How do you fill in that blank? Where do you need hope? Is it for your marriage? Your kids? Are you trying to get pregnant? Are you trying to pass a test? Is it for your career? Do your finances need hope? Is it for your prodigal? Do you need healing? Your family in general? Do you need hope for the addiction you are fighting? There is hope for my _____________.

God has already given you the hope you need. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Find a Promise to Hang on To

I will never forget your promises…they are my only hope.

Psalm 119:45

Do you see the connection between hope and God’s promises? It’s God’s promises that bring us hope. For every place you are hoping, you need a promise from God. God never breaks His promises. So whatever He gives you he will come through on. Google it. By a Bible promise book. Get away and listen for God speak His promise to you. Do whatever you must, but find God’s promise to you! And hang on to it! Write it down. Memorize it. Journal about it. Share it with others.

2. Find a Story to Remember

Hope returns when I remember this: The Lord’s unfailing love and mercy has not stopped!

Lamentations 3:21-22

Now we see the connection between hope and memory. It’s stories of God’s goodness and faithfulness that bring us hope. So find that story of a place where God has been good to you. Recall to your mind a time when God came through for you. Reach back into the archives of your memory and retrieve a story of God’s faithfulness.

Claim that promise and remember that story and keep studying to ace that test. Keep trying to get pregnant. Keep working on your marriage. Keep parenting the best way you know how. Keep working as hard as you can for that promotion.  Keep waiting for your prodigal to come home. Keep fighting the addiction. Keep praying for healing. Keep claiming and remembering! There is hope for your _____________!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,

so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Romans 15:13

 

 

This is a statement I hear regularly from those who are wrestling with Christianity. And I often hear it from those who are trying to follow the Jesus lifestyle. I’m a preacher and I often have this feeling. If you have been afraid to start reading the Bible because you have trouble understanding it, or you are afraid you will not understand it, let me share some ideas that have been helpful to me.

Praise

It is impossible to understand the Word of God outside the presence of God. Praise escorts into the very presence of God.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!

Gives thanks to him; bless his name!

Psalm 100:4

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving…

Psalm 95:2

In the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) we praise God with “hallowed be your name…” before we ask Him to “give us this day our daily bread.” Take time to give God thanks and praise before expecting Him to speak to you through His Word.

Pray

Ask God to meet you in Scripture. Pray that God would give you eyes to see and ears to hear what He is revealing to you.

…that God…may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation…

having the eyes of your heart enlightened…

Ephesians 1:17-19

Pray for wisdom (that comes fromyour mind) and revelation (that comes toyour mind). Sit and listen for God to enlighten the eyes of your heart.

Surrender

We must learn to read the Bible for what is there not what we want to be there. It is true that some parts of the Bible are difficult. But remember that the Bible was written for one main purpose: to help you know Jesus. And in knowing Jesus we can’t help but want to live like Jesus.

For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword,

piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow,

and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12

Meditate

The goal is not to just get through the Word but to get the Word through us. Meditating on God’s Word is not that hard. If you can worry, you can meditate! Imagine lying awake in bed at night with thoughts that keep racing through your mind. That’s meditating. Now take and do that with the wisdom and revelation God is giving. It’s just like reading a love note over and over and over. Write it down in your journal or on some note cards and reference it often.

This Book…shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditateon it day

and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.

For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Joshua 1:8

 

 

 

 

Things are a little crazy here in the LBK! It’s beginning to look a lot like we are a basketball town. Who would have thought it here in the middle of football fanatic West Texas?  We are celebrating the Lubbock Christian University Lady Chaps winning the NCAA Division II National Championship. And, of course, the Texas Tech Red Raiders made the Final Four for the first time in program history. And hopefully they will be bringing home the NCAA Division I Men’s Championship. That would certainly be one shining moment!

Think about how life has changed in this basketball fevered city over the past few days. People are leaving work for celebrations taking place in the middle of the day and staying awake for homecomings in the wee hours of the morning. Lines to buy the newest celebratory gear stretch for what seem like miles. And Lubbock (or Lub-boch as it is typically referred to) seems to be a topic of national media attention – in a positive light. Imagine that!

And do you know what I think about all of this? I think we should be soaking it all up! We should be living it up! We should be relishing the moment!

I wonder how often we miss that one shining moment? It seems as though we are always looking to “get through” to that next thing and we miss what God has for us in the present moment. I’m guilty of often thinking the “main thing” is the next thing. It hardly ever is. The main thing is the hand that has been dealt for us in this moment. How much do we miss in preparing for, thinking about, planning around and faithfully doing the next thing and not simply living in this moment. God, in his grace and freedom, wants us to do the thing that is presently before us…like spending time with a friend, enjoying a good movie with our family, drinking a milkshake, playing golf, or whatever the moment is.

 

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up

about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with

whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

Matthew 6:34 (The Message)

 

So, for the moment….let’s just Wreck ‘em!

 

P.S. I want it noted that I got the opportunity to pray at an event that Coach Beard was speaking at this summer and I prayed for the National Championship! Just saying…