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Hope Anchored in Christ

Hope Anchored in Christ

di Adrian Au

Cristianità Religione

Stagione 5

You Don't Have a Hope Problem—You Have a Memory Problem

The ability to hope on God is not natural - it takes dedication and intentional practice on a daily basis. In Deuteronomy Chapter 8, we see that Moses specifically instructs Israelites to understand and know in their hearts that God disciplines as a man disciplines his son, and asks them to meditate on the fact that despite wandering for 40 years in the desert, their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. We need to meditate on the seemingly "small things" that God grants us, such as the ability to wake up every morning and do his work given to us. It is through meditation that we can be thankful towards the Lord from the bottom of our heart, allowing us to understand that even when he disciplines us, he is doing it out of true love for us. If we truly understand that God is for us, not against us, we can easily place our hope on God.

Why God Uses Suffering to Strengthen Your Faith

Hope often comes with suffering, suffering often comes with hope. It is against human nature to want suffering - we love pleasure and comfort a lot! But as followers of Christ, we promise to give up everything for him, which includes comfort. We often invite persecution because of our faith. In Romans 5 verses 3-5, Paul says that we can rejoice in our sufferings, because suffering produces perseverance, character and hope. 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. God often allows suffering to draw us closer to himself, and we can be rest assured that we can still have hope during sufferings because he has given us the greatest gift - the Holy Spirit, which abides in us. If dealt with in the right attitude, suffering will build our character and help us obey God, fulfilling his destiny for us in this short life we have on Earth, after which we can finally depart to our eternal resting place.

Governments Can't Give You What Your Soul Needs

If you follow UK politics, you will know that the UK received its 7th Prime Minister in a decade in Andy Burnham, and one of his frequently used words in speeches is the word "hope". This episode explores the difference between hope that Governments and the world offers, and hope that God alone can offer. Governments can only offer physical needs, such as free services and benefits, but what we truly need as humans is spiritual food that God alone can offer.

The One Verse Everyone Quotes... But Few Truly Understand

We often hear about this famous promise by God that he has plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future, but what we often forget is the context. In Jeremiah 29 where this promise is given to Israelites exiled to Babylon for 70 years, Jeremiah also told in the same breathe that Israelites that they will seek and find the Lord when they seek God with all their heart. Do we seek the Lord with all our heart? If not, why do we think we can seek him? We can only place our hope on the Lord if we know him - we need to build up our relationship with him by reading the word and putting it into action. This builds up not just intellectual knowledge but gives us biblical revelations from God himself, which translates into hope we can draw upon regardless of life's circumstances.

What If Every Morning Is God's Love Letter to You?

We can hope on the Lord because it is clearly written in Lamentations chapter 3 that his Love and Grace are never ending, and that both these qualities are renewed every morning. The fact that the Lord is loyal to us by waking us up every morning, and giving us a new portion of Love and Grace is something to be extremely thankful for! The more we know about how God provides for us, the more we experience his love and grace, the more we can can be thankful to the Lord from the bottom of our heart and the more we can place our trust on him.

The Key to Trusting God Whole Heartedly

The closer our relationship is with God, the more we will know about God, and the easier it is for us to trust him. In Matthew Chapter 1, we see that Jesus' father Joseph is labelled a righteous man as he did not want to expose Mary to public disgrace when he had doubts about her virginity. God knew about Joseph's thoughts and sent an angel to reassure Joseph. This incident astounded me as this goes to show that God really does know every thought we have! Before Joseph when asked God for guidance, in this instance, God already sent an angel to Joseph - he knows our needs before we do!

Who Does The Lord Reserve Hope For? Not Everyone!

Nowadays in church, we often hear lukewarm messages being preached, which might go along lines of "God Loves Everybody!", "Just put your hope on the Lord and you will prosper!" That's not quite 100% the truth. A wise man once said the holy spirit discerns the absolute truth from the almost true. Reading Psalms 1, we can understand clearly who God blesses - people who do not walk in the cousel of the wicked and delights himself in the Lord's law, which is evidenced by fruit bearing. To put our hope on the Lord, we must make sure we don't have unrepentant sin and that we walk on the Lord's path - meaning we have a close, personal relationship with God.

Going Over a Common Trust Issue We Have With God

We often believe God can get us out of trouble and predicaments in life, but we often don't have faith for God to work miracles in life. These are 2 different mindsets - the former one being satisfied if God gives us the bare minimum, the latter one being dissatisfied unless we get our full reward from Christ (2 John encourages to seek the full reward from Christ). We will look at Matthew Chapter 14 in this episode to understand the mindset behind why Peter was able to trust God to save him from drowning in the sea, yet couldn't trust God even though God gave him the power to walk on water.

Important Reflection: Do We Truly Believe God is Willing to Reward his Children?

In this episode, we will be looking at whether we truly believe God is willing to reward his children through Matthew 15, where Jesus seemingly declined a Canaanite Woman's plea for help, saying he is only sent to help the lost sheep of Israelites only. In essence, he was testing the widow's faith to see if she truly believe God is willing to help her, not just if God has the ability to help her. In our daily lives, we might intellectually think or even truly believe that God has the ability to help others, but not ourselves. This episode challenges us to reflect on the correct attitude of waiting and hoping on the lord.

Staying Hopeful During the US/IRAN War

In this episode, I talk about how despite feelings of hopelessness regarding the US/Iran situation, our hope cannot be anchored on a peace deal - our hope must always be anchored on Jesus, the Prince of Peace. This world largely rejects Jesus and hopes to seek peace without Jesus, but this is never possible - any peace this world can bring is a counterfeit, short-term peace. True, long-term peace can only be achieved when Jesus returns to rule the world, which is why we pray the lord's prayer that "Thy will be done on Earth as in Heaven". A message of hope is conveyed through Lamentations Chapter 3:22-25 where the prophet Jeremiah gives thanks to the Lord that his love and compassions are new every morning, and that God rewards those who wait upon him.

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