Dear Readers and Listeners, Friends in Jesus Christ,
Our watchword for today is taken from Psalm One Hundred and Forty Six verse Five, “Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God,” (NRSVB). The psalmist brings praise to God while the breath of life is residing within him. There will come a time when the praise and plans of humans perish as they are called to return to the earth where they came from. The psalmist states that he is blessed, for he, like Jacob, receives special revelation from God, because he puts his hope and trust in the God as the forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did. Their hope and trust were solely directed to the God of Israel. The God of Israel, is the God who made heaven and earth. He is the One who is truth and acts faithfully for ever. With a God, like the God of Israel, one can be happy and rejoice in spirit, mind, soul and body, for there is nothing to fear. God promises that he will cause justice to prevail from generation to generation upon those who praise him and confess his name. Those who trust in the Lord will never be put to shame, their hope will come to pass and they will enjoy God’s blessings.
Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, as it is recorded in Chapter Five of the Gospel of Matthew, that those who experience the greatest godly blessings, are those who are humble and of lowly estate on earth, for their reward in heaven would be great. Those who are humble and of little renown, those who are mourning, those who are patient, those who are desiring righteousness, those who are merciful, those who are pure of heart, those who are peacemakers and those who are persecuted for their faith in God, they are the truly blessed. Enjoying God’s blessings results in an inner state of joy that no-one, not even the enemy, can snatch away. God’s blessings bring soul-peace. God’s presence and his forgiveness cause one to praise Him in all circumstances, for his deliverance is our assured hope.
People are motivated to plan knowing what the end-goal is that they have in mind. Many plans are devised on earth in order to improve the life and life-style of humanity. These plans promise to deliver possibilities for a full life, enjoying the best things that the world has to offer. Jesus asks us to take our focus off the gifts that the world has to offer and to reassess the type of life that the world upholds as meaningful living. True life is to hold onto our Christian hope and see this life on earth as transitory, the portal to life everlasting. Being a testimony to Christ and the life that he offers through his gift on the Cross for us and his example of servant-leadership is our life-long and ultimate goal for our lives here on earth. Because our hope is focussed on the promise of life-everlasting, with the Lord, we can live life within a blessed state of meaning and purpose. We know that we are ultimately destined to life with no end, a life filled with beauty and blessing that we cannot even imagine with our earthly thoughts. In the Gospel of Luke, in Chapter Twenty One verse Nineteen, Jesus teaches his disciples what they have to do when he has ascended to heaven, and is not present for them in his physical manifestation, “By your steadfastness and patience endurance you shall win the true life of your souls,” (Amplified Bible).
Father God, we thank you that our hope is in you! We ask that you will reveal yourself to us as we journey towards our final goal, life with you in heaven. Father, we ask that you will protect us on our way as we traverse this world, help us to look up to you and remain steadfast, enduring the trials of life with the assurance that our hope will not be disappointed, Amen.