Monday, October 18, 2010

Hope Now

"What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven- and the future starts now.  God is keeping careful watch over us and teh future.  The Day is coming when you'll have it all--life healed and whole."
                                                                                       1 Peter 1:3-5 (The Message)
My devotional reading today came from AW Tozer. He writes,

"Brethren, we have been born of God and our Christian hope is a valid hop! No emptiness, no vanity, no dreams that cannot come true.  Your expectation should rise and you should challenge God and begin to dream high dreams of faith and spiritual attainment and expect God to meet them.  You cannot out-hope God and you cannot out-expect God.  Remember that all of your hopes are finite, but all God's ability is infinite!"
As a husband, father, Christian, and Pastor I am claiming that promise that the future starts now! That hope starts now! That God will give me dreams of faith and spiritual attainment- and they will be greater than what I could have dreamed of myself.

Yesterday at Hope we participated in laity Sunday.  Our lay leaders, Ben and Shelly shared from Luke 18 and the persistant widow and how the wicked judge granted her request because of her persistance.  Yet God is not like a wicked judge! God desires to reveal his love for each of us! God desires for us to rest in his grace and mercy!  God desires for us to dream big because we serve a big God!  Sometimes my prayer life reflects my little faith.  I want to pray- expecting that God will answer my prayers!

What are your prayers for your faith walk?  What are your prayers for your family? For your church?  Are you praying based off of your finite hopes or praying to our infinite God?

No comments: