HOPE

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“Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD! Psalm 27:14 NRSV.

The theme for Resurrection 2014 was hope. The key verse of scripture was Psalm 27:14 quoted above. As you may notice the word hope is not found in the key verse, but certainly the theme of hope is all through it. Our speaker was Andy Nixon senior pastor of the Loft United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas; incidentally he was, in my opinion, the best speaker we have had for Resurrection. Here are some of my thoughts on what Andy had to say.

Hope is the thing that keeps us going. Our faith in the goodness of God allows us to live hope filled lives even during those times we are struggling to get by. Sometimes keeping hope alive is not an easy thing for us to do.

Twice in this verse the Psalmist tells us to “wait on the LORD.” As a society we do not wait well. We tend to want what we want when we want it and get really impatient when we have to wait. We even upgrade our devices when a newer, faster model comes out. The idea of spending time with God and quietly waiting for God’s guidance is totally foreign to our way of thinking. Busyness has become our idol. In fact often we are so used to multitasking that we feel guilty when we are only doing one thing at a time. To do nothing and simply wait for God seems like a complete waste of time.

Yet when we do that we often are truly blessed. For you see, God’s time is sometimes different than our time. I know that many times I fail when I run ahead of God. So let us wait on the Lord and seek God’s will in all parts of our lives.

Another key element in our verse is the encouragement to be strong and to take heart. One of the great mysteries of faith is that often we are strongest when we are at our weakest point. One reason this is true is that when we think we are strong we assume that we can do it ourselves and God gets pushed aside. On the other hand when we are weak we realize how much we need God’s help. God is always there to see us through whatever we may be facing. It has often been said we stand our tallest when we are down on our knees in prayer.

So always let your heart be filled with hope for when we wait on the Lord, when we know that God’s strength can see us through we never lose heart, we never give up and we can change the world.

Richard