Our Hope and Confidence - 8/18/2016

Our Hope and Confidence

Jeremiah 17:7-8

⁷ “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord
    and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
⁸ They are like trees planted along a riverbank,
    with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat
    or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green,
    and they never stop producing fruit.

To put our hope and confidence in anything other than God is worthless and futile. Think about it. What are some of the things we put our hope and confidence it?

We put our hope, trust and confidence in other people. That may be family, teachers, doctors, politicians, etc. We will at some point let you down is one way or another. It might be missed commitments or broken promises. Whatever it is, large or small, it will happen at some point.

One response I get to this has been, “then why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?” Let me start by going to Scripture:

Ecclesiastes 7:30 – ²⁰ Not a single person on earth is always good and never sins.

Romans 3:23 – ²³ For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

1 John 1:8 – ⁸ If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.

According to Solomon, the wisest person to ever live, as well as Paul and John, no one is good. We all fall short. It is only because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross that we have any hope escaping eternity in hell. God loves us that much that He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for everyone’s sins. That means whether you accept Him or not, Jesus died for you. In love. Without judgment. It is free.

God will guide us if we let Him. Solomon tells us this in Proverbs 3:5-6 – ⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. ⁶ Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Yes, it is hard. Yes, we can do it. We will stumble and fall. God will be there to pick us up. If you choose the wrong path, He will show you the right one to get back on track. Just another reason to read your Bible every day. It is full of God’s wisdom and truth. It is the living water that Jesus told the Samaritan woman about.

That goes back to verse 8 in Jeremiah 17. We are like the trees when we are in God’s Word. It feeds us like the water feeds the tree. It gives us strength. It gives us confidence. It gives us hope! The more we take in, the deeper our roots. The deeper the roots of the tree, the stronger it is. The more we put our trust in God, the stronger our faith. That strength allows us to stand against anything the world and the prince of the world, Satan, throws at us.

I am just an imperfect sinner saved by the grace of God. I have made mistakes and will make more. I will let people down.

So, who am I to question Him. Instead I put all my trust in God. Bad things will happen. I still put my trust in God. In the end it means the difference between an eternity in Heaven instead of Hell. Amen!