HOPE....

Today I’ve been very sad and frustrated. Some small things have happened within the last 2 days that shouldn’t have bothered me but they did. I got frustrated and have let Satan beat me up with lies. This morning I’ve been so discouraged I just wanted to run away and cry, but I couldn’t. I started thinking a little about HOPE. The last couple months what I’ve been learning about HOPE applies only in my situation. My perspective hasn’t been how HOPE applies to everyone else….

I started thinking about people in other countries who are starving or living in poverty, and what HOPE means to them….
I started thinking about a mom who just lost a child unexpectedly and what HOPE means to her….
I started thinking about a husband who was just diagnosed with cancer and was told he would only live 2 months and what HOPE means to him….

When I started thinking about other people besides myself, I became really convicted of how little my faith in Christ really is.

I started reading this story in Mark 5.
21When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet 23and pleaded earnestly with him, "My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." 24So Jesus went with him.
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." 29Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"
31"You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' "
32But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

You see, this lady had amazing HOPE and faith…She had done everything she could to be cured. Talked to doctors, spent all her money, tried different medicines and nothing helped. Her ONLY HOPE was Christ. She went that day to see HIM with HOPE that HE alone would heal her.

Today I’m fighting to believe this. My ONLY HOPE is in Christ…everyone else will fail me, everyone else will disappoint me, BUT ONE.

Where are you at today? Wherever you are, KNOW that the Lord is near…KNOW that HE hears your cry, KNOW that HE is the only one.