The sermon this morning was "A Hope for Change," so some of these ideas aren't mine, they are Pastor Alan's =)
Romans 5:1-5 - "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 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. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, 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."
Hope does not disappoint us. Thats a pretty powerful statement. Hope is produced from these trials, it is not depleted from them. Pastor Alan compared this to football, the player is attacked from all sides, but he gets up and becomes stronger. The example he gave was a player who rushed about 9 1/2 miles and was knocked down an average of every 13 yards. That's a long way, lol.
A few days ago, I was having a conversation about how God has protected me from harm. We were both a little frustrated because the passage that was referenced was Psalm 121.
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.5 The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
Sometimes that is kind of hard to hear for me. If He said that He does not slumber, how could He watch him do that to me? How could He watch things like that and much worse things happen to anybody? I know we live in a fallen world, but still...Anyways the answer we came to was maybe He protected me from something worse happening.
So hearing the sermon this morning was just what I needed, it definitely reassured me. He didn't answer my question in the way I was hoping Him to, but He did give me peace this morning.
