Hope: The Anchor of the Soul..... Dr. Charles Stanley

 Hope: The Anchor of the Soul

Dr. Charles Stanley

Hebrews 6:13-20

Hope is a healthy attitude. Anticipating good brings comfort to the mind and heart. In contrast, a state of hopelessness is a terrible condition in which to find oneself. It's overwhelming and depressing to think that what you're facing cannot be changed or resolved. For the person who has lost all hope, life looks like a long dark tunnel going nowhere.

Included in Proverbs is a verse that describes the result of this oppressive feeling: "Hope deferred makes the heart sick" (Prov. 13:12). Emotional, physical, and even mental illness haunt a person who feels trapped in a bleak situation. But I want to tell you, my friend, that as long as there is a God, no situation is hopeless. In Him, we have the promise of the second half of that proverb: "Desire fulfilled is a tree of life."

Believers have a hope that anchors their souls. Our relationship with Jesus Christ brings us close to the throne of heaven, where we can cast all our burdens before an omnipotent God. Moreover, we can cling to Him through whatever trials are facing us. Because of the Lord's great love, He provides strength for weary bodies, peace for anxious minds, and comfort for grieving hearts. In short, He lights that darkened tunnel and tenderly guides us through trying situations.

An anchor was a popular image in the ancient Mediterranean world. In an economy that depended on shipping, the anchor symbolized safety and steadiness. The writer of Hebrews used the word to remind believers that God has given a hope that holds firm in any storm.

Dream..... Craig Denison

 

Dream

Craig Denison

Weekly Overview:

As this year comes to a close, it’s vital that we take time to both reflect on what God has done and allow him to prepare us for what’s to come. A new year marks a fresh opportunity to center our lives around the goodness of God. I pray that as you begin looking toward what is to come you will make space to gain God’s perspective, ground your hopes and pursuits on his grace, and celebrate all that God has done and is doing. May your time with God this week be filled with the loving presence of your heavenly Father.

Scripture:“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4

Devotional:

God longs for his children to dream. He longs for us to set aside time with him to wish and wonder about what life could be. I fear that many Christians have lost the art of dreaming with God out of a misunderstanding of his heart. While God most definitely has a will for our lives, he also longs for us to dream with him so that his desires become our own. While he most definitely has perfect plans for us, he longs for us to want his plans that we might co-labor with him rather than being dragged by him like an ill-tempered child into what’s best. May we make time today as the new year approaches to dream with God that our hearts may be filled with his longings and desires.

The chief way in which God wants to lead you is by planting dreams in your heart and then satisfying those dreams. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Our Father longs for us to be so delighted in him that we would want what he wants. He longs to fill us with right desires and then satisfy those desires in his perfect timing and in his perfect way. He longs for us to trust him as our good Shepherd to such a depth that we joyfully follow him wherever he leads.

You see, Psalm 37:4 is more about delighting ourselves in God than getting what we currently think we want most. It’s more about the pursuit of him as our chief joy than anything we could receive from him. God alone knows what’s best for us. He alone has the perspective and wisdom to shepherd us to a truly abundant life. And we will never follow someone we don’t trust has our best will at heart.

To make God our chief joy is to surrender our lives to the overwhelming goodness and grace of an omnipotent, omnipresent, and fully loving Father. God is both willing and able to lead us into the fullness of abundant life. He is both willing and able to fill us with right longings and desires if we will simply open our hearts and trust him.

Until we center our hearts, and therefore our lives, totally and completely around the goodness and will of our heavenly Father, we will never experience all this life has to offer. The gateway to living filled and satisfied is simply enjoying God and allowing our hearts to become like his.   

Know today that your heavenly Father longs to dream with you. He longs to hear what it is you most desire. He longs to have conversation with you about what’s best. And he longs to be your chief joy, that the greatest cry of your heart is to delight yourself in him and receive whatever comes with fully restored, unbridled relationship with him. May your day be marked by a filling of new desires from your loving Father.

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on God’s heart to be your chief joy and to dream with you.

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33

2. In what ways do you need to make God your chief joy? What have you placed above him in your heart? What are you looking to for joy, security, and fulfillment above God?

