Our Hope is in the Lord
Isaiah 40:28-31
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
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.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Joshua 1:9 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Isaiah 35:3-8 3 Strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;
4 say to those with fearful hearts,
“Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you.”
5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
6 Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.
7 The burning sand will become a pool,
the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
8 And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness;
it will be for those who walk on that Way.
During our lives most of us have seasons of good health and poor health, times of want and times of plenty. Yet the one thing that remains constant is our hope in Christ. How do we sustain our hope when it seems that all is gone? We begin and end each day with the name of Jesus on our lips.
You see, we are too often paralyzed by the physical, viewing lack as a punishment and poor health as a clear sign that Jesus no longer cares. What if we instead begin each morning speaking the name of Jesus? What if we begin praising God out loud every day, rather than becoming as one without hope?
Will engaging in praise each morning change our circumstances? Maybe not, but it will change how we view our circumstances. Suddenly we will find ourselves thanking God for all of the times our health was good rather than poor. We will thank Him because we will remember that God is Jehovah Jireh, our Provider. He is Jehovah Rapha, our Healer. And He is Jehovah Raah, our Shepherd.
May we ask God to give us a new attitude, one where gratitude spills out of our mouths as easily as the water spills over the dam.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
.
- Posted in: Blogs
Seeking Holiness 