The Picture of Hope

Question to think about: Does your life reveal hope?

I talked with an individual yesterday that needed hope. Hope is necessary to press on. Without hope, life is dark and appears impossible. Hope brings light and the view of possibilities when life seems to have come to a dead-end.

How do we receive hope?
And, how do we bring hope to people when life seems hopeless?

We need real hope rather than feel-better-greeting-card words.
There is real hope when the message comes from God.

What does the message of God look like?
The book of John, found in the New Testament, gives us pictures of hope. Think about the miracle described in John 6.
Picture thousands of people gathered to hear the words of Jesus.
The people were hungry.
Food was gathered.
Five loaves of bread.
Two fish.
Jesus took the loaves and fish.
Jesus gave thanks.
The disciples served the food.
The people ate until they were full.
The leftovers were collected.

The picture describes hope:
When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, “Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting!” John 6:14, New Living Translation)

Why would people have thought that Christ, God with us, was a prophet?
What is a prophet?
• Prophet in the Hebrew language could be translated as “one called of God.”
• The Old Testament prophets relayed the plan of God through a personal encounter with God.
• To prophesy does not necessarily mean to make predictions about a circumstance or the future but to bring a message from God.
• Simply put, a prophet speaks the Word of God to reveal something about the plan of God.

Jesus gave the message of hope through demonstration and words.
In Matthew 19:26, the words of hope are recorded:
Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (NIV).
The picture of five loaves and two fish feeding thousands of people depicts the words that "with God all things are possible."

Become still.
Picture the message of hope.
Meditate on the words of hope: "All things are possible with God."

Learning with you to hope,
Shalom,
Kerrie
(All devotions written by Kerrie Palmer ©2009 All Rights Reserved)