3. Take time to enjoy God and ask him to fill you with dreams and desires. In his presence take note of what you long for. Ask him to transform your heart that you may desire what he wants.

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:11

“For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” Psalm 84:11

“For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.” Psalm 33:21

Psalm 37:23-24 says, “The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.” There is no greater pursuit than simply delighting in the Lord. When we delight ourselves in him, life becomes incredibly simple. It’s in the mixing of God and the world that our hearts feel burdened and confused. Assess the status of your heart today. To what level are you delighting in God? Will the chief pursuit of your life be God or the world? Get lost in the love of your heavenly Father today and allow your life to become swept up in his overwhelming goodness.

Extended Reading: Psalm 37

Fear, Faith and Food for Thought..... ALICIA BRUXVOORT

 Fear, Faith and Food for Thought

ALICIA BRUXVOORT

“Yes, be bold and strong! Banish fear and doubt! For remember, the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9 (TLB)

I didn’t know pizzas could talk until a giant pepperoni pie made me cry.

Actually, it wasn’t the pizza that spoke hope and solicited my tears. It was the familiar scrawl on the Post-it note beside it: I’ve got dinner tonight, and God’s got YOU!

I was in the midst of a difficult season of trust. I had committed to listening to Jesus and following where He led, but my obedience had landed me on a path filled with challenges and setbacks, disappointments and delays.

My heart was hurting. My strength was sapped. And my hope was waning. I wanted to follow Jesus with abandon, but on most days, I couldn’t even see where we were going.

Every step I took provided a chance to choose faith over fear, to practice worship instead of worry. But my feet were growing weary. And my faith was beginning to waver.

I felt so alone in my discouragement, so unseen in my struggles. As the road stretched long and the discouragement stacked high, my confident steps were giving way to a shaky stumble …

Until a friend used a gentle, blue-inked message and a giant take-and-bake pizza to remind me I’m not alone.

She’d slipped into my house when I was picking up my kids at school and left on my kitchen counter the biggest pizza she could find. It would feed my family of seven, and more importantly, it would starve the lies that had taken root in my weary soul — I can’t keep going. Nobody understands. I’m so alone.

It wasn’t an elixir for my exhaustion or an answer to all my questions. But it was a timely reminder that my feet were enfolded in love and fueled by God’s strength, not limited by my own.

My friend couldn’t change my path, but she could remind me of the One who shares my steps. She couldn’t increase my faith, but she could tenderly declare God’s unmatched faithfulness.

In the book of Joshua, we find God’s people smack in the middle of a long journey of their own. Four decades prior, God had delivered them from the bonds of slavery in Egypt and beckoned them to follow Him to a new home in a new place.

However, the Israelites’ path to freedom had not gone as they’d imagined. Following God in faith had been more difficult and demanding than they’d anticipated. Their path had been riddled with obstacles and dotted with detours.

After 40 years in the wilderness, the Israelites had lost the zeal that had marked their journey’s start. But as they prepared to travel the last stretch of their path into the promised land, God didn’t criticize their weariness or minimize their fears.

He simply reminded them they were not alone — “Yes, be bold and strong! Banish fear and doubt! For remember, the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).

God’s encouragement didn’t change His children’s path; it changed their perspective. His words shifted their eyes from their weariness to His with-ness, from their lack to His provision.

Joshua 1:9 reminds me that encouragement doesn’t need to be wrapped in fancy words or delivered with a spray of confetti. Sometimes the best way to encourage one another is to simply bear witness to Christ’s with-ness.

Because true hope is never determined by what lies before us but by who stands beside us. And our strength for the journey isn’t found in the fortitude of our feet but in the faithfulness of our Savior.

That’s why our deepest desire is to eradicate biblical poverty by connecting women all over the globe with hope and Truth. Because we believe there’s no greater encouragement than knowing Jesus and being rooted in His Word. And we want every sister who travels across the dust of this broken world to know that Christ is with her and for her.

Would you partner with us in this mission, friend? Let’s be women who fuel weary feet and equip others for the journey.

Together, we can point people to Jesus … with a smile or a prayer, a gift or a pizza … with or without the pepperoni!

