HOPELESS TIMES 9 | REVERENT HOPE
1. Hopeless Times
a) The times we live in are so troubled. People losing their jobs, the stock market falls, natural catastrophes, and uncertainty in what the future holds. In today’s economy there is little to hope for the future however God is never caught off guard or by surprise. God knows the future. You are not the only one that has felt that there is no hope. Even Bible heroes had their times when they wanted to give up. Job, Moses, Jonah, Jeremiah, even the powerful prophet in the Old Testament, Elijah.
b) Humans have definitions of hope that are different from God’s. We might hope our team wins the game, or we might hope we don’t lose our jobs or our house. But the biblical definition of hope is not a hope-so but a know-so. Our hope in God is surer than the sun rising in the morning.
Psalms 119:74
"Those who fear You will be glad when they see me,
Because I have hoped in Your word."
a) The times we live in are so troubled. People losing their jobs, the stock market falls, natural catastrophes, and uncertainty in what the future holds. In today’s economy there is little to hope for the future however God is never caught off guard or by surprise. God knows the future. You are not the only one that has felt that there is no hope. Even Bible heroes had their times when they wanted to give up. Job, Moses, Jonah, Jeremiah, even the powerful prophet in the Old Testament, Elijah.
b) Humans have definitions of hope that are different from God’s. We might hope our team wins the game, or we might hope we don’t lose our jobs or our house. But the biblical definition of hope is not a hope-so but a know-so. Our hope in God is surer than the sun rising in the morning.
Psalms 119:74
"Those who fear You will be glad when they see me,
Because I have hoped in Your word."
c) Here is real hope. When a person reads the Word of God (Bible) they can know for certain that they have a secure and certain future for God will never allow us to suffer beyond our own capabilities to handle it. There is nothing on this earth more certain than hope in God. He will never leave us nor will He ever forsake us. He is our anchor in the present and for the future.
2. Reverent Hope
Psalms 33:18
But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love.
a) When we hear the words “fear in the Lord” or “those who fear him” this is not a fear of punishment or retribution. Fear is simply a reverential respect and standing in awe of God. That is what “fear of the Lord” means. It means that those who reverence God and His name have nothing to fear at all; no evil, no pestilence, no begging for bread, and no fear of want. His unfailing love is upon those that fear or revere Him: His love never fails and His eyes are fixed on you in a permanent gaze that is transfixed upon your today and your tomorrow. You are the apple of His eye (Deuteronomy 32:10, Zechariah 2:8).
Psalms 33:18
But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love.
a) When we hear the words “fear in the Lord” or “those who fear him” this is not a fear of punishment or retribution. Fear is simply a reverential respect and standing in awe of God. That is what “fear of the Lord” means. It means that those who reverence God and His name have nothing to fear at all; no evil, no pestilence, no begging for bread, and no fear of want. His unfailing love is upon those that fear or revere Him: His love never fails and His eyes are fixed on you in a permanent gaze that is transfixed upon your today and your tomorrow. You are the apple of His eye (Deuteronomy 32:10, Zechariah 2:8).
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