jesus understands your pain. He knows what it is like to live in the flesh (Hebrews 2:14). He was made like His brethren in order to be a merciful high priest (Hebrews 2:17). While He was here in the flesh, He cried (Hebrews 5:7). Even though He knows the solution to our problems, He still weeps with us because of our pain (John 11:35). He even asked in agony on the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).
- Help is available. We can always say, “My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:2). God is with us even in the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4). He hears our cries of distress (Psalm 18:6).
As we are reminded of the hope we still have, we must take life a day at a time (Matthew 6:34). When we gradually regain our resolve and confidence in God, day by day, we can make decisions as they come. Remember we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13). There are many things we cannot control, but when it comes to what we can control, we must work out our own salvation, by doing our part to overcome the trials that come our way (Philippians 2:12; cf. Galatians 6:5). “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost” (Romans 15:13).
-Mark Day
Lesson Audio – Mark Day – Dead to Sin, Alive to God
07.10.16 PM – Mark Day – Dead to Sin, Alive to God
Scripture Reading – Romans 6:10-13
Lesson Audio – Mark Day – What The Rich Man Learned
Jesus Is Lord
Jesus is Lord. Those who claim to belong to Christ say it, we pray it, we sing it, but do we live it? When we say, “Jesus is Lord,” we ought to be doing more than merely acknowledging He created the universe. If He is Lord, then He has complete control of our lives (Colossians 1:15-18). We are to sanctify the Lord, setting Him upon the throne of our hearts even when it is difficult to follow Him (1 Peter 3:15).
I suppose that many of us in this contemporary age do not like being told what to do. We want Jesus to be our Savior, but we are not so big on Him being our Lord. We cannot have one without the other. When following Him is easy, we’ll let Him have the chair, but we still want to sit on the throne when temptations come (Luke 8:13). Some of us have believed the religious lie that we can practice selective obedience – where we choose when we will and will not obey. This is no kind of obedience. This is why the religious world lives in confusion because people adapt their own standards for their faith, morality, worship, and life rather than conforming to the words of the Master, the standard that will judge us all (John 12:48). Many will follow God’s word when it fits in with their wishes, but they also seem to think that God has opened His throne to man’s feelings when following the word of God becomes too morally or socially challenging. And yet, they rejoice in the promises of God all the while failing to heed His conditions for salvation. They claim they love the Lord, but they do not listen to Him; love listens and obeys (Luke 6:46; John 14:15). To merely listen to what the Lord says without obeying is to follow the foolish to destruction (Matthew 7:24-27). How can we claim to know God and have His grace working in our lives if when it comes to His word we have stopped up ears (Matthew 13:15)?
Jesus says we are to obey all things that He has commanded (Matthew 28:20). The church is not a democracy where everyone should think up ways that they feel would best express our religion and then decide what is to be done by majority vote. The church is a monarchy; it is a kingdom established by the King of Kings (Matthew 16:18-19; 1 Timothy 6:14-15). He has all authority (Matthew 28:18). Christ is the head of the church (Colossians 1:18). It is our duty as the body to precisely follow the lead of the head, not to act independently of Him (Colossians 2:19).
Many claim to know the Lord, but the only way to truly know if we know Him is to keep His commandments (1 John 2:3). This will determine whether He knows us in the judgment (Matthew 7:21-23; 25:12).
-Mark Day