Hope!

Just this past Sunday I was so blessed to hear Perry Noble preach a message on “HOPE!” The Sunday before I heard Dick Lincoln preach a message on “Hope!” I love it, love it, love it, because I know real hope in life is through a relationship with Jesus. Even though their deliveries were very different, their message was the same. Both messages focused on the hope we all can have through accepting God’s love for us. The Hope we find in Jesus, His birth and resurrection–the source for all hope. Perry encouraged everyone to just look at the “book ends” of Jesus’ life, the virgin birth and the resurrection, two miracles. Wow……I have been a Christian for many years, but it is always refreshing to hear new sermons, stories and perspectives from people as God enables them to share truth. It will forever be engrained in my mind to talk about and use the analogy of the miracle and hope we find in the birth and death of Jesus.

As I have shared in an earlier post, when you become a Christian, Jesus wants to be the focal point of your life. The Source who directs, encourages, leads, and teaches you. He desires for you to slide over and let Him do the driving. Let Him hold the wheel, have His foot on the gas pedal and have access to the brake as well. Full control. When this happens, your faith is activated. You then find yourself able to function in your “Strength Zone”. Until you surrender complete control, He cannot accomplish all that he has for you!

Think for a minute about what complete surrender looks like. Take a sheet of paper and hold it in your hand. Then, take your index finger and thumb and just hang on to the very tip corner of the paper. When you do that, you are holding only on to the tip but you still have complete control of the paper. It is not until you let go and drop the paper that you are “surrendering” control of the paper. You no longer hold it. Even though you were just holding the very edge, you still had control. A “surrendered” life to Jesus looks like dropping the paper! Surrender, which is the “S” in Strength Zone, is the first step to allowing Jesus to work and operate in your life and put you on the path to operating in your “S—TRENGTH ZONE,” or for your created purpose! HEAD TOWARDS THE ZONE. SURRENDER IS THE FIRST STEP!

James 4:10, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

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

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