God can turn despair into hope even in a world that seems to be falling apart.
He instilled hope in David, Esther, the Children of Israel, Paul, and the twelve
apostles, and He can instill hope inside you. God is the giver of hope; we just need
to find His prescription for hope in His Word.
Learn:
• From various Biblical figures, how hope can be found in a turbulent world.
• The different Hebrew and Greek meanings of hope in Scripture.
• How to apply God’s strategies for living a HopeFULL life.
Read Old Testament and New Testament accounts of Biblical hope along with personal
stories of how God has worked in the lives of His children around the world. Thoughtful
reflection question provides a jumping off point for personal or group study.
This devotional is broken down into four sections.
1. Devotionals
2. Reflection Questions
3. Hebrew and Greek Word-Studies
4. Personal Stories
Each section is designed to draw the reader closer to the subject of Biblical hope by 1. Investigating what God has to say about hope. 2. By Reflecting on your life in connection with what you learned. 3. Deepening your learning of hope and how it relates to Scripture. 4. Reading personal stories of hope to encourage the reader in their journey of Biblical hope.
This Devotional is set up to give readers an inspirational start to their day. Each day will take 5-10 minutes and is designed to provide you with a daily Biblical perspective of hope.
Day 6
THOU ART MY HOPE
“For You are my hope; O Lord God, You are my confidence from my
youth. By You I have been sustained from my birth; You are He who took
me from my mother’s womb; My praise is continually of You.”
Psalm 71:5-6
Psalm 71 is presumably written by David when his own
son Absalom was trying to kill him and seize the kingdom.
This Psalm describes David’s unwavering faith in
turbulent times. Let’s look at how David proclaims the Lord as
his rock and fortress (vs. 3). He pleads with the Lord in verse 4, “Rescue
me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the grasp of the
wrongdoer and ruthless man.”
Verse Five tells us where David’s confidence comes from, “For Thou
art my hope,” and exhorts to us why his hope is in God. Because “Thou
art my confidence from my youth.” David understands that the Lord has
sustained him from his birth (vs.6).
David’s adversaries gossip and try to intimidate him by saying,
“God has forsaken him; pursue and seize him, for there is no one to
deliver” (Psalm 71:11). But listen to David’s response, “Let those who
are adversaries of my soul be ashamed and consumed; Let them be
covered with reproach and dishonor, who seek to injure me. But as for me,
I will hope continually, and will praise You yet more and more” (Psalm
71:13-14).
David understood that his responsibility was to continue to hope
and that it was the Lord’s responsibility to heap shame upon their slander,
not his. He does pray to the Lord to cover them with reproach and
dishonor but trusts the Lord to do whatever is best.
Is our hope steadfast in the Lord when we are in times of distress?
Do we try to take our own revenge instead of leaving the discipline to
the Almighty? David clearly understood the power that comes from
the statement, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay” (Romans 12:19).
David also wrote Psalm 23:5, “You
prepare a table before me in the presence
of my enemies; You have anointed
my head with oil.” David understands
the Lord’s power of exalting someone
while their adversaries' only option
was to stand and watch the Lord honor the one who was faithful. Let
us pray we are like David, will rejoice and say, “My lips will shout for joy
when I sing praises to You, and my soul, which You have redeemed. My
tongue also will utter Your righteousness all day long; For they are
ashamed, for they are humiliated who seek my hurt” (Psalm 71:23-24).
# 2. My Story: HOPE IN THE MIDST OF THE STORM
The tornado that devastated Joplin, Missouri, on May
22, 2011, has been described as the deadliest on record
in the United States. That storm killed 161, injured
over 1,300, and caused $3 billion in damages. Joplin also
happens to be my hometown. Many of my family and friends
still live there. That day was a defining moment in the lives of many,
including my family.
My sister Claudia drove to her daughter’s house at 5 pm then left
for church, as my niece went to my mother’s house. My sister met
about 20 others for choir practice at 5:30 as the sirens went off at 5:34
pm. Many of the people at the church went outside to watch the storm.
This may sound odd, but until that day, many in Joplin would have
been standing outside watching the storm. My 83-year-old mother and
my niece were also outside watching.
As the sirens subsided, the choir members continued observing the
dark sky, which they later learned was the mile-wide F5 Tornado that
would go straight through the middle of the city for six miles. When a
second siren sounded, the pastor urged everyone to take cover. He led
them toward the only room in the church without windows, where
they huddled. They were in one of the larger rooms and took cover
under ordinary round folding tables with a staircase as rear cover. This
was far from ideal, but it was best under the circumstances. As the
storm raged, some screamed in fear, but my sister began to yell, “Jesus
keep us safe.” She kept repeating this over and over again through the
screams of everyone. Even though she kept getting louder and louder,
the noise of the tornado drowned out her cries to the Lord. When the
storm subsided, one woman went outside to look around. The wind
began to rage again, and she clung to a pole as her body flapped like a
flag in the violent wind.
To hear my sister describe the event is powerful; she said it was as if
the hand of God held back the wind in front of them while the staircase
protected them from the rear. The Lord spared every life at that
church that day. Sadly, that wasn’t the case at other churches. I don’t
know why, but I know God was with them through the storm just as
He was with this small band of believers.
This was enough of a miracle, but there is more to the story. The
rest of the story really began over 50 years earlier. When the church
building was being built, many men from the church, including my
father, came daily to clean up after the construction crew. My brother,
Tim, who was about eight years old at the time, would go with him.
Each day my father directed my brother to take the leftover concrete
and put it in the walls by the stairs. They packed the extra concrete into
the walls, strengthening the area under the stairs.
Fast forward to May 22, 2011, the stairwell where those 20 church
members huddled was the only part of the structure in the church left
undamaged. 50 years previously, God providentially moved my father
to secure a wall that saved the lives of 20 people, including his
daughter's.
The room the Pastor took his members to was the providence of
God. Afterward, as they were inspecting the church building, they
found other rooms to be full of holes from bricks that had gone
through the walls like bullets.
Throughout Joplin, there were reports of children who said they
saw “butterfly people” protecting them that fateful day. I believe these
“butterfly people” to be angels. Hebrews 1:14 teaches, “Are they
(angels) not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake
of those who will inherit salvation?” God’s angels worked overtime that
day in Joplin, Missouri.
God's goodness can be overwhelming when we think how His
hand protects us. We will NOT know this side of heaven how the Lord
has performed miracles to save His children. We will NOT know how
often He sent ministering angels to protect us. We are HopeFULL as we
see God’s miracles in our lives and the lives of others as He loves and
cares for us daily.