Where is your Hope?

Psalm 119:145-152

“With my whole heart I cry; answer me, O Lord! I will keep your statutes.  I call to you; save me, that I may observe your testimonies.  I rise before dawn and cry for help; I hope in your words.  My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise.  Hear my voice according to your steadfast love; O Lord, according to your justice give me life.  They draw near who persecute me with evil purpose; they are far from your law.  But you are near, O Lord, and all your commandments are true.  Long have I known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever.”

The Psalmist is calling to the Lord for help against his enemies and telling the Lord that he will obey God’s commandments.  His enemies are closing in and the Psalmist understands he is close to God’s desires, that he has an obedient heart, but his enemies are far from doing what God has commanded them.

How do you relate to these verses, are your enemies closing in on your family, job, business, or freedoms?  Let me be so bold as to tell you they are, and it is with the authority of Scripture that I tell you such, and it is also the words of Jesus in John 10:10. You will also find these words of Jesus in John 16:33, “ I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Who are you going to run to, where is your hope, and yes, the answer should be Jesus, but is it?

For many it is a person, someone who has been there to help fix your broken toys, someone like mom or dad, but this is not a toy, it’s your child, or wife, business, or means of substance.  The Psalmist knows  whom he is addressing, and God who is all knowing, and cannot be deceived, so when he tells the Lord, I will obey your statutes, it’s a choice he has already made.

The first man that God entrusted me to, once I ask Jesus into my life, was an all-American football player, who had played pro-ball a couple of years and entered the oil business.  I did not know any of that till much later, he was just a man named Jack Archer, and I met him through a friend Johnny Anderson.  Jack was in his forties when he came to understand the hole in his heart could only be filled with him bowing his knee to Jesus Christ.  This is what Jack taught me, Jesus loves you, this I know for the Bible tells me so.  Do you know that Jesus loves you?  My problem was I understood that Jesus loved Jack and Johnny, but I struggled with how He could love a mess like me.

I had a lot of zeal for God, and acted often as if I was perfect and had all the answers, I like many others wanted to do great things for God, but I had no understanding of the ways of God, and guess what I spent many years studying the Scriptures, even teaching them, but God will not fit in my box nor will He fit in yours.

Let me close with Matthew 18:1-4, “At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”  

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice