Monday, August 1, 2016

Hebrews 11:1

//Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.//
Hebrews 11:1

Things hoped for. As I was meditating on this verse I searched my heart and asked the Lord to reveal areas that I put my hope in apart from Him. What is my “assurance of things hoped for?”. There are many false hopes that I have lived under and still so many that my heart tries to grab onto. I put my hope in my own strength, but it runs out every time. I put my hope in my friends and family to satisfy my desires for friendship, but the Holy Spirit is the only one who can satisfy loneliness. I put my hope in my ability to minister to others, but apart from His power I am left useless. I put my hope in what I can see and understand, but His ways are higher than my ways. I put my hope in how much fruit I see in my walk, but He is the one who produces fruit in due season. I’m humbled that I have been given the perfect unchanging God to place my hope in and still I run to worthless idols looking for the assurance of my false hope. His grace is the vessel to hope. We hope in Him because of the grace we’ve received. Daily mountain moving faith is built on hope that assured in Christ Jesus.

When I think of hope I am reminded about Hannah in 1 Samuel 1 when she yearned for a child. Hannah was moved in the deepest part of her. She was deeply distressed and agonized in prayer to the Lord in her affliction. God was her only hope as she poured her heart before Him. After she was done begging the Lord for a child, she walked away no longer sad, for her hope was in God alone. Hannah walked away in surrender, because her hope fully rested in God’s hands. She knew that she could no longer hope in herself or her husband but she could only hope in God. Hannah prayed “the bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength.” Hannah was feeble and broken in God’s presence, but her hope was bound on His strength alone. Her hope was assured in His power and He visited her with faithfulness. Hannah left a legacy of radical hope assured.

Not only have we been given hope for all of our days, but that same faith producing hope is alive within us. The Gospel is the blessed hope that is within me. It is hope assured. When I hope in God alone, I am dropping my bows of personal might that I have stored away as they will never withstand the wiles of life. When I am feeble in personal strength and hopeless in and of myself, I can completely bind on His strength and hope in Him alone. Hebrews 10:23 “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” Faithful hope is living every day with confidence in our better possession and abiding reward in Christ alone. A heart without hope assured in God will always shrink back, but a heart full of hope in God will be preserved. Faith is the substance of the life of a redeemed child of God.



Application: Many of the things I put my hope into are sinking sand. My prayer is that all of my hopes be dissolved into the hope of knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection and becoming more into the image and likeness of Christ as the day is drawing near. Today I will sit down with Tanisha and ask her to help me identify the areas that I put my hope in myself over God.

1 comment:

  1. Much needed sis, love what He is doing in your Heart and want to imitate this as I further look to Him for my hope.

     Why, my soul, are you downcast?Why so disturbed within me?Put your hope in God,for I will yet praise him,my Savior and my God. - Psalm 42:5

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