Sabbath: Indestructible Hope
Image © Pacific Press
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Habakkuk 1:1-4, Job 38:1-41:34, Isaiah 41:8-14, Jeremiah 29:1-10, Hebrews 12:1-13.
Memory Verse: “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5, NKJV).
When in church surrounded by smiling people, how easy it is to talk and sing about hope. But when we find ourselves within the crucible, hope does not always seem so easy. As circumstances press around us, we begin to question everything, particularly the wisdom of God.
In one of his books, C. S. Lewis writes about a make-believe lion. Wanting to meet this lion, someone asks if the lion is safe. The person is told that he’s not safe, “but he’s good.”
Even though we don’t always understand God and He seems to do unpredictable things, that doesn’t mean that God is against us. It simply means that we don’t have the full picture yet. But we struggle with the idea that for us to have peace, confidence, and hope, God must be understandable and predictable. He needs to be, in our thinking, “safe.” As such, we set ourselves up for disappointment.
The Week at a Glance: How does our understanding of the character of God help us maintain hope in the crucible?
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, August 13.
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When I was teaching in high school one of the worst classroom situations that I would face was when something happened in class that required disciplinary action but you did not know who did it. Invitations to confess were met with stony silence. Teachers. faced with that situation would often resort to giving the whole class detention. That of course was unfair to those who had nothing to do with the event in the first place. There were many situations where we teachers had to play detective in order to establish just what happened and who was to blame. And sometimes we were not successful. Today, I have these old grey-headed men and women greet me and say, "Do you remember ... I was the one that did that!" (They are still mischevious!)
Working out the "Who Dunnits?" of life is just as complicated. While we as Christians have our beliefs to fall back on, there are times when even those beliefs are challenged and we face uncertainty and doubt.
In the Bible, we have the example of John the Baptist, who had been preaching for years about Jesus and his mission. Yet in prison, he questioned the very authenticity of Jesus.
John thought he had it all worked out, but he had lost his freedom, and was in danger of losing his life. He had reason to doubt. He had been preaching, "the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, but in his current position, the Kindom of Heaven seemed a long way off.
We are not promised that we will work out all the "Who Dunnits" of life. There will be situations we do not understand, explanations that have gaps, unsolved issues, and unproven proofs (that one is for the mathematicians). Finding and maintaining hope is something we need to think about, not just for ourselves, but as a transmissible skill for others.
Many people are clinging to hope. They hope their poor eating, alcohol consumption or substance use won't result in poor health. They hope they won't get caught when they exceed the speed limit. They hope their lottery ticket will give them a win. But if you try to explore the actual basis of these hopes, you will discover that they are based on wishful thinking and fantasy, not wider/widest reality.
Indestructible hope is only indestructible to the extent that it is based on certainty and reality. And the only certain reality is that which is God-based. This week's lesson will give opportunity for more detailed exploration of aspects of God-based reality - the only reality that is actually capable of providing rock-solid hope.
Study asks:
How does our understanding of the character of God help us maintain hope in the crucible?
Answer:
What RULES God ?
Most people would say.. "nothing rules God" !
They would be wrong !
God is ruled by his OWN divine nature !
James 1:17
17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does #NOT change like shifting shadows#
2 Timothy 2:13
13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot #deny himself# (his own divine nature)
Colossians 1:19-20
19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
20 and through him to reconcile everything to #himself# (his own divine nature)
2 Corinthians 5:19
19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to #himself# (His own divine nature)
We can have confidence and respect/godly fear, that God is always consistent with his Divine Nature of Love, Mercy, Long Suffering and JUSTICE !
Keep on trucking (meme)
Shalom, blessings this Sabbath ! 🙏
Indestructible hope or presumption. I am going to go with 100% indestructible hope. I believe that is what the lesson will be about this week. I do believe as we understand the charactor of God, His pleasure and will would have us live with indestructible hope. We can build this hope by realizing that: Grace and peace will be multiplied to us in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord... 2Peter 1:2-4.
Thankyou for the lesson I needed today!
An indestructible hope is constant and permanent because God is constant and permanent. Blessed is the man who has an indestructible hope he will certainly abide forever. He is like a man who built his house on the rock, as long as the rock remains, rain and sunshine, life and death cannot shake it.