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Empowered By Hope

As an acrostic the word “HOPE” can mean ~

                        Heavenly

                        Optimism

                        Personally

                        Experienced

Hope is a virtue which the soul needs for energy and motivation. Hope is always necessary for the restoration of a wounded spirit.

We need hope to press on, to endure, to stay focused, and to see dreams fulfilled.

Hope has been called the energy and effort of faith.  It is the power to be cheerful in circumstances that we know to be desperate.

Hope fuels life with joy, peace and love.

Two words will help you cope when you run low on hope — Accept and Trust.

Accept the mystery of hardship, suffering, misfortune or mistreatment.  Don’t try to understand it or to explain it.  Accept it.  Move on.   Then trust God to protect you by His power from this very moment to the dawning of eternity.

God has an agenda for each of us.
Jeremiah 29:11 ~ For I know the plans (agenda) I have for you, declares the Lord…to give you a future and a hope.

God’s agenda for His people is that they never lose hope.

Most of all of us are in some sort of a holding pattern, trusting God for something we have prayed for, dreamed of.   I have good news; the Lord is good to those who wait for Him, who seek him.  You should know that God has chosen us to be on His team.  The Lord chooses us because He chooses to choose us.

What are we to hope in?  Our position, our wealth, our privilege or power? No! 

We are to hope in God.

• He commands and inspires hope. 
• He justifies and expects hope. 
• He approves and rewards hope.

There are three simple steps in order for us to experience Christian hope:

1.  In Believing: Doubt interferes with hope.  As you believe God’s Word, and His promises, hope begins to fill your life.
2. Joy: When you exercise faith that the blessings of His Word are indeed yours, joy will    flood your life.
3. Peace: When you trust God with your life, all of it, peace – tranquility of mind, produces hope.

His Economy

Webster defines economy as “thrifty management; frugality in the expenditure or consumption of money, materials.”

It actually is a Biblical word (dispensation) meaning to manage or administrate a household or estate and to do so in an excellent fashion; to be fiscally responsible.

Depending on who you ask, our economy and the world’s economy is either doing very well or it’s on the brink of disaster.  Soaring oil prices affect almost every arena of our lives – food, clothing, fuel, flying, driving and the list is endless.

Certainly this word “economy” affects us every day of our lives.

One thing is certain for believers – God in His Word presents the history of man from a divine perspective and proposes a management of man’s affairs under a plan of divine economy.

His economy is not affected by recession, depression, or inflation/deflation.

Economy involves much more than money.  It includes everything we deal with during our life and after.  It reckons with all earth’s treasures, resources, and capacities and man’s role in relating himself to them.

He does have a plan for your life!  It is all-inclusive of every relationship, commodity, and capacity now and later.  It embraces what you are and all you will ever be.  It includes your time, your concern, your love, your emotional and mental capacities, and your spiritual gifts.

It is God’s miraculous plan of economy and its workings cannot be explained by the rules of earth.

The foundation is found in: 

Romans 11:36:  Everything comes from Him, everything goes to Him, and everything exists through Him.

If you missed this past weekend at TheChurch on Strayer…

Past generations were able to maintain hope through difficult times because they had three anchors of stability in all of their societies:

          1) Faith in God
          2) Stability in the family
          3) Pride in one’s country

Without a foundation of Biblical principles, husbands and wives have difficulty understanding each other because the male and female role differences are blurred by our addictive society.

Individuals without God become as god to themselves.  Each determines what is right for himself.  No absolutes.

In order to be a functional family, it must begin in the marriage of the husband and wife.  The marriage must be built on trust, loyalty, monogamy, and commitment. The Ten Commandments also show God’s priority on the foundation of all human relationships – the family.

Here are the ten characteristics of the Functional Family.  Assess these characteristics.  Which do you need to focus on, work on, and develop in your family?  Be assured, when you concentrate on these characteristics and make them a priority in your family, you’ll see a functional family.

1)       Positive─  living in a non-judgmental, encouraging environment.

2)       Caring─ showing concern, kindness for one another

3)       Accepting─ appreciating and celebrating uniqueness and differences

4)        Affirming─ adding value to one another.

5)       Loving─ exhibiting genuineness, intimacy

6)       Nurturing─ helping each other become who God created them to be.

7)       Sharing─ communicating freely and openly.

8)       Becoming─ growing into their role in the family

9)       Laughing─ allowing lighthearted moments of just letting go

10)    Harmonizing─  working individually while being team-oriented.

