Hope for Life Blog

Love isn’t just a warm, fuzzy feeling. It’s something we do. God loves the world. How do we know? He gave His Son to save it.

Elijah had gone to the mountain looking for God.

He’d been ready to give up. Ready to lie down and die. He saw no hope, no future, no point in going on.

Then an angel told him to go to the mountain. And Elijah was there, waiting for God. But he didn’t know what to expect.

A powerful wind came, ripping apart the very rocks that made up the mountain. Surely this was God! But no, God wasn’t in that wind.

Next there came an earthquake. As Elijah felt the very mountain tremble, he must have been certain that this was God revealing himself. But no, God wasn’t in the earthquake.

After the earthquake came a fire. Again Elijah looked for God. But God wasn’t in the fire.

Then came what the King James Version translates as “a still, small voice.” A whisper. A barely audible murmur with a question on its breath: “What are you doing here?” (1 Kings 19:12–13)

Elijah poured out his tale of woe, telling of his faithfulness to God compared with the unfaithfulness of the people around him. He told of the queen’s persecution of God’s prophets and her specific efforts to kill him. He explained to God that no else was faithful, not even one. Only Elijah was left.

That’s when God explained to Elijah that he couldn’t see the whole picture. That God was doing things that Elijah didn’t know about. That God had plans in motion, some of which included Elijah. And there were still six thousand people faithful to God that Elijah wasn’t aware of.

Have you ever reached that point where dying seemed to make more sense than living? The extreme of frustration and hopelessness that leaves you doubting whether God Himself can fix your problems?

Maybe you need to go to the mountain. Go looking for God. Don’t expect hurricanes or earthquakes. Don’t expect to be swept in a holy fire. Listen for the still, small voice. Listen for the question: “What are you doing here?”

And once you’ve poured out your heartaches and your fears, you may just find that God is doing things you don’t know about, both in your life and the lives of others.

But you’ll never see it, if you don’t look for Him.

Here we are, just a few days into the New Year, and many of us are already lamenting the fact that we have failed to keep our resolutions.  New Year’s resolutions consist of two truths:  most of us make them, and then we break them.  In fact, the people that fail to make resolutions have generally learned from experience that they are hard to keep, so why bother.

But shouldn’t resolutions be hard to keep?  If they involved behavior that was easy, we would not have to make a resolution in the first place.  Most resolutions require real work.  Yet every year we make them.  We do it at New Year’s.  We do it at birthdays, graduations, and anniversaries.  We make them because we want to be better.  We want to be healthier.  We long to be people who make a difference.  We desire to be better mates, parents, and friends.

So this year I have determined to keep my list of resolutions short.  I am making just one:  I am resolved to know Jesus Christ and him crucified.  That’s it.  That is the one and only thing I am resolved to do this year.  If you are a Christian, you may recognize this as something the apostle Paul said.  If you are not a Christian, let me share with you why it is the perfect resolution.

1.  Knowing Jesus will make me a better man, a better husband, a better father, and a better friend.  He left me an example of how to live in this world and how to treat people.  Jesus teaches me how to love people.
2. Knowing Jesus makes everything new.  Christians are a new creation. They have a new life.  The old life is gone, forgiven, and washed away.  Jesus allows you to have the perfect do-over.
3. Jesus restores the broken resolution.  As long as we stay focused on following Jesus, we do not have to be perfect.  In fact, we will not be.  We know it, and God knows it.  But the blood of Jesus continually cleanses us.  Just stay focused on Jesus, the light of the world.  Perpetual newness.

I believe the three things listed above.  They have proven true in my life.  I believe they can be proven true in yours.  As for me, I actually make this one resolution each and every day.  Just to know Jesus, and to remember that he died for my sins.

Blessings,

steve

It was horrific! They were ripped from their dwellings, forced to travel for months, held as slaves for 70 years, everything about “home” was remembered and some had never seen the places they were told about. Their names were changed, they were expected to eat different foods and told to assimilate into their new surroundings or else!

Then one day, they were allowed to go “home.” Just under 50,000 who made the four months’ journey wanted to reclaim what they had left.

The story of the Jews returning from Babylonian captivity is found in the first six chapters of Ezra. Those chapters talk about how those returning exiles went to great lengths to restore their place of worship, the Temple; to restore their religious practices, festivals and sacrifices, to restore their relationship to Jehovah God. Ezra, the writer, tells about the almost insurmountable obstacles that cluttered their way and how their determination conquered those barriers. They wanted restoration with God. Being separated from Him by distance, by culture, even by kingly command did not quench that need to be once again close to their God.

And God Almighty has always wanted restoration with his creation. From the time man introduced sin into the world and God asked “where are you?” (Genesis3:8-11) to the image of Jesus standing at a door knocking, waiting to be let in (Revelation 3:20), God has made it possible for man and woman to be “pure and Holy” again in His sight.

Like the Israelites of old, we too can find ourselves ripped from our homes, forced to go places we don’t want and become slaves to our emotions and desires. BUT we can go “home” anytime we choose restoration with our Father.

The question then is what keeps people from seeking restoration with God?

And more specifically what keeps you from having restoration with you heavenly Father?