DIGGING DEEP NO. 863 – December 29, 2020 HOPE FOR THE NEW YEAR

 Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness that surrounds you. There was never a night or problem that could defeat sunrise or hope. Let your hopes not your hurts, despair, trials, tribulation, and betrayals shape your future. It is a tragedy to ever look for hope outside the presence and the will of God. Isaiah 40:31; Jer. 29:11; Rom. 15:11. Hope is a powerful thing it inspires us to do the impossible and helps us carry on during difficult times.

We live in different towns; there are physical towns and spiritual towns. You can live in both towns at the same time. There is a town most of us live in spiritually called Hopelessville. The characteristics of that town are hopelessness and despair. It is full of hopeless people, despair, and hopelessness. In that Town, the Major is an agent of the devil, and all he does is to give you a thousand reasons why your dreams cannot be materialized, why your needs cannot be
met, why you cannot get that new job, why your spouse cannot change, why you cannot get married, why your children will not amount to anything. Hopelessville is designed for you to wallow in your situation and be in utter despair. It is a snare designed to entrap the children of God. While in Hopelessville the devil will redirect your hopes away from God. 1Tim. 6. 17.

Hopelessville encourages you to focus and place your hope in man and things. Hopelessville will prevent you from believing in John 16:33; 1 Thess. 4:13, 1 Tim 1:1; 4:10. Sometimes we get into hopelessness because we forget where our joy comes from. We forget that our joy comes from the Lord and not from man so too does our hope. Hopelessness is a dream killer; it will abort your dream or cause you to encounter people in your live who will kill it for you if you
are not careful and purposeful- case study Joseph. If you have a dream you need to partner with the one that can see your dream come true- Jesus Christ. Hopelessness will cause you to forget the power of your Lord and savior, it will cause you to forget His greatness and the many times He has delivered you and be there for you- case study children of Israel in the Wilderness Life is brutal and full of rejection, life will rip you to shreds, but rather than becoming hopeless, you should think of your savior. You should think of the love He has for you. You should think of the love of God, which is unconditional, he says He will love you no matter what. Romans 8:35-39

Sometimes our hopelessness stems from the fact that we compare ourselves with others and the realization that we cannot become like them results in hopelessness, sometimes we think we can never find joy because of the hurt, the disappointment, the lies and betrayal from our love ones, our friends and even from the church. We then become hopeless in our relationship
with others, in our relationships with our love ones and even with our faith. Life does beat us down, loss does beat us down, hardship takes its toll on us, and illness destroys your body. This is exactly what the enemy wants you to believe so as to shut the door of your hope then killing your future. Your God shall not only be the God of your Mountain, but He is also the God of your valley. It is in your valley that your hope is lost; it is in your valley that the devil will redirect you to the Town of Hopelessville. Hopelessness in this period drives some people to suicide– case study Samson, Joseph, Hannah, and Hosea, they all found hope in their valley and refused to be redirected to Hopelessville. If we trust in God and put our hope in Him, He can take our hopelessness and turn it into hopefulness through faith thus giving birth to a testimony, He is able to take our ashes and give us His beauty. He can take our lack and give us His abundance, He is able to take our yoke which is heavy and give us His that is light.

Sometimes our hopelessness comes because of holding onto the dead things of our life rather than giving it to God and moving on. In this coming year, what are you hopeful for and how do you plan to realize that which you are hopeful for. Who do you put your hope in and how do you plan on making sure that you don’t end up in Hopelessville. Are you holding unto the dead things of 2020, do you plan to carry them into 2021. Do you plan to get out of Hopelessville.

Hopelessness causes you to doubt God and all that He has done for you thereby destroying your faith in Him. When your faith is gone then all the things that can be achieved by faith are no longer achievable, this includes all spiritual things as well as physical things.

In a few days we will be entering into 2021. Like 2020 we are all hopeful of the things that God will do for us. We are making our petition to God for our marriages, for our children, for our jobs and careers, for our finances and most of all for our faith. Some of these petitions God will answer immediately while we will have to wait for some others to be answered, it is while we are waiting that hopelessness sets it. Case study the man at the pool of Bethesda. Biblically, waiting is not just something we have to do until we get what we want. Waiting is part of the process of becoming what God wants us to be. This time of waiting is not passive, it is active. It ought to be a time of growth. There is an expectation for growth in those who are followers of Jesus. 2 Peter 3:18, says, “…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” For the Christian, growth is expected. Hebrews 5:11-14. While waiting for our petitions and prayers to be answered we need to be growing in prayer and in God’s word It is my prayers that in 2021 we should flee from Hopelessvile into our promised land. We should be full of hope and expect great things to happen to us and our families. We should get rid of despair, and while we are waiting, we should be growing spiritually through prayers and being emerge in the word of God.