Got God Got Hope

Hope is critical to life, without life quickly fades into death.  I recently talked to a friend who shared a story of a man who had been standing in the gap to see his marriage restored (even wrote a book about it) and yet after 7 years he was losing hope and feeling condemned.  Everyone who is alive has hope or they would not continue to live, many are giving up on life in droves (suicide rates are high).  I have times in my life where the darkness seems to creep into my life and I have difficulty finding purpose and hope.  In my spirit I know I am not without hope and only going through a dark day or two.  My soul is where there is doubt about hope.  I was recently reminded that this passage in 1 Peter 5:5 is really the gospel wrapped up in one little phrase, "for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE."  Pride is far beyond arrogance but the relying on ones self and viewing God and His Word as suspect.  As I came to the Lord in humility with the darkness that was going on in my soul, the Lord revealed that after my dad committed suicide I gave up on life and hope.  Then because of those around me, I believed I had to strive for hope.  The Lord spoke deeply to my heart, "Will you let Me be your hope?"  The words pierced deeply through my heart as I realized that all my striving (listening to worship music, reading Scripture, and reading books) to find hope had not really changed these deeply held beliefs.  In Ephesians 2:12 we are reminded that God connects Himself to hope, "and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world."  If you are in the world without a Covenant then you have no hope, but you can also have no hope when you don't connect with Jesus in Covenant.  I thought I had to get myself through the sadness, loss, and change in life of losing my dad.  The Lord showed me that I had no way to know how to get through this so I needed to rely on Him.  We all have times where something or someone in our life pushes us beyond the hope we have in and of ourselves, Jesus is our only real hope.  It is so different from the world that we find hope in the person of Jesus Christ, versus something in our circumstances changing (internal hope vs. external hope).  Jesus reminded me, "Just come to Me as you are."  So often we feel that we have to straighten things up on the inside to come to Jesus, we have to at least be presentable.  I love it that Jesus is not in the least interested in these efforts but simply wants us to come as we are.  As I get ready to spend a weekend with 24 men I don't know on Men at the Cross, I have been touched by the ministries challenge to come as you are without the masks, the striving, or the religion.  They have discovered through the Word that Jesus meets us in our weakness and humility.  Hope is that there will be a change for the positive, instead of things continuing as they are or getting worse.  I reminded that Jesus met people who were in need and humble, He is still the same today.  Come as you are, receive the New Life He has promised you.  Our posture in the New Covenant is always of receiving by grace, no earning or striving will work.

In the ONE who is my hope,
Bret