Living Beyond Unfairness

One obvious fact from this research is that circumstances, whether fortunate or unfortunate, are morally neutral.  They simply are what they are.  What matters is how we respond to them.

The real test for each of us is our personal attitude to life and it changes and chances.

Unfairness, suffering, loss may push a person toward brokenness rather than toward personal growth.

A positive, active, creative response will bring growth and development.  A negative reaction can cause emotional paralysis (stuck in the moment) or even regression into our past.

Martin Luther King used to say –

          What doesn’t destroy me makes me stronger.

When life is not fair, never lose your God-perspective.

Don’t permit the shadow of life’s unfairness to limit the sunlight of your tomorrow.

All of us experience circumstances which turn our plans upside down and suddenly life is not as we desired it to be.

Always remember that the photograph of our tomorrow must come from the darkness required to process the image.

Unfairness in life should never be empowered to limit, hinder or stop our progress.

Unfairness, disappointment, failure should never be permitted to establish the boundaries of our life.

Whatever it is, God wants to use it and you to advance you and the world around you.

Called to Encourage!

People tend to become what we think them to be.

As believers, you and I are called to be God’s construction crew in the world around us – not the devil’s demolition derby.

I Thessalonians 5:11 (MSG) - So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you’ll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind.

Encouragement creates an atmosphere of hope and hope energizes our lives.

You and I are called to encouragement.

“Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.” -Hebrews 10: 24

That calls for us to be very aware, to be mindful of others around us.

As believers, we are always the community of faith regardless of where we are.

When we encourage one another, we show that we are “spirit filled.”

We are to daily focus on, take the initiative to, ENCOURAGE!

The HOPE of Easter

Easter is about hope – the hope of the Resurrection.

• It’s Friday and the world’s economic system is teetering on the brink of chaos.  But, Sunday is coming.
• It’s Friday and Toledo is bankrupt.  But Sunday is coming.
• It’s Friday and unemployment is double digit and rising.  But Sunday is coming.
• It’s Friday and Wall Street is Fear Street.  But Sunday is coming.
• It’s Friday and Main Street is in a panic.  But Sunday is coming.

Our Hope is not fixed on the bail-out.

Our Hope is not fixed on the economy.

Our Hope is not fixed on banks recovering.

Our Hope is not fixed on the dollar.

Hope is our response to God’s work in Jesus Christ.

Hope is our attitude toward the future.  Hope is believing, trusting, expecting, anticipating that God’s Word works.

When life hurts and dreams fade, nothing helps like hope.

Hope is confident expectation of good.  Hope is Heavenly Optimism Personally Experienced.

Romans 15:3 (MSG)  – May the God of hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope.

Can’t Wait for You to Hear This Weekend’s Message!

For each of us this morning it is still a relevant and probing question – Where are you?

It is not your physical, geographical location I am asking about.

Perhaps the second question will help to clear up the picture –

Are you in (under) your circumstance or are you in your position (your real identity)?

Your circumstance, your situation happened.  You cannot change “what” has already occurred any more than you can change how it occurred.

Your way “out” of what occurred is not a matter of changing the “whats” and “hows” of life.

This is a matter of the change of the “who” in life – and the “who” is you!

While you cannot change the “what” and the “how” you can certainly change the “who.”

Regardless of circumstance your identity, your position in God’s kingdom, your position in your daily life does not change.

Your potential always lies in your position.

When your circumstances dictate your lifestyle rather than your position, then you will sell out your birthright (destiny).

Many of us are called but we can’t get to the place we have been called to because of our brokenness, distractions, and crippled condition.

In the kingdom, even our failures are successes.  They represent the miracle that we survived.

It’s Morning in the Kingdom!

Daily, the voices and messages of the world around us are seemingly filled with fears and anxieties. 

Concerns about the future, as well as the present, are written on the countenance of millions of people. 

There is little evidence of hope in the lives of men and women who wander aimlessly through life.

That is life on the one hand in America. 

On the other hand, “It’s Morning in the Kingdom.” 

God is still on the throne in heaven and earth is his footstool.  He is still directing the affairs of mankind. 

“It’s Morning in His Kingdom” here on earth.  In Him we live and move and have our being. 

With this “Morning” comes a fresh breath of hope, energy, excitement, and opportunity.  Let your life today be filled with “The Morning in His Kingdom.”