RECLAIMING HOPE

Hopelessness can happen to anyone. It comes with many trials and suffering, reoccurring events of loss and sadness, along with unfortunate circumstances, and lasting loneliness.

Sometimes we question if God even cares anymore, but then we must remember that guy named Job.

Job 1:1 ESV

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.

That guy who lost it all..... except his faith and his hope.

(Yeah... that guy).

No matter the situations we are enduring may bring, and it may bring it all, let's not forget when the enemy came creeping amongst our God looking for prey, how God knew His servant loved Him, trusted Him, and would not lose faith and hope in Him.

How much of that does He know of us?

Job 2:7-10 ESV

So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes. Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

What looks like failure in our eyes, is not the finished works of God. When farming land, the ground must be tilled; dug up, and flipped over again and again for a proper harvest and even though it may seem unjust and wrong... and sometimes it is, balance in everything must be exampled. The enemy was bold enough to confront God of His child and His child proved the enemy wrong. God didn't force Job to worship Him... Job understood that He had to!

Job 1:20-22 ESV

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

When it would have been easier to give up hope and renounce all faith, we see here a man lose it all including his children. As his wife, defeated in loss, gives up all hope; we see here a man stand in the emptiness of existence... Keyword: Stand. What kind of hope and faith is that? I'm sure we all wonder. Though clearly, within the text of His word, it exists, though most times, elusive to us modern-day Christians.

Romans 15:13 ESV

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.

The Takeaway

As the world around us exposes the darkness that hides under veiled faces, warped minds, and pretentious hearts... hope can and will get lost very easily.

Stand your ground sisters! Our Father loves us with an everlasting love and He never ever fails.

It would seem that all may be lost as hell breaks loose around us, but God is in complete control. How much of that control is for us in our lives? Is completely up to you and me. Know thy Father and His all-consuming Love, The Actual Word that walked this earth to show us the way. Through it all, unto the cross, we are already redeemed with a reward the expels the loss.

Job 42:10-16 ESV

And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters.

Hope are the veins of faith that keep the blood of Christ pumping through your soul; without it... the soul dies. Find your hope if it is lost, reclaim it in the Name of Jesus and fill it with the promises of God. He is NOT a man, that He should EVER lie!

AMEN?

M. Lindsey