10 Jan God’s Hope Empowers
One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is remembering the prophecies that were fulfilled through Jesus’ birth. In the Old Testament, there are 60 prophecies that give us over 300 distinct pictures describing just what it would like when He came. You know what’s cool? According to the mathematical law of scientific probability, the chance Jesus could fulfill all those prophecies is 1 in 84 with 100 zeroes after it. And still, He did. How could we not believe?
God gave us these prophecies for two reasons— first of all, so that the Jewish people would recognize Jesus when He came to the earth. And secondly, so that we’d know we can trust the work God promised to do in our own lives. Just as God fulfilled people’s hope in sending Jesus, He can and will fulfill the hope that He has put in your heart.
The way God works in our lives often reminds me of how a jeweler shows off his most prized diamond. He doesn’t just set it down on the glass case to show it off. No, he goes and gets the darkest, blackest cloth he has and holds the diamond against it so that you can see its true shine. That’s because, sometimes it takes darkness to show off the light.
In the same way, when we’re up against our darkest times, God is proving our shine. When our world seems at its worst, God is up to His best. He can get past anything, and He can bless us in big ways, no matter what we are going through.
So I’m going to ask you— do you want God’s goodness to shine in the midst of your dark times? I do. And I’ve learned to experience Him as He does exactly that. There’s a pathway to hope in the bible that God promises to empower. It will work for all of us.
First, we must experience God’s presence. You may think you can’t hear God, but His voice is in you. You hear Him when He talks because you’re His child. Secondly, focus on His promise. In the midst of calamity, know that He can bring all you need. Third, mature in His principles. Trust that His ways are always the best ways, even when they don’t make sense to you.
Fourth, trust God’s process. Realize that the darkness around you is simply an opportunity for you to experience God’s ability to overcome it. Fifth, cooperate with God’s purpose. Choose to let Him work for your good even in the bad. Choose to let Him lead you. And finally, persist until you reach that beautiful place of fulfilled hope.
Friends, I encourage you to let this Christmas be the start of something new. Together, let’s shift our focus from the darkness around us to God’s ability to overcome it!
From my family to yours, Merry Christmas!