Rest in Hope

Rest in Hope

Today's Scripture:

Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; moreover my flesh also will rest in hope
Acts 2:26, NKJV.

Today's Word:

So many people today live with stress, anxiety, pressure and worry, but that’s not God’s plan for your life. He wants you to live in peace, confidence and rest in hope. Think about that for a moment. How can you rest in hope? It’s sort of like when you’re watching the replay of your favorite ball game. You already know the outcome. You don’t have to worry about what’s happening, you just enjoy the plays. The same is true in life. When we know God’s Word, when we obey His commands, then we know the outcome for life. We know that He is always for our good. We know that He has plans to prosper us, not to harm us!

Today’s scripture tells us what to do while we are waiting to see His promises come to pass—we should let our tongue be glad. In other words, we should be speaking the victory. We should be declaring His goodness. We should be filled with His joy. When your mouth is aligned with God’s Word, when your heart rejoices, then you can rest in hope knowing that victory is on the way!

Prayer for Today:

Father God, thank You for victory that overcomes the world. Thank You for giving me hope in my final outcome. I choose to cast my cares on You today, I choose to rejoice, I choose to speak Your Word as I celebrate the good things You have in store for me in Jesus’ Name! Amen.

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How Did We Get So Messed Up

14 hours ago

by Rick Warren

“Then I remember something that fills me with hope. The LORD’s kindness never fails!” (Lamentations 3:21-22a CEV)

It shouldn’t surprise you that not everything in this world is good. Not every person is happy. Not every place on this planet is beautiful. Evil exists — and its impact is devastating. Just take a look at your favorite news website, and you can see it right away.
No rational person can deny the reality of evil.
That means that anyone who takes God seriously has to at some point deal with an important question: How did God let everything get messed up?
It started with Adam. The Bible says, “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned” (Romans 5:12 NLT).
But sin didn’t stop with Adam. The Bible also says, “There is not a single person in all the earth who is always good and never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Adam’s sin became our sin — all of us.
That sin has laid comprehensive and awful consequences upon humanity. For example, it has led to:

• Natural disasters and deformities. Nature doesn’t act like it should. It often acts irrationally, complete with hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and planet-disrupting menaces.

• Decay and death. Our bodies don’t work as they should, and one day they’ll just stop working altogether.

• Emotional distress and disappointment. We’re stressed and disappointed because we live in a fallen world. This world is not all it’s cracked up to be, and that often disappoints us. Plus, you’re not perfect and often disappoint yourself.

• Relational distance and discord. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were not only disconnected from God, but alienated from one another as well. We’ve had to deal with broken relationships ever since.

• Spiritual discontent and darkness. Sin leaves a hole in your heart nothing can fill. Pascal called it the God-shaped hole. We try to fill it with all sorts of things, but only God can truly fill that hole.

Where can you find hope in the midst of all of the terrible results of sin? Do what Jeremiah did. He wrote in Lamentations 3:19-23: “Just thinking of my troubles and my lonely wandering makes me miserable .… Then I remember something that fills me with hope. The LORD’s kindness never fails! If he had not been merciful, we would have been destroyed. The LORD can always be trusted to show mercy each morning” (CEV).