Fuel & Medicine for the Soul; Hope

There was a time when I hoped I would get my own driver’s license and drive on my own; when I hoped I would graduate from college with a BS degree and then later on with a Masters degree; when I hoped I would marry a wonderful woman; when I hoped I would travel to another continent on a missions trip; when I hoped I would be able to father a son and daughter. The list goes on of various hopes I’ve had in my life and the examples above have come true and there has been great joy in them.

Hope, in general, is an expectation of something good to happen in the future (Rom. 8:23-25). One child said this at bedtime, “Now I lay me down to rest; I hope to pass tomorrow’s test. If I should die before I wake, that’s one less test I have to take.”

I asked one of my sons out of the blue, “What do you hope for?” His answer, “My own smart phone and a new car.” I can relate since I’ve hoped for such things at various times in my life. And that’s how we are about hope at times, to some degree; that we want better things that we think will make us happier and/or our life better. People may hope in many things; certain achievements to happen, certain relationships to come to fruition or improve, a bigger house and better automobiles, the dream bucket list items to check off, and the like. It can be okay to have hope toward such things, for God-honoring reasons, but there are greater things to hope for.

“Hope looks for the good in people instead of harping on the worst in them. Hope opens doors where despair closes them. Hope discovers what can be done instead of grumbling about what cannot be done. Hope draws its power from a deep trust in God and the basic goodness of mankind. Hope "lights a candle" instead of "cursing the darkness." Hope regards problems, small or large, as opportunities. Hope cherishes no illusions, nor does it yield to cynicism.” Unknown author

Some people are desperate for hope and are clinging to hope by a thin margin. Perhaps, there has been the death of a loved one, or life is deteriorating quickly, or there are very difficult circumstances and sufferings being experienced. Fortunately, there is always hope in God for the living (people, that is).  

In contrast to hope, there are feelings and thoughts of despair, hopelessness, gloom and doom, and a sense of nothing good to look forward to. This is no way to truly live and this is not how God wants us to live.

The psalm writer of Psalms 42-43 was deeply discouraged (i.e. despondent: downcast, downhearted) about something but chose to hope in God.

Psalm 42:5 ESV Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation

Abraham was promised by God to be the father of many generations but as Abraham became quite old, around 100 years old, without children, he must have wondered when and if he would ever have kids. But his hope was in the Lord and the promises of God because Abraham believed what God promised would come true. Abraham had hope in God and His promises regardless of his circumstances.
Rom. 4:18-23 NLT Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping—believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, “That’s how many descendants you will have!” ¹⁹ And Abraham’s faith did not weaken, even though, at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead—and so was Sarah’s womb. ²⁰ Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. ²¹ He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. ²² And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous. ²³ And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded
See also Rom. 4:17, 23-25

Hope is the physician of every misery. Irish Proverb

The Holy Bible teaches that God is the God of hope (Rom. 15:13). And as we believe Him and trust Him day by day you and I can grow in God-centered hope. God is amazing and does the amazing. He creates something out of nothing. He does the impossible. He saves that which is lost. He says things will come to pass and they do come to pass. There is no greater power, love, source of hope and reason to hope than God.

“When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you're slamming the door in the face of God.” Charles L. Allen

Here are some more key Bible truths about hope.

Jesus is referred to as the Blessed Hope and our hope (Tit. 2:13, 1 Tim. 1:1) because He is the Creator, Savior, and Lord and source of eternal life and the source of abundant life (Titus. 3:7, Col. 1:5, John 10:10m John 10:28, Heb. 12:2). He gives His redeemed a living hope (1 Pet. 1:3-5). By God’s grace through faith in Christ one can have eternal life, true life. This is our greatest hope, a hope for eternal life in Christ and for God’s intended life for us now.

“The resurrection of Jesus Christ is our hope today. It is our assurance that we have a living Savior to help us live as we should now, and that when, in the end, we set forth on that last great journey, we shall not travel an uncharted course, but rather we shall go on a planned voyage—life to death to eternal living.” Raymond MacKendree

The Bible teaches there are some who have no hope (because they are separate from Christ, from God).

