HOPE

Today's topic is Hope. Sometimes we lose site of the things in our lives that build up our Hope. My intentions today are to give you some Bible verses that will help at times you might feel that all hope is lost, or hopeless.

(Psalm 42)
1.As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God
2.My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go to meet with God?
3.My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
4.These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go without the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.

5.Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and 6.my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon-from Mount Mizar.
7.Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.

8.By day the Lord directs His love, at night His song is with me-a prayer to God of my life.

9.I say to God my rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed buy the enemy?"
10.My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all the day long, "Where is your God?"

11.Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.

The Psalmist who wrote Psalm 42 was most likely exiled far from his home in Jerusalem. He was mourning the fact he could no longer worship God in the temple. Far worse than that he was now in a foreign land surrounded by foreign gods. He was feeling cut off from the presence of the Lord in his life. The Psalmist urges his heart to trust God's promises despite the seeming absence of God during the dark times. Faith often means doing exactly that. We often cling to the promises that we believe will come true, even if we cannot immediately see their fulfillment. Hope is the language of faith when evidence of God's care does not seem clear to us.

(1 Peter 1:3-9)
3.Praise be to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4.and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-kept in heaven for you, 5.who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6.In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7.These have come so that your faith-of greater wealth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8.Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9.for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

A question often asked, "Why does God allow our faith to be tested?"
Not to learn anything He doesn't already know. God allows trials so that we can discover our own weaknesses and His infinite strength.

God is His strongest at our weakest moments. He is always with us and know everything we are going through. Certain things we go through in our lives, we are meant to go through. Those things make us the person we are for God purpose. Sometimes we question God for our trial, but we must remember His will is going to be done. Who are we to say to the potter, "I want to be made this way." Read Jeremiah 18 the story of the potter and you will get a greater understanding. I pray that everyone got something out of this teaching and that you were able build your faith and gain new hope in your lives. I love you all! God Bless you and your families!