HOPE - just what I needed

My church is doing a 50-day "Hope Experience". Every day there is devotional to read (either in a book you can buy or online) and everyone is encouraged to join a weekly small group to talk about what they're learning.

I was reading today's devotion and it could not have come at a better time. I REALLY needed to hear this. I would like to share it with all of you:


<< Romans 15:4 "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."

There’s a lot of bad news in the world today. Anytime there’s a disaster anywhere on the planet, the media announce it instantly. You can’t get away from it: A plane has gone down, hostages have been taken, a gunman has gone berserk, an earthquake has occurred, poisonous gas has spilled. The availability of bad news is stunning.

Thanks to technology we receive so much more input than people did just 20 years ago, and this is probably why there’s a level of fear and anxiety in our society also unprecedented in history. In the past, only God was able to know as much bad news as we get every day, and I think still only God can really handle it!

As an antidote, bathe your mind in the Scriptures. In today’s passage, Paul says that everything that was written in the past was written so that we might have hope.

Everything? Really? How can every story about Moses or Job or Sarah or David or Samson give you hope, filled as they are with strange mistakes and sins and conflicts? Well, for one thing, they were all flawed people, people who made mistakes and had doubts and argued with God. Yet He used them because He is full of grace and love. That means there’s a future and a plan for you and me, too! >>


HOPE. It was just what I needed today.