Hope! What, When and How? Then Comes Comfort!

Feeling Hopeless

Acts 27:10-25

Jesus told His disciples that we would have tribulation in this life (John 16:33). And truly, people do disappoint us, circum-stances cause pain, and our own limitations lead to frustration.

Many Bible stories attest to this truth:

• Hannah was unable to conceive. The longer her yearning for a child went unfulfilled, the more hope dwindled. Sorrow and bitterness took hold of her. (1 Sam. 1:6-10).

• Paul was caught in a violent storm. Against his advice, the ship had set sail, endangering him and all the others on board. After futile efforts to save the vessel, everybody had to swim ashore to survive (Acts 27:11, 20).

• Jealous Saul pursued David throughout the land, trying to kill him. In Psalm 13:1, David wondered if the Lord had forgotten him.

How did these people find their way through such negative emotions? All three spent time in prayer. Hannah cried out to God, confessed her misery, and asked Him to provide her with a son. When she left the temple, her face was no longer downcast. Her hope returned because she trusted Him with her future. Following prayer, Paul witnessed to the hopeless sailors. He told them to have courage because the Lord had promised to deliver them. David turned his attention away from his circumstances and focused on God's unfailing love (Ps. 13:5-6).

Communion with God can combat hopelessness. Prayer moves our attention to the Father's deep love for us, the Son's sacrifice on our behalf, and the Spirit's reassuring presence. If we confess ungodly thoughts and become willing to surrender personal desires, forgiveness and peace will be ours.

A Living Hope

1 Peter 1:3-9

Hope is both a strong belief and the anticipation that something good is going to happen. When our goals are not achieved, we may experience discouragement, which over time can turn into depression and even despair—the absence of hope.

How can we remain optimistic in the face of unmet expectations? First, we're to remember the reason for our confidence: our relationship with Jesus. At salvation, we were born into a living hope (v. 3)—God made us a "new creation," and we are no longer in bondage to the old sin nature (2 Cor. 5:17 niv). His Spirit lives within us. We have been made co-heirs with Christ, and our true home is in heaven with Him. Nothing can alter our familial connection with the Lord.

Second, to maintain a positive outlook, we must spend daily time in the Scriptures. Romans 15:4 says that the Bible was written to give us encouragement and hope. The Psalms can be especially helpful in difficult times because they express the feelings we have and also tell us about the comfort available from God.

Third, we rely on the Lord's faithfulness. Trusting in Him will never disappoint us because all of His promises are yes in Christ (2 Cor. 1:20).

Believers should not react to trials as the world does. We're to live by faith—"being sure of what we hope for " (Heb. 11:1 niv). When circumstances overwhelm you, shift your focus to the Lord. Read the Scriptures to find encouragement, and be reminded of what is yours in Christ (Eph. 1:3-8).

The God Who Comforts

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Look up "comfort" in dictionary.com or another reference, and you will read a definition like this: "Something that promotes a state of ease or provides freedom from pain and anxiety." But God's Word has a different solution when consolation is needed: the indwelling Holy Spirit. In Greek, He is called parakletos, which means "he who stands at one's side; he who comes to one's aid." Believers don't have to seek outward remedies or distractions to ease their mind, because help is available within.

Even before the Spirit was sent to indwell believers (John 14:26; Eph. 3:16), Scripture identified God as the one who comforts His people (Isaiah 40:1; 49:13). The Lord personally provides consolation and reassurance because no one knows our hurts the way He does.

I like this anonymous quotation: "When we have gone into the furnace of affliction, His hand is on the thermostat and His eye is on the clock." God lets us pass through hardship to make us stronger believers, wiser servants, and more humble people. But He stays right by our side through the entire experience, sustaining us and limiting the intensity and duration of our distress. The Holy Spirit's reassuring whisper to our heart gives more comfort than the solace of family or the encouragement of friends.

People who fail to understand the true source of comfort try to escape their pain. They seek out pleasures, material wealth, or drugs and alcohol to soothe their heart. Only God can offer lasting relief from the crushing pressure of heartache. He even brings joy into periods of mourning.

For more biblical teaching and resources from Dr. Charles Stanley, please visit www.intouch.org.

Use your sword daily to be effective!

