When We get Beat Down, We Lose our Hope—R Fritz
Hope is what keeps us going as well as what moves us. Without hope, we revert to who we were before we met Jesus. Without God, there is no hope because we can only depend on man. Hope is foreign to us, and we do not understand it without Jesus. Ephesians 2:11-16 says “Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at the time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;” We were Gentiles in the flesh whenJesus broke down the partition between us and God on the cross, and when he left, the Holy Spirit made us citizens with the saints and of the household of God. With the Holy Spirit, we can speak with God at any time, being the hope. Things happen in lif,e it is what we do or the decision we make that defines us. When we believe and ask the Holy Spirit, or as we speak the words, or we start down the road where we believe we are doing what the Holy Spirit wants us to do, we move confidently.
I learned that what I lacked the most was confidence or believing in myself. That was because I believed I did not know the Bible good enough. It was the Holy Spirit that gave us the wisdom that while we speak, wisdom comes out of our mouth because the Holy Spirit takes over if we have surrendered our will. Ephesians 1:17-19 says “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to his mighty power.” We get the spirit of wisdom as the Holy Spirit in us speaks out the words in whatever way the situation needs to go. We become the conduit where the Holy Spirit controls the situation. When we want power or control, that’s where things end up poorly. When we give in and let the Holy Spirit be our words, then we can keep our feelings out of the situation and stop ourselves from personally getting involved. I have been in places where the Holy Spirit would not let me speak or not speak on certain things.
We have lost our way if we lose our hope. It comes when we stray from God, maybe something happened, we have blamed God and turned our back on God, or things started to go sideways, and we could not change things, and forgot God because our belief level was not very high. We went back to our own ways because we know our old ways the best and trust them even though things were not good. Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” What we did not do was to give God the time to change our situation with us to start a relationship with Jesus. I saw who and what God was doing, and I was all in. We need to look at the situation and see what is good for us and buy in because our answer can go away and be gone. Sometimes we get one chance to accept what God has for us then it is gone. Sometimes it has happened to me when I did not accept the Holy Spirit’s words, and they were taken away. We need to listen and not blow God off; this is God, and our disrespect will not be tolerated. God knows our hearts and our intent.
We have control over most of our lives, as bad things happen. Everybody’s situation is different; from my experience, it requires us to get serious and come to God and ask for his help. In my case, I had to take my situation and look for whatever it took to change that situation, as it took weeks and months. It was doing something where God would speak through my thoughts and give me verses, and I had to work through my situation with love, and if I did not, it would be worse, as God’s wisdom was given to me to help manage myself and keep my feelings under control. We are our worst enemy, so God’s wisdom is what changed my situation and will change yours. We need to want to change as we have our situation because we did not see what was happening, or just did not know how to change what was happening. For me, it was two steps forward, one step back, next could be one step forward and three steps back, and change every day until things worked their way out. Situations have people involved; that is what takes time for God’s ways to change people. God speaks to people to change them, and sometimes that takes time. Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” We should not conform to this world because God uses spiritual things to change situations and people. Know this and understand how God can change our situation. God Bless.
