THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF HOPE

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”—Romans 15:13

 

In Luke 4:40, we are given a wonderful example of hope and healing, “When the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them.”  Here, we are given an image that we can relate to.

 

It was the end of a busy day.  People were coming to Jesus from the labors of their day with such hope.  Hope because they had heard that Jesus was doing miracles.  If you will come to Jesus He will heal you.  In the natural they had no hope, no money, and no resources and yet they came to Jesus. 

 

We can assume that Jesus and His followers had had a busy day.  Jesus might have been weary from His day, and yet he had time for every hurting person.  He was not too busy or too tired, He did not ignore those who came late; He laid hands on every one of them and healed them. 

 

I encourage you to hold to the faith in this Christ who cares about people.  “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!” (Lamentations 3:24).

Continually, religious attitudes are coming to you that say God does not have time for you or that you missed His will.  You are not pleasing to Him in some way you are not perfect enough.  Christ’s life never demonstrated these attitudes.  He loves you.  He has time for you.  If you will embrace these true attitudes of Christ as absolute truth about Him it will influence how you treat other people.  You will have time for them.  You will care about them.  They too will begin to hope in this Christ who has time for them and cares for them, as He did you, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5).  People need the hope that you have.

 

Prayer—Father I thank You for the hope that You have given to me in Jesus Christ.  Today I commit not to be in despair, but to hope in You for all that I have need of, and with Your help I will share Your love and hope with others, in Jesus Name. Amen.