Eph. 2:12 ESV remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

See also 1 Thess. 4:13

We can experience hope through God’s Word.

Rom. 15:4 ESV For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. See also Ps. 119:114

Christ-centered hope is important; in fact, it is one of the three top virtues of the Christian life (i.e. faith, hope, and love; 1 Cor. 13:13).

Hope and faith in God go together.

Heb. 11:1 NLT Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Also 1 Pet. 1:20

There is a patience of hope that honors God.

1 Thes. 1:2 NKJV We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, ³remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father,

“Hope has a thick skin and will endure many a blow; it will put on patience as a vestment, it will wade through a sea of blood, it will endure all things if it be of the right kind, for the joy that is set before it. Hence patience is called "patience of hope," because it is hope that makes the soul exercise patience and long-suffering under the cross, until the time comes to enjoy the crown.” John Bunyan (1628-1688)

God’s people are to rejoice in hope (Rom. 12:12) and give others the reason for the Christ-centered hope you have in your life (1 Pet. 3:15).

There is joy and gladness for God-honoring people with hope (Prov. 10:28).

Rom. 5:5 NKJV Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

We please God (Ps. 147:11) and are blessed people (Ps. 146:5) when we have hope in God.

Does eternally significant hope come from God and/or do you and I have responsibility in choosing hope? I believe the answer is both.

Jer. 29:11 (ESV) For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. See also Ps. 62:5, Rom. 15:13

Ps. 71:14 (ESV) But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more.

Ps. 78:7 (ESV) so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;

Hope is essential according to God’s plan for you and me. Are you experiencing a living hope in Christ right now? How do you let others know about your hope in God and His promises?

“Hope, the balm and lifeblood of the soul.” John Armstrong

So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. ¹⁹ This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. ²⁰ Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. Heb. 6:18-20 (NLT)

Christ-centered hope is like an anchor of fuel and medicine for the soul. Hope in the Lord God Almighty!

What do you think about what I’ve compiled here about hope in God?

Mike

Struggling with Addiction? There’s Hope in Christ!

Here are my notes from a recent podcast I contributed to about addiction and the hope one has in Christ through His Word and with the help of His people. Listen at http://liftyourvoice.podomatic.com/entry/2015-03-02T19_54_07-08_00

Hello, I’m Mike, a grateful redeemed Christ-follower and I’m recovering from a former addiction to smokeless tobacco and sexual lust when I was an adolescent and young adult and I continue to struggle from time to time with various issues like perfectionism, controlling behaviors, and anger. Basically, I’m a mess without the regular intervention of Jesus Christ, His Word, and His people in my life to help me be the person of God He wants me to be.

We all have broken areas in our lives. No one has it all together. Everyone has been hurt by others, we’ve hurt ourselves, and we’ve hurt others. These things can result in some sort of hurt, hang-up, or habit that prevents us from being all that God wants us to be.

When I was nine years old I received Christ as my Savior and I’ve been a Christ-follower for about forty years but it was a very up and down spiritual journey in my adolescent years.

As a teen, God blessed me with a powerful youth ministry experience related to church but away from church I engaged in a lot of foolish immoral behaviors. It was during those years that I developed an addiction to lust and to smokeless tobacco. I also knew someone close to me who struggled with drug abuse and following a suicide attempt was placed in a drug program. There were also some alcoholics in our family tree. I praise God that I was never hooked on drugs and alcohol but I know I am vulnerable to getting hooked on those substances. I was certainly hooked on dip/chewing tobacco and lust which were bad habits I could not stop on my own in the flesh. I needed help beyond myself, especially God’s help.

At around twenty years of age, I was spiritually convicted to be more surrendered to Christ which led to a more God-honoring set of friends, improved behaviors, and leadership involvement in the church’s youth ministry. I wanted to help younger people avoid the foolish immoral activities I engaged in during my teen years.

It was during this timeframe that I zeroed in on a computer programming career and volunteer youth ministry on the side and God blessed greatly on that path. I backslid a little bit in my twenties regarding drinking alcohol and lustful behaviors but God redirected me on the right path and I stepped up with my personal responsibility as a Christ-follower to be more consistently God-honoring with my life.

