I heard a good sermon yesterday on hope. So many people have lost hope in this world and there is no need for it. Yes, the world is full of evil, but God has also filled it with His love and therein we find hope.
While logically most Christians can understand the concept, to most it is akin to accidentally hitting your thumb with a hammer. You know that the pain will eventually stop, but when it happens it HURTS!
It is a classic case of viewing the glass as half empty or half full. The pastor yesterday recounted the story of a little kid talking to someone in a dugout. They were losing 18–0 and he asked the little boy why he seemed so cheerful when faced with such a devastating loss. The boy grinned and said, “Why should I be worried, heck it’s just the first inning and we haven’t even been at bat yet.
I speak to various audiences often and most of the time it is about hope. I am filled with hope because I saw first-hand what God did to transform my life. Subsequently I’ve met hundreds of people with similar experience.
God cares. He cares about you and me. He even has the very hairs on our heads numbered. He wants to help and has encouraged us to come to Him in prayer. To many folks prayer consists of mumbling a few words and then quickly saying amen. I heard one “prayer” over lunch recently where a friend of mine bowed his head and said, “Lord, bless this mess – Amen”, and with that he began shoveling food towards his fat face.
Ugh . . .
Prayer is a big deal to the Lord. Our best model for prayer comes from the life of Jesus. He would pray several times a day, sometimes for hours on end. Often, He would leave His disciples early in the morning or at night and go to some secluded place where He could be one on one with His Father where He would pray for hours. He encouraged His followers to do the same.
He told us that sometimes we need to fast in conjunction with prayer. He used the illustration of the time the disciples could not cast a demon out of a person and after Jesus did so, they later asked Him in private why they couldn’t do it. In Matthew 17:21 Jesus answered them by saying, “But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
Hmmm. If you are facing a tremendous problem today, this advice would be something to take a look at, eh?
Before going to Washington last week, I began a fast and prayed for a considerable amount of time on many different occasions including prior to every meeting that I attended. I knew I was going up against the worst evil in our country, child rape, and felt that I needed God to intervene for me. I was apprehensive that I would hit solid walls of resistance and in fact just the opposite occurred. I had tremendous success at every turn and I attribute the success enjoyed on that trip to prayer, fasting, unswerving faith, and obedience to God’s call.
I know that God loves the little children who are being ravaged by evil and I have faith that He will do something about this scourge to humanity. Nonetheless
I pray to Him that He will use me and others to defeat Satan’s murderous depraved nature and put an end to this travesty. I have hope – I have faith –
I fast – I pray. But I pray while I’m walking because the Lord wants us to be a part of bringing his kingdom to earth as it is in heaven.
Yes, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, but just
remember the verse Phil. 4:13 states, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
I CAN DO! – Not Christ will do everything for me. We must do our part. We should be brimming over with hope. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
Eph. 6:18
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
April 24 2017 – Click here to listen