JOYFUL IN HOPE
BREAD
12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12 (NIV)
3 No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse. Psalm 25:3 (NIV)
5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. Psalm 130:5 (NIV)
21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. Lamentations 3:21-26 (NIV)
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:1-5 (NIV)
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Romans 8:18 (NIV)
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Romans 8:22-25 (NIV)
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV)
25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness– 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:25-27 (NIV)
6 So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:6 (NIV)
12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12 (NIV)
BUTTER
“Can you answer this, believer? Can you find any reason why you are so often mourning instead of rejoicing? Why yield to gloomy anticipations? Who told you that the night would never end in day? Who told you that the sea of circumstances would ebb out till there should be nothing left but long stretches of the mud of horrible poverty? Who told you that the winter of your discontent would proceed from frost to frost, from snow and ice and hail to deeper snow and yet more heavy tempest of despair? Don’t you know that day follows night, that flood comes after ebb, that spring and summer succeed winter? Be full of hope! Hope forever! For God does not fail you. Do you not know that God loves you in the midst of all this? Mountains, when in darkness hidden, are as real as in day, and God’s love is as true to you now as it was in your brightest moments.” C. H. Spurgeon revised by Alistair Begg
“The Bible promotes optimism, but it is a certain kind of optimism. It is not the secular optimism of positive thinking, or the natural optimism of a laid-back personality, but the godly optimism of Christian hope. True hope endures in the darkness. It is through tears of faith-led lament that we see the beauty of our hope most clearly. Godly optimism is marked by realism and mixed with grief. We know that in this world we will have trouble, but we take heart trusting the one who has overcome the world (John 16:33). Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5).” Jared Mellinger
“We have great demands, but Christ has great supplies. Between here and heaven, we may have greater wants than we have yet known. But all along the journey, every resting place is ready; provisions are laid up, good cheer is stored, and nothing has been overlooked. The commissary of the eternal is absolutely perfect.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“Those who belong to Christ have every reason to be optimistic about the future. Hope dominates our outlook. We look at everything that could possibly come our way in life and consider ourselves more than conquerors.” Jared Mellinger
“I realize that I am not used to the image of God throwing a party. It seems to contradict the solemnity and seriousness I have always attached to God. But when I think about the ways in which Jesus describes God’s Kingdom, a joyful banquet is often at its center…This invitation to a meal is an invitation to intimacy with God…Celebration belongs to God’s Kingdom. God not only offers forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing, but wants to lift up these gifts as a source of joy for all who witness them.” Henri Nouwen
“Ecstasy and delight are essential to the believer’s soul and they promote sanctification. We were not meant to live without spiritual exhilaration, and the Christian who goes for a long time without the experience of heart-warming will soon find himself tempted to have his emotions satisfied from earthly things and not, as he ought, from the Spirit of God. The soul is so constituted that it craves fulfillment from things outside itself and will embrace earthly joys for satisfaction when it cannot reach spiritual ones… The believer is in spiritual danger if he allows himself to go for any length of time without tasting the love of Christ and savoring the felt comforts of a Savior’s presence. When Christ ceases to fill the heart with satisfaction, our souls will go in silent search of other lovers… By the enjoyment of the love of Christ in the heart of a believer, we mean an experience of the “love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us” (Rom. 5:5)… because the Lord has made himself accessible to us in the means of grace, it is our duty and privilege to seek this experience from Him in these means till we are made the joyful partakers of it.” John Flavel
“We can find optimism in this life when Christ lives within us. We can find joyful hope when we put our relationship with Christ first and spend regular time fellowshipping with Him in prayer. A close relationship with God will give us joy in the midst of trouble, victory in times of temptation, fruitfulness and blessings in times of uncertainty. A solid prayer life will give us confidence when everything else is crumbling around us.” Michael Youssef
“The perspective he gives me in my low place has helped me see His love more clearly. Habakkuk had that view too. He said, ‘Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren… yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!’ (Habakkuk 3:17-18) We can rejoice when our perspective changes even if our problems don’t. Habakkuk didn’t rejoice because his problems changed; he rejoiced because his perspective changed. God lifted His lowly prophet to ‘tread on the heights’ with Him. (Habakkuk 3:19) And God will do that for you too. He will love you through your low place. If you find yourself in a low place, don’t assume it’s a waste of time, or a waste of your life or a waste of an opportunity. Instead, do what Habakkuk did – climb the watchtower of your faith, one wobbly step at a time and seek an answer from the God who loves you. If He doesn’t give you an answer – or an answer you want – it’s because He wants to give you something far better – a greater sense of purpose, time in His presence, and a new perspective. When you climb toward God, you see your life from God’s view. And, from that place, you may still see rubble, but, you may just rejoice at the sight knowing that God’s loving purpose is right there! ‘For He works all things together for our good.’”(Romans 8:28) Jennifer Rothschild
“The Christian life is a joyful life. Christianity was never meant to be something to make people miserable. The ministry of Jesus Christ was one of joy. The Bible teaches that a life of inward peace and outward victory is a Christian’s birthright. ‘What a witness to the world Christians would be,’ wrote Amy Carmichael, ‘if only they were more evidently very happy people.’ Joy is one of the marks of a true believer. Will others see the joy of Christ in your life today?” Billy Graham
“He who lives in hope dances without music.” George Herbert
“Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances which we know to be desperate.” G. K. Chesterton
“Other men see only a hopeless end, but the Christian rejoices in an endless hope.” Gilbert Brenken
“It’s a promise that whatever you might be experiencing today is just one chapter in a story that He is writing, and that story isn’t over yet….extract the precious from the worthless (Jeremiah 15)..Life has far more sticky situations than miraculous moments. As you encounter challenges, difficulties, and setbacks, train your eyes to ‘extract the precious.’ Train your ears to hear the promise. And train your heart to pursue relentless hope.” Beth Guckenberger
“My hope is not in a cure today. My hope is not the absence of suffering and comfort returned. My hope is in the presence of the One who promises never to leave or forsake, the One who declares nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God.” (Romans 8:39). Nothing. Your story is a good story. In the grief, pain and hard, the Author has a plan. It may feel like a desperate breaking of your very heart, but suffering is not the absence of God or good.” Kara Tippetts
“Those who are ‘beloved of the Lord’ must be the most happy and joyful people to be found anywhere upon the face of the earth.” Charles H. Spurgeon
HEART SAVOR
• Believers are to be joyful in hope. We are to fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal.
• Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people – set your minds and hearts on things above.
• God has our best interest at heart in all that He allows in our lives and in the lives that are closest to us – whether we understand this or not this side of heaven. For the Believer, pain has purpose – it is God’s choice tool in conforming us to the image of His Son. We are not to kick against His best for our lives rather trust and obey: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ Name. On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.” Edward Mote
Beth Yoe's Sharing Bread 