CONCERT OF PRAYER

Pray Week 786

“Finding Hope”

Romans 5:4 (ESV) …endurance produces character, and character produces hope…

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The title: Success.
The image: A quarterback being sacked…hard.
The caption: “Some people dream of success, while other people live to crush those dreams.”

The above describes a wall poster from an internet business that sells demotivational items.  Their tag line reads: “At Despair, Inc. we have a dream. To help crush yours.”

The classic definition of despair is to lose, to give up, or be without hope whereas hope is defined as the desire for something with the expectation of attaining it.  What forces have come to bear to crush your dreams … your hopes?  Who or what has ‘sacked’ your dream of success?  Hope stems from where we place our faith and trust.  When faith and trust are misapplied, our hope is easily crushed.

Some may trust in their physical appearance, talent, or athletic ability for their hope of continued contracts, endorsements and financial security and success.

Others may have trusted in the principle of compound interest, placing their hope in their investment portfolios for an early retirement and a life of ease.

Still others may have trusted and had faith in their employers, working diligently for decades with the hope that their retirement pensions would be their reward.

We have seen time after time how fleeting and insecure beauty, health, athleticism, stocks, & corporations are.  All these things are temporary and without guarantee for the future let alone tomorrow.  When our faith and trust is founded on the temporal things of this world, then the basis of our hope is exceedingly fragile.

Who or what are your hopes and dreams founded upon?  Are the desires of your heart so narrowly focused as to be limited only to the temporal things of this life without consideration for an eternal life to come with Jesus?  The only guarantee worthy of our trust is the guarantee of God’s love and faithfulness found through the truth of His Word.

Jesus answered them…in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. – John 16:31

No matter how difficult your circumstances may seem at this moment, there is hope to be found through Jesus Christ.  It is through the power of His Name and the indwelling Holy Spirit that you can find the strength to endure as you develop the character of Christ by abiding in His presence.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; – 2 Cor 4:7

It is through abiding with Jesus that we develop our faith to believe and the faith to hope.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.- Romans 15:13