A Quick Word on HOPE.

We have all taken a sidestep in our lives, or even taken a step backwards as we go through life.  Or maybe something happened to us beyond our control. A fire, a car wreck, we lose our job, a death in the family. If we have Hope, it causes us to not be discouraged, not to give up, because we have something to keep going for. We have hope for the future. A better life.

Many of us have heard of the book, The Power of Positive Thinking from Norman Vincent Peale.  It has sold 5 million copies since it first came out in 1952, but the one book that has lasted throughout the ages is the Bible. There are 20 million bibles sold EACH YEAR in the US alone. The average household has something like 8 or 9 in the house. And that does not include the rest of the planet!

When we do get discouraged, in Jeremiah 29:11 the Lord says, “for I know the thoughts that I have for you, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope”.     In Philippians 3:13-14 it says: “Brethren, I do not count myself to have understood, one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”.

In Titus, 3: 4-7 it says: “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy, He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life”.

I guess I used to think that hope and faith are the same, but they are not. Or maybe I never even thought about it. The Lord gives us hope and faith. We have hope for eternal life, and we have faith that we will get there!

We have all seen what’s going on in the world, from the people we know next door, to us or someone in our family.  Life goes on, but God gives us hope. When life does seem overwhelming and too much to bear, give it God. Your worry, your fears, your past.  “We know that God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever shall believeth in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”. John 3:16.

On a personal note, I have hope that I will see my daughter again, and I have faith that I will.
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Dan Smith
Rocky Mountain CTN
General Manager-Colorado Springs-KWHS