Oh God, Our Hope (Week 7) - Monday Morning Devotions
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We end this series with another encouraging Word of God and couple it with our featured hymn.
The Sacred Word of encouragement from God in these trying times comes to us from Pauls' second letter to the saints at Corinth, the fourth chapter, beginning with the sixteenth verse. Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, writes:
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Paul begins with 'don't lose heart.'
Why not?! Two reasons: first, our inner self, our spirit is being renewed day by day! And second, this troubled life is a brief, momentary affliction compared to the everlasting glory God has in store for those who place their hope, trust, and faith in Jesus!
We now turn to the sixth and final verse of our hymn by Isaac Watts:
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while trouble last
And our eternal home!
When God's Word speaks about hope, it is an out of this world, unbelievable but guaranteed, type of hope! This hope is way, way, way beyond our understanding of a paradise that will have no end. There is really no way to describe this fully. But I encourage you to take God at His Word, note well, NOT MY word, but HIS WORD!
In the Lord's Prayer, or as I like to refer to it, the Spiritual Warrior's Prayer, we pray 'to deliver us from evil' or 'from the Evil One.' With these words 'We pray in this petition, in summary, that our Father in heaven would rescue us from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when our last hour comes, give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven.'
Please pray with me: Almighty God, through the glorious resurrection of Your Son, Jesus Christ, You destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light. Grant that we who have been raised with Him may abide in His presence and rejoice in the hope of everlasting life; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.