Holding onto Hope 7 & 8

Since it has been so long since I have been on here I decided to post the last two sessions of notes on the Holding onto Hope study. Throughout those last two sessions we shared so many things that I wish you could have been a part of. We looked at slideshows, went through albums and cried with each other as we shared personal stories. God was good, so very good to each of us and I personally will never be the same because of it...

Conditional Love VS. Unconditional Love

 

1 John 4:9-10

9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

I wonder if when you think about Jesus and the cross if it means something completely different to you now? Now that many of you have lost your loved ones could you even imagine willing allowing this to happen for a world that is unappreciative and evil and ungrateful? How do we grasp the power of the cross unless we understand the depth of the sacrifice?

Have you ever considered Mary? This was her baby that God entrusted to her and yet before He was even conceived He was set to die on the cross for us. Make no mistake that Mary was still human and she loved him unconditionally just as we do with our children and yet from the very beginning she had to lean on the sweet Words of God and trust him through this experience and the many storms she faced. 

As humans we handle love conditionally, not so much with our children but in most situations this stands true.
 

We use this approach in friendships, in our marriages in our churches and yes even with God. We agree to love unconditionally on one condition…that we don’t get hurt.

 

So I ask you the question that I often ask myself. Through the tragedies and fears that we are experiencing in our life are we putting those conditions and stipulations on our healing with God?

 Thy will be done

Last week when we recited the LORD’s prayer we talked about how we are willing to say to him, “Thy will be done” but the truth is we only mean that when it is in our favor.

John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends”.

No greater love than the love that God has for his children and yet we constantly put conditions on the love we have for him. I’m guilty of it…I find my heart wanting to say ok God, “I’ll do this as long as this doesn’t happen” or “I’ll submit to you or lay this certain thing down at your feet as long as you promise this to me.”

It is so hard to not want that or think this way. Isn’t it?

Courageous

 Will was given this saying in a frame last week.

It says, “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.

 I’ll tell you that I was scared to death of this study, some of you may have been scared to death to show up to this study. I have prayed over each of us week after week to help us not to live in fear and in conditions, but to live in faith and unconditional trust and love.

There comes a time that we have to be courageous. Even if we are scared to death, we have to submit to God the things that we are afraid of giving to him, even if it is our hearts that are broken.

2 Thessalonians 3:5

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

The definition of steadfastness is: resolutely or dutifully firm and unwavering. That is the love of God and steadfastness of Christ.

What the Bible is teaching us here is this.

We should not let conditions wavier our love for Christ. He died the most horrible, humiliating death for us and we automatically question his love for us when storms arise.

Why did Jesus die for us? Because of Gods unconditional love that he had for his children. The sacrifice was severe but the glory of God that was revealed was more valuable than the pain. Even in the midst of those raging waters God is consistent and unwavering: abiding, enduring, firm, fixed, never-failing, steadfast, steady, and unfaltering.

Supernatural

Most of us have that knee jerk reaction when life deals us a blow and in our flesh the most natural thing for us to do is put up a wall and our list of conditions, but just as we have learned over and over again “serving Christ and loving Him is supernatural not lived out in the flesh but in the Spirit.”

I know that everyone grieves differently but please don’t think that this message isn’t for you. If you have listened to me any over the past 7 weeks you should know that I am not expecting some “Get healed quick remedy here”. I just want us to see that just as we didn’t avoid the storm therefore we cannot avoid the pain.

The Names of God

And since we continue to wake up and face another day I want us to wake up with the security and peace of knowing who we serve leaning on the One who calls himself the “I AM the I AM” he is our Counselor, our Healer and our Father and our friend. 

I want to know that as hard as this storm may be that God has a purpose for this suffering and I want to know that there is freedom to not live the rest of our lives terrified of what the future looks like or what is to come next.

 

Psalm 33:22 says, 22 May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you.

*That is an action that we have to take. We have to make that choice to put our hope in Him every single day, and every single day he gives us the choice to. I want to see the beauty from the ashes…

 

Exodus 15:13 says, “In your unfailing love you will lead
the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling.

KJV says,

13 Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation.

 

If you look closely at the 2 translations mercy from the KJV is replaced with unfailing love. So, with his unfailing love he will pour out his mercy upon you.

Even when we are weak, He is strong. Even when we are mad at him and feel as if he allowed this tragedy to all but be the death of us, he still loves us unconditionally.

 

The Gift

I want to put it all on the line for Him. I just know that I can’t in my natural being but through the gift of the Holy Spirit we have His mercy and grace and a supernatural ability to live our life in faith. 

 John 15-21 says, “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

 And through this gift of the Holy Spirit we receive the Counselor, the Spirit of Truth, and it is through this that we will be mended, taught and healed.

Romans 5:1-5 says, 5 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.

 My Portion (Holding onto Hope 8)

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

     “Therefore I hope in Him!”  Lamentations 3:24

I wanted what I shared tonight to be the perfect ending, as I prayed and prayed over it I knew that the only thing that was fitting was by reading an abundance of his Word.

 For some of us this is too much to say to Him right now that He is my portion, but I wonder if just for tonight you would let these scriptures pour over your brokenness and say yes to the Healer and allow him to love on you in a way like never before.

 You know the saying, “You get out of it what you put into it”? Tonight I want us to give him our all, if we are able and soak up his word…   

What I am praying for is that each of us will be able to start the journey with God that leads us out of the Ragging Waters into the still waters of his rest and peace. That’s my hope throughout this journey we’ve had together.

 Psalm 23:1-6 says,

      ¹    The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

     ²   He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

          He leadeth me beside the still waters.

     ³   He restoreth my soul:

          He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

     ⁴   Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

          I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;

          Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

     ⁵   Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

          Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

     ⁶   Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

          And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. ^[1]

This has been a long journey for most of us. We have each been through a tragedy or a loss of some kind or sickness that has brought us here. I don’t think God expects us to know exactly what to do with all of this but he does want us to turn to him for the answers.

  We need to make a commitment to ourselves and one another to stay in the Word everyday. I don’t want this to be a group of women that leaves here and goes our separate ways, I’m not sure after this that would even be possible. We may not be able to walk around everyday with our heads held high but I want us to even in the hardest times to be able to say…

The Lord is my portion;

I promise to keep your words. Psalm 119:57

God promises to take care of his children. We all know how hard that is to grasp when looking at our current circumstances but we have to know he loves us and that his ways are for us.

 Isaiah 61:1-3

61 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,

because the Lord has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives

and release from darkness for the prisoners,

² to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor

and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn,

³   and provide for those who grieve in Zion—

to bestow on them a crown of beauty

instead of ashes,

the oil of joy

instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise

instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

a planting of the Lord

for the display of his splendor.

Thank you for your willingness to do this.  You may not realize what you have done by just coming here and showing up but I promise you it is far more than most are willing to do in their times of suffering. You have been an inspiration to myself and so many others and although you may not feel this or understand this now just as we read about Jesus in Isaiah, we were also sent to bind up the brokenhearted by our faithfulness to our God throughout this tragedy and this storm. It is a testament to our Lord and savior that you are willing to serve him thorough our ………

This was not easy but you have done exactly what God has wanted you to do, when we have had nothing left we turned to him and I promise you God will honor that.

 

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