This is the question I usually ask my friends when they say "I hope so," or "I hope [this thing happens]." Sometimes, they look at me with a perplexed expression on their face. However, sometimes my friends actually understand what I am implying: Psalm 71:5. It says this:
For You are my hope; O Lord God, You are my confidence from my youth.
Even deeper is the word used for God here. It's Yahweh, the personal name that God gave to us. That's another topic in itself, but I just wanted to say that personal God came in the bodily form of Christ to die for us. Because of that, I infer that Christ is my hope.
Anyway, Christ should be our hope as Christians, and that is why I ask that question. It is to point people back to God and get them thinking on what He has done, what He is doing and what He will do.
So today, I have been asking myself that question a LOT. I have needed to be pointed back to God so many times today. The one thing I keep on thinking is this: "If it weren't for the Lord, my heart would despair!" It is so true! I like the NIV version of John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
Take HEART! Take courage! Praise the Lord that He continues to turn my wandering heart back to Him. Though many different things were thrown at me at once, it seemed, God was gracious to turn my thoughts back to Him. It would have been easy to despair if it weren't for God. A couple saints are currently experiencing some familial issues leading to the uncertainty of joining us on some mission trips, and a brother battling cancer passed away today. I received this news as a wake-up call to what I need to do: pray.
We JUST went over Matthew 6 last night and the big takeaway that I had was to labor in prayer more and seek FIRST His kingdom and righteousness. Praise the Lord for opportunities to do so, even if I don't like the circumstances.
If you'd like to support my brother's family, you can go to this page: https://www.facebook.com/PrayingforIanPeterson
Another humbling experience happened last Thursday. Well, A LOT of humbling experiences, but we'll get to that. First of all, it was a GREAT DAY! The one thing that keeps coming into my mind is this: Though I intended for evil, God worked for His good!
That morning, I did not get out of bed for the weekly discipleship meeting between homegroup trainers partly because of a small headache, but more so out of my laziness. So, the day didn't start out with the best foot, but somehow I was able to encourage my co-workers during work while we were absolutely slammed because of a swim meet (I work in the food court of a mall). However, the day at work flew by because we were busy the entire time.
After work, I was pretty beat, so I was a little happy that the conference call I was supposed to have didn't happen. Again, not the best motivation and mindset here. Luckily for me, I got to spend some time with a great bro doing some discipleship time and outreaching. Praying for people went amazingly well! We met a guy that goes to our church that we didn't know (shame on us, right?), a guy who is laboring hard for Jesus with another group, and another guy who was looking for a church home. All these times were encouraging, but we hadn't had the chance to share the gospel yet. So we prayed that we would be able to... and that's when we ran into another guy who seemed pretty apathetic and non-responsive. I honestly was thinking that we should move on and find another person, but my bro persevered with him and kept on asking him questions. Finally, he wanted to see the gospel, so we shared it with him. This apathetic guy's demeanor changed a bit during the presentation and afterward he gave my bro his contact info and they are grabbing dinner together to talk about Jesus some more.
After this, we ate and I got to see some more friends on campus and have funsies. When I got home I got to share these stories with my roommates, and then I felt like my job was done. I could check my "Spiritual Box" off for the day. That's when I went to play video games online. Once again, however, God used me for His good. On the side chat bar, I was able to talk about Jesus' love with someone who was talking about suicide. Then used me to encourage a struggling young lady about her faith. All this while playing VIDEO GAMES!!! Amazing! Praise the Lord!
A great thing that was told to us today by the really encouraging laborer was this: "We're here for one purpose: To glorify God. If we accept His salvation, we glorify Him in His mercy. If we refuse His salvation, we glorify Him in His justice."
I Love It!
This actually happened to me one day as I as in the mall after work. First of all, I currently work in a mall at Chick-FIl-A (appropriate, I know), so being there after work is not that big of a deal seeing as I usually have to find a ride home as well.
Anyway, I wasn't going to get a ride home for another hour, so I decided to do some reading while I was waiting. In this One Year Plan I'm doing, it was Exodus 6 that day. So I'm reading along, and I had to stop midway through because right at the beginning the Word just spoke to me, and this is what I wrote down.
In Exodus 6:2-8 God opens up to Moses after he comes to the Lord in distress about Pharaoh and the Israelites. God says, "I am the Lord." Then He continues on by telling Moses how He did all of these things for his fathers, Abraham & Jacob. Then God declares once more in verse 6, "I am the Lord." Then He continues on to tell Moses what He WILL do, and how He's never broken a promise.
Moses comes back in verse 12 about how he is "unskilled in speech." Really Moses...? Unskilled in speech? Wow. After all that God has just told him AND after God has already told him earlier that He would be with his speech (Exodus 4:11-12), Moses comes up with a lame excuse like THAT?!? Let's be honest though, how many times do we, do I, come up with some lame excuse not to be bold for the Lord and do His work? "God, I can't talk to that guy because I'm alone..."
Right at that moment, I realized that is what I was thinking! It was horrible because I was sitting there writing and ranting about Moses, when I realized that I had been looking up periodically and saw this guy that was sitting alone at a table in front of me. So I bowed my head in a quick prayer, and when I looked up again... he was leaving. Immediately, I felt ashamed that I had NOT been bold for God. However, God being the God that He is immediately pointed my gaze to another guy who was alone.
I quickly shot up another quick prayer (without taking my gaze from the guy this time... fool me once kinda thing), and got up with the expectation that I was going to be used by the Lord somehow. It turned out that this guy just came from Punjab, India and couldn't understand a thing I was saying. However, he did understand when I asked if I could pray with him (with hand motions, of course) and so I prayed for him there.
I got a couple things out of this experience. First, I pray that I will respond quicker to the Spirit's promptings instead of not trusting in what God can do. Second, I cannot hate on a man who spoke directly to God and didn't trust Him sometimes, when I have God inside ME and still don't trust Him sometimes. Floored.