I remember with smokeless tobacco I could never seem to stop for more than a few months until one day I cried out to God in prayer to take away the craving and help me lead the girl, I loved at the time, to Him as Savior and about thirty minutes later we were on our knees and she received Christ. And for the past twenty years or so I no longer have the craving to use smokeless tobacco. God got my attention with an answered prayer and I stepped up with consistent self-control abstaining from tobacco and He removed the craving.

My fairly consistent victory in Christ over lust was more of a tapering off journey of me engaging in more holy thinking and behavior and less and less worldly carnal thinking and behavior. Prayer, Bible application, Christian community, accountability, serving the Lord, and getting married to a godly woman has helped greatly with experiencing more consistently victory over temptation to lust.

God has blessed with me a wife and we have four children. I’ve been a pastor for 14 years and I was involved in lay ministry for years before that. I’m passionate about helping people know Christ and become more like Christ and help others in the same way.

And in such ministry, we have to address various hurts, hang-ups, and habits that prevent a person from being all that God wants them to be.

An example of a negative habit that gets in the way of God’s will for our life is addiction.

When I use the word “addiction” I’m referring to a negative reoccurring action or thought that can be pleasurable at first but interferes with normal life situations and responsibilities like relationships, employment, and health. Such addictions include compulsive behaviors, lack of self-control, and a sense that one can’t live without the addiction whether they acknowledge the word “addiction” or the truth about their “addiction” or not.

People can be addicted to all sorts of things like drugs, alcohol, nicotine, gambling, lustful thoughts, sexual activity, spending, caffeine, over-eating, and over-working.

I’ve known people who are addicted to drinking soda daily. They will not stop drinking it because that drink and their behavior have their hooks in that person as a habit that runs deep. A daily soda may seem like small potatoes but it can become unhealthy and may point to some spiritual issues, biblically. A more obvious problem addiction is shooting heroin into your veins which is illegal, unhealthy, very difficult to stop, and could kill you.

There are various reasons why people fall into addictions. Perhaps there is some genetic vulnerability due to addicts in the family, or influence from people close to you, or poor emotional processing and not coping with stress well, escapism, curiosity, medical use, and others.

Addictions often snowball and get worse over time. They should be acknowledged and taken seriously.

There can certainly be a complexity to addictions, like how it came about and whether it is physical, psychological and/or a moral issue. I usually approach it holistically; that is to say that we have thoughts, emotional processing of feelings, physical conditions and behaviors, and a spiritual aspect to our lives.

Of course, being a Christ-follower and believer in God’s holy Word, I believe what matters most is a person’s relationship with Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, so the spiritual component when addressing addiction is most important in my approach to helping someone, but I understand that there are other aspects of the human life and experience to address.

Depending on the individual’s addiction and circumstances they may need medical and law enforcement intervention and removal from what they are addicted to. Sooner rather than later, I want to know who that person thinks Jesus Christ is and do they know Christ as their Savior or not because I believe true freedom from sin bondage, true healing from addictions, and true hope in this life and for eternal life with our Holy Creator God is only found in Jesus Christ.

I want to write briefly about a model (Overcoming Temptation to Sin) I use personally and help others with one on one when it comes to reoccurring sin habits. And then I will summarize a group ministry approach (Celebrate Recovery) that can help as well.

Sin is anything that goes against the character and commanding will of God. Temptation is not sin but can lead to sin. Not only does everyone have experience sinning, we also have lots of experience being tempted to sin.

Check out this early occurrence of the Holy Bible of the word ‘sin.’ God was speaking to Cain.

Genesis 4:7 NLT You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”

Here are three principles to heed from this verse:

First, acknowledge and learn more about the temptation to sin conflict. There is a real spiritual war going on and we continue to be tempted to sin.

Secondly, discern between right and wrong. Our greatest resource and standard for such discernment is God’s Word.

Third, master your temptations to sin. The master of all masters, the master over all, is Jesus Christ (Mt. 28:18, 1 Tim. 6:15). The key to our mastering temptation is based on the person and work of Jesus Christ, trusting Him as Savior and Lord, and living for the glory of God based on God’s Holy Word for His people today.

