Tag: hope

When faith flees, cling to hope.

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Scripture for Thursday, September 30 (9/30)

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The scripture for today, September 29, is Matthew 9:29 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 3-HEARTS AFIRE-COVER“Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith will it be done to you.’ “

Sometimes when we pray for healing during sickness, a well-meaning friend will say, “Well, you haven’t been healed because you didn’t have enough faith.” But Jesus did not heal everyone according to their faith.

The boy in Nain he brought back to life (Luke 7:14-15) did not have any faith at all. The girl in Capernaum he brought back to life (Luke 8:51-56) did not have any faith at all. When Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana (John 2:1-9) the hosts did not have any faith at all.

This is encouraging because often we pray for the healing of non-religious friends. It would be futile to ask God to bring them back to health if it depended on their faith all the time. But he is not a God of futility. He is a God of hope.

#Faith, #Hope

When you can’t find your faith….

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Scripture for Wednesday, August 24 (8/24)

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The scripture for today, August 24 is Romans 8:24f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

00-Heroes-Alone-COVER-KINDLE“For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”

Sometimes we go through a period of our life in which it is difficult to have faith that God exists; or even if he does exist, that he cares what happens to us. During those times, we may not be able to have faith. But we can HOPE. We can hope that God exists, we can hope he cares what happens to us. Even the weakest person can hope. And hope holds us until we are strong enough to, once again, have faith.

So the next time your faith wavers (and it happens to everyone at some time in their life), remember, you can still hope.

DISCUSSION QUESTION: WHEN IS IT HARDEST FOR YOU TO HAVE FAITH?

#faith, #hope

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The scripture for today, March 25, is Lamentations 3:25 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“The Lord is good to0-BOOK 4-FOLK HERO-COVER those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.”

Notice, this does not say the Lord is good to those who have faith in him. All they have to do is hope he exists and hope he loves them.

Some people have been raised by atheists, or have attended a university where professors criticize theists (believers in God). Or perhaps they have had a major tragedy in their life and can’t understand how a good God could allow that bad thing to happen. Or maybe they live among people who believe all the gods in the world are the One God, so don’t pay special attention to any of them.

Life can be confusing, so confusing that we have trouble having faith in God. But we can still hope! Keep hope alive. Let the Lord be good to you.

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The scripture for today, March 3, is Genesis 3:3 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

Cover-Bible Women-Createspace” ‘But God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you will die.’ “

This is a conversation Eve is having with Satan in the Garden of Eden. She was a little put out by God that he would withhold even one item from her. So she misrepresented God. What God actually said was….

“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Eve had added to what God had said: “You must not touch it.”

Do we do that? When we get put out by someone, do we embellish a little and add a few little things to an event in order to make the other person look worse than s/he really is? Are we in the habit of making ourselves a victim so we can get other people’s sympathy and maybe get other people to act on our behalf?

1st Corinthians 13:5 says love does not keep a record of wrongs. If you have a feud going with someone, try breaking the cycle . 1st Corinthians 13:7 says love protects, always trusts, always hopes. Bring hope back. Then keep hope alive.

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The scripture for today, February 16, is 2nd Thessalonians 2:16 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 3-HEARTS AFIRE-COVER“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”

How amazing! God, the Creator of the universe, and Jesus his only begotten Son, actually know who we are. If he didn’t, he couldn’t love us. Love is not in the abstract. It is specific. And it is specifically for you.

Not only that, but we are given eternal encouragement. Our friends may only encourage us when we are doing something that would help them. Our family members may encourage us as long as we do something they would do. But God’s encouragement never ceases. It is always there. There when we feel alone, when we feel forsaken, when we feel helpless, when we feel hopeless.

And yes, God gives us good hope. Sometimes things in our life may be going so badly that we have trouble having faith in God. But we can still hope. The candle of your faith may be flickering, but your hope can still be a flaming hope, a large hope, a good hope.

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The scripture for today, January 5, is Colossians 1:5 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

00-Heroes-Alone-COVER-KINDLE“…the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the Word of Truth, the gospel.”

Does your faith have its ups and downs? Is it strong sometimes and weak sometimes? Do things sometimes go so wrong that you have trouble having faith in God? You can still hope. Do you grow angry at God sometimes? You can still hope. During such low times when faith does not come easy, you can still hope. Hope is the springboard of faith.

And stay close to the Word of Truth, for John 14:17 says the Comforter is the Spirit of Truth, and John 17:17 says Truth is the Word of God.

When your emotions are pulling you down, rely for a little awhile on only your logic, your intellect, until your emotions heal. Some day they will.

So keep on hoping ~ the springboard. And some day it will return to being faith.

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The scripture for today, January 28, is 1st Chronicles 1:28 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

Cover-Kindle-small“The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael.”

Are you a parent with a grown or nearly-grown child who is going in the wrong direction? Have you tried everything you can think of, and nothing is working? Do you know in your heart that you have been a good example and things shouldn’t have turned out like they have?

Abraham has been called the Father of the Faithful. Yet he had one son who followed Jehovah ~ Isaac ~ and one son who followed idols ~ Ishmael. Certainly Abraham tried everything he could to “talk some sense” into Ishmael. Certainly he prayed earnestly for Ishmael. So what went wrong?

Just as God has given each of us free will, our children also have free will. Just as God will never force us to follow him, we cannot force our children to follow God. You did not refrain from having your children because they may have difficulties in their life, and neither did God. And when our children rebel and break our hearts, imagine what God goes through when we rebel and break his heart.

Who knows? Perhaps your child will return to God some day in your old age, or even after you have died. If your child deep down has a good heart, that is enough for God to work with. Keep hope alive.

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The scripture for today, November 1, is Hebrews 11:1 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

Cover-Kindle-small“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (KJV).

Notice, faith is not based on a feeling. It is full of substance, for it is based on evidence. What evidence?

First, faith is complete confidence that the Bible is divine. We know this in large part because the prophecies about large nations and empires during Bible times came true after the lifetime of the prophets. Today, most people never heard of many of those large nations and empires because their destruction was so complete. But an investigation of encyclopedias shows that, in Bible times, they did exist.

Second, faith is complete confidence that Jesus on earth was divine. We know this in large part because numerous prophecies about his birth, ministry and death came true centuries after the prophecies were made. No one man could have contrived and forced all those prophecies to be fulfilled in his lifetime.

Finally, faith is complete confidence that the account of Jesus’ life was written accurately by witnesses who saw him and talked with him. These witnesses afterwards traveled the world telling people about him, suffering hardships, and often torture and death. They would not have gone through all this for a lie. Further, we have manuscripts that date back to less than a century of the actual events, something no other ancient writing can do.

Yes, faith has substance because it is based on evidence. And in the Bible, we have all we need.