The Sword of the Spirit 

Greg Laurie 

www.harvest.org

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

— Ephesians 6:17

Have you ever noticed that when you plan to spend some time reading your Bible, all kinds of crazy things start happening? You can get up in the morning and read the newspaper, every section of it, and everything is fine. There are no phone calls, no disturbances. Nothing is going on. But when you say, "I'm going to read my Bible," the phone starts ringing. Kids start screaming. You remember that you forgot to pick up the dry cleaning or return a phone call. They are not necessarily evil things that are keeping you from God's Word—they are just things. They are distractions. The devil doesn't want you to read your Bible. Did you know that? He wants to distract you, because the Bible is a crucial weapon for spiritual battle.

Ephesians 6:17 refers to God's Word as "the sword of the Spirit." It is the only piece of offensive weaponry listed with the armor of God in Ephesians 6. The breastplate and helmet are for protection. The shoes help a soldier gain ground. The shield is something to stand behind. But the sword is for attacking and inflicting damage.

So we want to sharpen our sword. We want to study it and know the weight of it. We want to know how it works and how it moves. And most importantly, we want to know how we are going to use it.

What shape is your sword in? Is it polished from daily use? Has it been sharpened on the anvil of experience as you have applied and obeyed its truth in your life? Or, is your sword dulled from disobedience? Is it rusty from lack of preparation?

It has been said that a Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't.

Sowing Tears for Rejoicing Harvest!

Weeping For Lost Souls

www.pawcreek.org

The spiritual business that is the closest to the heart of God is that business of weeping and travailing for lost souls. Just as a mother cannot give birth to her child until the pains of travail are upon her, neither will the saints win the lost until there is much weeping. The Holy Spirit spoke to my heart some months ago. He said, "I cannot answer prayer in your altar until I first answer prayer in your prayer closet." I hear much despair in the church because most converts are shallow and have little change of lifestyle. It is apparent to me that the level of change in our converts is the direct results of the level of prayer by the leaders and soul winners themselves.

Infallible truth says, "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy; He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him" (Psalm 126:5-6). There is no such thing as compassion for a lost soul that does not cause great sorrow in the heart. It is painful to bear a lost person on your heart and to stand between them and the fires of hell. Almost no one preaches about a literal Hell, where the lost will be tormented for eternity. Neither do we weep over those on the way to that horrible place. God has ordained that every born again saint never forget from what he was saved.

Apostle Jude said, "And some have compassion making a difference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garments spotted by the flesh" (Jude 1:22-24). When we see souls on their way to hell and want to "make a difference," then we will "fear" for them and for ourselves if we have no compassion on their souls to pull them out of the fire. It is an awesome reality that the business of soul winning is on our shoulders. This is the reality that drove those like Hudson Taylor to inland China, where the millions were perishing. Unless we come to understand that we are responsible for the unsaved before our God, nothing will change.

Untold millions will spend eternity in hell because nobody will weep for their souls. The whole business of the Holy Spirit in conviction of sin awaits the travail and great compassion of God's saints, "We are labourers together with God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building" (I Corinthians 3:9). There is no backup plan for the harvest of souls, but "ye are God's husbandry" (the keepers of His vineyard of souls). The prophet of God, Ezekiel, warned us of our responsibility to the wicked, "When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul" (Ezekiel 33:8-9).

"Pulling them out of the fire" has got to be one of the greatest statements ever voiced by the Holy Ghost to Christ's church. Any approach to "travailing of prayer" that does not grasp this promise-filled statement will fail to win. We, the Spirit-filled saints of Almighty God, have been promised and warned that we are the gate watchers of hell. We can pull souls back from the precipice of fire and at least give them one last choice. No, we cannot decide for them, but we can guarantee that they will hear the call and invitation from the mighty Spirit of the "Lover of souls" that "waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth" (James 5:7). He patiently waits, but we must be the harvesters of the fruit.

Nothing describes my Heavenly Father and His Son better than these words, "Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain" (James 5:7b). In one verse of Scripture we are called the husbandry. In this verse He is called the Husbandman. Souls are His business and our business. "We will reap if we faint not" (Galatians 6:9) and bear the pain of travail and great weeping. That's our fellowship of His suffering.