Category: Hope For The Hopeless

“He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.” ~ Job 8:21

Though our momentary troubles seem to last a lifetime, yet in our season, God will fill our mouth with laughter and our hearts with joy. For His love toward us is great. Don’t give up hope, cling to it in times of great troubles and distress. When we lose a loved one. When we lose a job. When we feel lost and confused, and God seems to be far away. Cling to Him. Search for Him. Call out His name. Because He hasn’t forgotten you, He’s just waiting for your invitation to come in.

Thank you Father, for the promise of hope, for Your promises never fail. You are the God of the new. So, Oh LORD God, create in us new joy. Create in us new hope that cannot be easily rattled. That cannot be easily shaken. That will be able to withstand any obstacle set before us, oh LORD. Remember Your promises, and bring laughter and joy into our lives once again. In Jesus name, amen.

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¹⁰ Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” ¹¹ And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, ¹² and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” ¹³ But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” ¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. ~ Acts 9:10-15

Saul, better known to us as Paul, was one of the greatest enemies of the early Church. Ananias was called to go to him but was afraid. He had heard stories of the evil Saul had done. He couldn’t see passed who Saul was in that moment. He couldn’t see why God would choose him. A lot of the times we’re a mixture of Saul and Ananias. We’ve done so much evil that we can’t see how God can use us. We’ve lied. We’ve murdered. We’ve lived in sexual sin. We’ve stolen. We’ve done evil in the sight of the LORD, and the Ananias in us can’t see the Saul in us becoming the Paul.

We’ve heard the stories and we’ve heard the sermons, but we still wonder, ‘Does God want me?’ Simply put, yes. No matter what you’ve done. No matter how far you’ve strayed, God still wants you. God can still use you. God used a man who murdered the Christians to be, arguably, the greatest apostle who ever lived. If God could take Saul and make him Paul, why can’t He use you? God can use anyone, there’s no one too dirty for God to use. It’s up to you to let Him in and use you.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Become Paul.

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But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. ² And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. ³ Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” ⁴ And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?” ⁵ Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city.

⁶ Now the Lord God appointed a plantand made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. ⁷ But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. ⁸ When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

⁹ But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” ¹⁰ And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹ And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” ~ Jonah 4:1-11

This amazes me that Jonah both fled and disobeyed God, and didn’t feel he would be punished, yet he wants the people of Nineveh to perish, he wants them to be punished but not him. He then goes on to say he is so angry that he would rather die than live because he didn’t want to see an entire race or nation of people be saved from destruction.

Then when he is uncomfortable, because God took away the plant, he would rather die than live. He is mad God killed the plant, but mad he wouldn’t kill the entire city of people, the entire city of souls… He would rather them go out into eternity unready than to have another chance? If these are the people God chooses to be His prophets and representatives of Him, it makes me feel like okay maybe I can be saved. Maybe I can stand as a representative of God and not feel ashamed of all of the stuff I have done.

It shows me who God really is. That God is truly a God of mercy, patience, love, and forgiveness; not a God of anger, vengeance, and hate as the world tries to make Him out to be. Sure, He punishes His children, but every GOOD parent punishes their child when they have done something wrong. Keep this in mind, when you feel too far gone or too dirty to be clean remember that God doesn’t choose people who are clean and perfect.

God chooses people who are dirty and are in need of cleansing. People who are in need of Him. Look at who He chose to be His prophet, a man that would rather save the life a simple, soulless tree than a city of people who had strayed because he didn’t have the same love and mercy God does. Jonah wasn’t perfect, and neither are you, so let God be the perfect one in the relationship. Let God slowly wash you clean until you see yourself the way he sees you, as His.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Go Dirty.

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“And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” ~ 1 Samuel 30:6

This verse begins with saying David was greatly distressed. Like everyone else, even David has been distressed, overwhelmed, frightened, but he didn’t stop there. He didn’t stop at distressed. The majority of us, we stop at distressed. We stay there hurt and broken. It’s almost like we don’t want to get better. Like we don’t want to be comforted by God, but instead, we want to stay distressed. But no-one wants that… right? When something happens, the majority do one of two things, they go to a friend, and they complain about it, and then they rant about it, and then they freak out about it. Or they do absolutely nothing and keep it all bottled up. And they try to pretend it didn’t happen, but it keeps coming back to their thoughts until that’s their only thought then distressed becomes depressed and they just keep sinking lower and lower.

The majority usually chooses one of the two, but never chooses God. They never choose Jesus. See David knew he had to lead. David knew that leading was his calling. So, he didn’t want to be overcome by the distressing feeling he had, so he took it before the LORD. He didn’t take it to a friend, or keep it to himself, but instead, he went to God. It’s like that old hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” when the verse goes:

Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!

Imagine how much we would overcome if we took our troubles to God, instead of holding on to our pain and making it our ‘friend.’

Peace. Love. Go Forth and take your distress to God.

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“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! ~ Luke 15:17 (Story of the Prodigal Son)

Notice how it says, “when he came to himself,” it doesn’t say “something clicked.” It doesn’t say “he was enlightened.” It says, “when he came to himself.” Genesis 1:26 says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.'” When the prodigal son remembered who he was, he knew there was better for him. When he saw that stamp that his father stamped him with when he was born, he remembered what his father had. He humbled himself and saw exactly who he was and where he came from. But how could he have seen all that, if he was going back to be a servant, not a son?

Because he didn’t deserve to be a son, he gave that up. He deserved to be a servant, but that’s where grace comes in. That’s where his father looked at him and saw his son. He didn’t see a servant, he didn’t see a slave, he saw his son. This is exactly how coming home to God is. When we realize who we are, when we realize where we come from and we humble ourselves and come home, God runs to us. He embraces us with open arms. We don’t deserve it. We know we don’t deserve it. But that’s what grace is, it’s this continuous, overwhelming flow of love that never ends. When we humble ourselves and remember who we are. When we see that stamp that God has put on every single one of His creations. When we remember that God took His time and formed us. That God took His time and counted every hair on our head. That God has given us the greatest gift of all, that’s when we run home. That’s when God opens His arms and runs towards us. When we come to ourselves, we will find exactly who were made to be.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Come to Yourself.

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