Saturday, January 21, 2017

Today’s Hope Becomes Tomorrow’s Reality


Genesis 21:1-5 And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him—whom Sarah bore to him—Isaac. Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

Pastor Kyle, continuing in his Sunday sermon series through the book of Genesis, quoted his former boss Dr. Robert H. Schuller, stating: “It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.” The reason being is that we serve the all-powerful Creator of heaven and earth, who specializes in making the impossible possible and fulfilling His promises. Our infinite God can do more with almost nothing than we could ever wrap our finite minds around or ever comprehend.

Joshua 23:14 “Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth. And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed.’

Kyle gave us three things to keep in mind about fulfilled promises. (1) They often take a lot longer than we would prefer. God is faithful to do exactly what He says that He will do. Sometimes, we feel like giving up when our dreams and hopes take so long to come to fruition, but are beyond what we could ever imagine when they do. (2) They are testimonies that we tell our whole lives. When God comes through, we have memories that we came tell of how God makes miracles out of nothing. But, we tend to allow those memories be shortened by life and time, and we forget God’s goodness towards us, if we get distracted and take our heart’s eye off our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (3) They have a sneaky way of reopening old wounds. Pains from past hurts can move from past tense to the present, when feeling of bitterness are buried, but not gone. When we deal with less pain, instead of no pain, then the stage is set for a tragic debacle and catastrophic calamity to erupt, if not dealt with in a godly manner.

Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future. - Robert H. Schuller

Hebrews 10:24-25 “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Kyle gave us three prayers for when our emotions want to overpower God’s work in our life. (1) Lord, help me celebrate your fulfilled promises to me. Everybody gets distracted by life. God meets needs and forgive our “foot-in-mouth” incidents and insults. Reconciliation means to restore that which has fallen back to an upright position. (2) Lord, help me celebrate your fulfilled promises in others. Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second  is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Bless and love others with forgiveness. Hurts and hang ups are a part of life on this side of heaven. Pray for others and celebrate their answered prayers. (3) Lord, increase my compassion. Sometimes, we get stuck in our own emotions, saying: “Whose fault was it!” reality is that there is enough blame to go around for everyone. The blame game is a lame game. Look through the lens of compassion to meet the needs of others. That is why Jesus left us here. Compassion is a matter of faith. Pour it out constantly and you’ll never run dry.

God meets our needs, when we meet the needs of others, as Jesus met ours
In Christ, Brian

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