Scripture: Romans 5:5
This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Thought for the Day: Hope is based in faith, and faith is rooted in an experience that helps confirm what cannot be confirmed by usual methods. The experience that gives rise to faith and helps create hope is the experience of love. Not some romantic gushy lust that we have confused as love, but the genuine and unconditional nature made real in Jesus. So many people live without hope, and yet they are told by many to have hope as if it is something easily picked up while at the grocery store. The problem for many is that they have not experienced love, the necessary component of hope. If all someone has experienced is a so-called love that cannot be trusted, comes and goes on a whim, then why should we expect such a person to be hopeful. They may have some wishful thinking, but wishful thinking has no foundation on which to stand. Let the church give witness to love from which hope can come.
Prayer: Continue to encourage my life of faith, O Giver of Abundant love. Allow me to grow in my trust of this love, and from it, to live a life of hope even when the darkness appears to have extinguished the light. Amen.
ONE SERVICE SUNDAY
10:30AM
