Thank God for Hope!!!

Tuesday, November23rd, 2010

Today's Passage: Proverbs 23:17-23
Memory Verse: Proverbs 13:12

What was your life like ten years ago?  What were your hopes and dreams?  Did everything you envisioned come to pass yet?  If not, the thief must have come by your house too.  When I was dating Pastor Chris, he told me a story of how exciting Christmas would be for him and his brother every year.  Their grandmother, who raised them, did her best to get them what they wanted.  So come Christmas morning, their hearts would swell with joy to see all that stuff she'd managed to purchase on a single parent's salary.

But they weren't the only ones watching.  Not many days after Christmas, someone would wait until they all left to go to church.  Then they'd come in and clean house, taking everything Miss Carter had saved up to buy.  Year after year,  the same thing would happen over and over until they no longer looked forward to Christmas.  Eventually, one of the thieves was caught stealing from their aunt's house down the street.  But that didn't help bring back all the things  that had already been stolen and sold.  And it didn't stop the boys from feeling the despair of losing what they'd dreamed of.

As believers, we must remember that even as we hope and dream for the things we'd like to be and do for the Lord, the thief that comes only to steal, kill and destroy is always watching.  He doesn't care if you've been nurturing that dream for years, or if you've just received that promise while in the Lord's presence.  He wants to steal what God sacrificed His Son to provide for you, and he waits until you're not looking to snatch it.  He wants you depressed and wallowing in despair with no hope of your dreams ever coming to reality.

But THERE IS HOPE.  Hope that is seen is not hope.  That's why you must fight with everything on the inside of you to believe in hope.  Our Father had made it available to us, and we must access it.  The enemy will never stop doing his job of keeping us blind to all the possibilities of our future; therefore, WE must never stop looking for those possibilities.  So today, look up.  Let's be thankful for hope.  With it, we'll never drown in the sea of despair Satan threatens to surround us with.  And we'll always be victorious over him.

Prayer: Father, thank You for that blessed hope that is found only in Your arms.  You sing it over me when I am overwhelmed with issues that threaten to take my focus off of everything that You are.  I'm grateful that the life everlasting that You offer is something the enemy can try to steal, but will never be able to take away.  And I'll forever sing of this hope to all who will listen.  In Jesus' Name, Amen.