A Life of Hope

December 10, 2014

A Life of Hope

O Lord, you alone are my hope.

Psalm 71:5a

We live in a culture that emphasizes awareness of emotions and feelings. The culture teaches a person to act on their feelings. When you follow this path, your feelings will become your beliefs about yourself and your world. Keep on this path, and your beliefs that were birthed from your feelings will become the core of who you are.

Gandhi put it this way, “Your thoughts will become your words. Your words will become your actions. Your actions will become your habits. Your habits will become your character. Your character will define your destiny.”

I see a problem with both of these approaches to life because we know that our feelings or emotions do not always reflect the truth. Neither do our thoughts. We need a beginning point that is rock-solid. This point is the truth of God. We can begin with God’s word and chose to believe it. We can then take actions based on our beliefs. Eventually, our feelings will begin to line up with the truth of God, but not right away, and not always. This is why the Apostle Paul said, “For we live by believing and not by seeing” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Psalm 71:5 is part of a prayer that is focused on the rock-solid truth of God. The psalmist was in a very difficult place, and in his prayer he rehearsed all he knew, all he had experienced with God. In this way, his faith was resting on God and he was not overcome by doubt and fear. The Psalmist affirmed that his hope, his trust was in God. This is the truth that shaped his life.

Christian hope is the spirit that is at the core of our Advent and Christmas celebrations. Our hope is not only on the future coming of Christ to establish his Kingdom on earth. Our hope also rests on the Good News of God’s transforming grace in our lives. God’s grace has freed us from the fear of death and frees us from the fear of life. In Christ, we have received new life, a life centered in the very real hope of God working in us, giving us the desire and the power to do what pleases him. (Philippians 2:13)

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.