Here are ten biblical principles to help you overcome temptation to sin and overcome spiritual enemies of God:

1) Trust God; He’s Powerful and He’s faithful to His people.

2) Pray for victory over your temptation.

3) Keep God's Word close to your heart. 

4) Christ followers are to stand strong in the Lord and put on the full armor of God.

5) Holistically submit yourself to godliness.

6) Abstain, resist, and flee from what’s wrong in the eyes of God. Don’t just say “no” to temptation to sin, say “yes” to holiness and godliness in Christ.

7) Be an overcomer by faith in Christ. 

8) Be an overcomer with good.

9) Walk the way of the wise and understand the Lord’s will.

10) Do all to the glory of God.

Think of this spiritual war in terms of your offense and defense. The offense includes preparing for battle, preparing for the attacks of the enemies of God, building on the foundation of Christ day to day with increased faith in Him, learning and living out biblical principles individually and in Christian community, and honoring the Lord. I call this The Holy Foundation Stage. This is how we are to live daily according to God’s Word. Then there is the defense that includes responding to specific temptations by crying out to Christ and praying some ‘go to’ prayers and Bible verses, and reaching out to mature Christ followers for help. I call this The Holy Fighting Stage. Consistently overcoming temptation must include both of these stages.

God provides and promises His people all kinds of help in the battle with temptation and sin.  

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 2 Pet. 1:3-4 ESV

If a person is willing to trust Christ and apply these biblical principles, I believe they will begin to experience more and more victory over the temptation to sin, and healing and freedom from a struggle like addiction. You can read this link for the longer version of the above principles, which includes several Bible verses (http://mikesmorals.blogspot.com/2014/10/overcoming-temptation.html).

For some people, I believe they can receive help with their addiction by participating in a group program or ministry. Celebrate Recovery (CR) is one such ministry. I’ll summarize it for you.

CR began two decades ago in a CA church and is now global, being used in 20,000+ churches and other locations. At the core of the CR ministry is Jesus Christ, His Word, the Christian 12 steps for recovery, 8 recovery principles based on the Beatitudes, and a community of Christ-followers who help CR participants through recovery and spiritual growth in Christ. And it has worked and continues to work in many lives; to the glory of God.

CR is designed to provide a safe place to find freedom and healing, in Christ, from life’s hurts, hang-ups, and negative habits including addiction and any other issue that keeps people from being all that God wants them to be. There is a celebration of God’s healing power through the recovery process which is based on the power of Christ through God’s Word and His people. The entry level to a weekly CR ministry has a large co-ed group in the first hour that includes worship, teaching and/or a testimony of life change in Christ, and some fellowship. Then participants have the opportunity to open up in a same-gender small group setting and possibly in one-one-one coaching/accountability relationships.

Here are a couple of the recovery steps, principles, and verses used in CR:

Step 1. We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors. That our lives had become unmanageable.

Romans 7:18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

Principle 2 Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me recover.

Philippians 2:13 For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Step 3. We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.

Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.

Principle 5 Voluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my character defects.

Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires, Matthew 5:6a

You can see all the CR steps, principles, and their corresponding verses at http://mikesmorals.blogspot.com/2015/02/celebrate-recovery-8-principles-12-steps.html

One key component of CR is the testimony. People who have been experiencing recovery and spiritual growth in Christ, people who have been healed of hurt, hang-ups, and/or addictive habits share their testimony to the participants of CR. Praise God! This can be a powerful ministry tool for the person sharing, their own healing journey, and to impact people’s hearts who are also on a journey of recovery or need to be. There is hope in Christ!

You can go to CelebrateRecovery.com to find out more about this ministry and to find a CR location near you.

Regardless of the addiction, hurt, hang-up, or habit in your life or loved one’s life there is hope in Jesus Christ!

God bless you and your loved ones.

What are your thoughts on Jesus Christ, His Word, and His redeemed helping people experience healing and freedom from addiction?

Mike

Note: the above notes are not intended to be a comprehensive look into the issue of addiction or give the impression that helping someone struggling with addiction is a simple quick process. My goal was to share a little bit about addiction and point to the hope that exists in Jesus Christ working through His Word and working in and through His people.