Thought for the Day - Tuesday 16 June

Thought for the Day – Tuesday 16^th June

‘Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.’ (Romans 5: 1-5)

Have you ever had that feeling that you are being bombarded by something or having something said to you by so many different people that you suddenly think to yourself – actually I need to listen to this because I do think I am being told something here – God is definitely seeking to get his message across to me?

Well, as I have been reflecting on our readings for this week it seems to me that in them we are being bombarded by this message of hope and it has me thinking that maybe, just maybe it is something that perhaps we are needing to hear and be reminded of at this particular time. Perhaps we are beginning to feel a little ‘hopeless’, perhaps as our enforced time indoors continues we are beginning to feel our ‘suffering’ has gone on long enough, perhaps we feel our character is sufficiently built up and we have persevered enough.

I know this text can sometimes be misquoted by people who use it to justify suffering but I prefer to think of it as a text which tells us more about hope.

Yes, I cannot deny there will be times when we suffer and suffer to greater or lesser degrees and I am sure these times will indeed be character building for us, but these times should never erode our hope. With our faith firmly founded in God, we should feel a peace within us, we should be aware that we are still living by God’s grace and in his grace, no matter what we are facing and no matter how difficult to remember that is, we should never forget that God loves us so much that he has poured his Spirit into our hearts and that self-same Spirit will help us to keep faith, have peace, live by and in grace and maintain an enduring hope when we look always to God.

I like this little quote on hope because it reminds us of our ever-present God, our God who created the sun and the stars. Sometimes in our times of darkness we are tempted to think he is not there but he is always there because he loves us so much and wants to bring us his enduring hope constantly. So keep faith, keep believing, keep hope in your hearts!

‘Don’t lose hope. When the sun goes down the stars come out.’

Prayer

Loving Lord,

We bring you our thanks and praise this day that through our faith in you and in Jesus Christ, you enter into every heart making lives new and bringing us an enduring hope. May we in our thankfulness to you seek to bring your hope to all who feel hopeless at this time – those feeling alone, those feeling lost, those who feel they have no hope – and in a moment of silence we take time to bring before you those particularly on our hearts at this time praying that they might feel your presence and your hope in the midst of their hopelessness.

(Silence) 

Lord, hear these our prayers asked in Jesus’ name. Amen