Dear Jesus, I know true hope doesn’t rise from my circumstances; it rests in You. Please open my eyes to someone in my life who needs encouragement. Show me how to bear witness to Your with-ness today. In Your Name, Amen. 

Keeping Our Mouths in Check.....By Lynette Kittle

 Keeping Our Mouths in Check 

By Lynette Kittle

Today’s Bible Verse: What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them - Matthew 15:11

When Jesus calls us to listen and understand, we want to tune into His words and pay close attention to what He is saying because it’s of utmost importance.

So what topic was significant enough for Jesus to call the crowd together? In Matthew 15:10, we read, “Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, 'Listen and understand.’" What did He consider so vitally important for them to hear and understand? He said, “What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them” (Matthew 15:11).

Nowadays we’re living in a topsy-turvy world people are more concerned about what they eat than what they say. A culture where millions could care less about what comes out of their mouths.

Perhaps you’ve been surprised by things you’ve heard said not only by secular voices but also by some Christians? Maybe your own words have caught you off guard at times?

If so, Scripture reminds us, “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless” (James 1:26).

Facing Food Issues

Television networks like The Food Network and The Cooking Channel fuel our culture’s obsession with food. Although many believe this focus on food is a new, modern, and enlightened view that has emerged in our world today, Scripture reveals how it’s been an issue among people for a long time.

Matthew 15:12, describes how the religious leaders of the day responded to the comment by Jesus about what defiles a person. “Then the disciples came to Him and asked, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?'"

Food continues to be a very touchy subject, causing division among people who have varying attitudes and beliefs about its importance and value of it in our lives. Many individuals and groups are deeply concerned about how it’s grown, cooked, harvested, and eaten.

Where Does Life and Health Come From?

Eating superfoods today in the hopes of extending one’s life is a growing trend. Like the serpent deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden, the devil is still misleading people to believe long life and health comes through the earth and the food they eat rather than through God (Genesis 3:4-5).

Romans 1:25 points out how people through the ages have exchanged the truth about God with a lie, by worshipping and serving created things rather than the Creator.

Jesus calls us to be more concerned with what we say than what we eat, because it’s not the food we put into our mouths that has the ability to dishonor us but rather the words that come out of it.

As Proverbs 18:21 explains, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”

Likewise, Proverbs 4:21-22 encourages us to keep God’s words in our sight and within our hearts because His words are life to those who find them and health to our whole body.

Grace for Families in the New Year..... By: Sarah Phillips

 Grace for Families in the New Year

By: Sarah Phillips

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. - Genesis 2:24 NIV

Part of my job includes receiving letters from readers about family issues. Something that struck me this past year was how many Christian families suffer - truly suffer. Some struggle from financial woes, others from the behavior of rebellious teenagers, and some from painful relational problems within their marriages.

While I can't offer quick fixes in this small devotional entry, I want to reflect on some scriptures here that will hopefully offer you some encouragement if you are among those facing a difficult family situation.

"The man said, ‘The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." - Genesis 3:7-12.

First, if you're facing a broken situation or relationship, remember you're not alone. With the fall of man came the fall of family life.  We can see this in Adam's dysfunctional words as he blames God and Eve for his own sinful decision to eat the forbidden fruit.

You may compare your family to others and feel like a failure - like everyone else has this family thing figured out. But truthfully, we are all sinners who marry sinners and give birth to sinners. While this truth doesn't excuse a person's hurtful, sinful behavior (God himself is grieved by such behavior), it helps ground me a little more in reality when I find myself playing the comparison game or building up unrealistic expectations of others.

"For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord." - Ephesians 5:8

Second, we're not doomed to this sinful state forever. Becoming Christian doesn't necessarily make family life easier, but it does make healing possible.  It is through the sanctifying grace of Jesus Christ that not only can we be transformed as individuals, but our relationships can also be transformed, successfully reflecting the Trinitarian love of God to each other and the world. This is God's desire for every Christian family, not just a privileged few. For as many disheartening letters as I receive from distraught spouses and parents, I receive encouraging letters and articles from those who have found true transformation and healing in Christ. If you are a believer, know that you have profound spiritual support to overcome your family trials.

"Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them." - Ephesians 5:8-11

Third, transformation requires humility, help and work on our part. This may seem like I am stating the obvious, but sometimes it's helpful to me when a loved one reminds me of basic truths. Just as we didn't instantly become perfect upon our acceptance of Christ, neither will our families. Each day we have choices - choices to choose Christ and accept his grace or to turn our backs. Occasionally we have breakthroughs - giant leaps forward in sanctity - but most of the Christian life consists of small, everyday decisions to seek God and live in his truth.

Sometimes we need help from fellow believers to live successfully as children of the light - even Christ, who needed no help, graciously received help from Simon in carrying his cross (Matthew 27:32). I encourage you to plug into a local support group if your family is hitting particularly dark days.

"My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done." - Matthew 26:42

Fourth, God grieves with us. He doesn't rejoice in our pain or sit back and watch indifferently. Whatever trial you're facing, he is there, wanting the very best outcome even if sometimes we don't feel his presence or understand why things are going the direction they are going. When I find myself questioning God's loving presence, I reflect on Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane where he accepted the painful cup of sacrifice out of profound love for you and me.

"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." - John 10:10

Fifth, while being Christian means embracing our crosses, it doesn't mean we'll never know joy or peace in our lives or families. There is hope. My prayer for you is that you will have renewed strength, happiness, and faith within your families in the new year.

Intersecting Faith & Life: Sometimes it's easy to get overwhelmed by our situations, and we forget to remember the positive. List at least one good trait in each family member and reflect on these positives during your quiet time.

A Prayer for When You Feel All Alone..... By Debbie McDaniel

 A Prayer for When You Feel All Alone

By Debbie McDaniel

"You are the God who sees me..." - Genesis 16:13

Sometimes life may feel like a struggle. Many are grieving the loss of a loved one. Others have experienced the pain of divorce or broken relationships. Some have lost jobs. Many are facing huge debts. Others are hurting for grown children who seemed to have lost their way. Some are facing new diagnoses and health issues. Others are still waiting for answered prayers, feeling like God has somehow forgotten. And many may be surrounded by people, yet lonely inside, struggling through depression and darkness, battling worry, facing big fears, feeling lost in a sea of doubt, wondering if God even sees...or cares.

He does see. He does care.

God knows and understands. He gives us this word of hope, for all those who feel alone, overwhelmed, or are battling fear and worry.

A powerful word straight from the story of one young girl who was running, scared.

Away from home and all she knew. Lonely, rejected, hurt, and out of hope. Hagar ran to the desert for she had nowhere else to go. And God in His goodness sent an angel to her there. He had never lost sight of her, He had never stopped caring. Though the lies of her own heart told her otherwise. The angel of God spoke straight through the lies of defeat, he told her to go back, he spoke hope and blessing over her in all God still had in store.

And Hagar knew, maybe what we need to remember still today. Her words breathed out this great truth that secures our struggles, and anchors our hope, “You are the God who sees me…” Genesis 16:13

El Roi – He is the God who sees - notices, looks at intently, has regard for, observes, considers, watches over, gives attention to, gazes upon, who keeps on seeing. That’s our God. That’s the One who created us. That’s the One who loves so greatly and chases after us with good.

Don't ever think for a minute He doesn't see you, or care. You are not invisible to Him. Your situation is never too desperate for Him to work a miracle. He saw then, He sees now, every moment in the lives of His children. And He works, constantly works on our behalf, sometimes even sending an angel...

You are never alone. He chased after Hagar in the desert; He knows where we are in our wilderness too.

He sees. He cares. He pursues us. He is with us.

May God fill every troubled, hurting heart, today and through these weeks, with His Presence of grace and peace.

Dear God,

Thank you that you see us right where we are, in the midst of our pain and struggle, in the middle of our desert land. Thank you that you have not forgotten us and never will. Forgive us for not trusting you, for doubting your goodness, or not believing you’re really there. We choose to set our eyes on you today. We choose joy and peace when the whispered lies come and say that we should have no joy or peace.

Thank you that you care for us and your love for us is so great. We confess our need for you. Fill us fresh with your Spirit, renew our hearts and minds in your truth. We ask for your hope and comfort to continue to heal our hearts where they’ve been broken. Give us the courage to face another day, knowing that with you before us and behind us, we have nothing to fear.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.