Hope For Today

We will face difficulties in this life, but the perspective of eternity with God in heaven, can help us get through tough times.

Life is journey and the path before us has many unexpected things, including obstacles that seem impossible to overcome. We do have difficult times, even times of weeping. God’s way is for us to be blessed no matter what we encounter. 

We are not just insignificant no-bodies running around without purpose from the day we are born until the day we die. God has gifted each of us to do good and He wants to live in us today with power and love to accomplish those good things.

Jesus believes that human beings have influence.  You and I were created to bring comfort and support and assistance to others on our life journey and to experience goodness for ourselves as we do.

While it may be a challenge, it is true that God will help us when we choose to stop the cycle of insults with kindness and God promises that we will be blessed.

Living with God in our complicated world often presents difficult challenges such as: waiting for something we feel desperately in need of right now; not retaliating with anger when someone harms us; living with less when we could scam our way into having more; facing the consequences of revealing a difficult truth. In spite of the immediate pain we may feel, God promises that we will be blessed when we make the right choice and do the right thing.

God blesses those who work for peace.  We all want to live in God’s blessing so let’s give ourselves to working for peace today. 

On our own, without God, we are sick and in need of healing.  We are weak, sinful, and often crazy.  We need to be forgiven, cleansed, and enlightened by the truth of God’s word. If we are to live from a pure heart, we need to let the Bible be our handbook and do what it says without compromise.

Mercy is the act of being compassionate or kind toward someone who does not deserve it.  God showed mercy towards us by sending Jesus into the world, not to condemn us for our sin, but to save us from it. This is the source of true and enduring peace. It’s our model in responding to others in a way that brings peace to all of us.

As we move through Jesus’ list of the kind of attitudes we should have and act on we come to the one that says: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6

Whenever we become conscious of our failures and the harms we have caused others, whether that’s through an inventory of our character defects or just the to and fro of daily life, then a well of deep sorrow may overwhelm us. The only question to ask ourselves that really matters in that moment is, “Am I saddened enough by the painful mess I am in to be willing to come before God and admit that I am powerlessness over my self-willed ways?”