Joyful in Hope

 

With a fresh perspective, focused on God, you can live your life above your circumstances. You can sleep in peace! You can remain joyful in hope every day!

God whose manifold wisdom crafted the plan which enabled you to become part of God’s family before the dawn of creation is more than wise enough to provide wisdom for the tiniest details of your life. Nothing is happening today in your life that will hinder God from accomplishing his divine purposes.

During those times when your life seems to go from one crisis to the next, you can rest assured that God is still accomplishing His divine purposes. Your responsibility is simply to trust in the manifold wisdom of God, to rest in the gift of God’s grace, and to moment by moment obediently live your life through God’s power.

The incomparable greatness of God’s power which raised you up with Christ and seated you in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus is more power than you need for today and tomorrow. 

God’s grace which made you alive in Christ when you were dead in your transgressions and sins, is more than sufficient for each day of your life. You don’t need to depend on your own abilities to do what God has called you to do, you can rely on God’s grace to see you through.

Consider for a moment where the Apostle Paul is when he writes to the Ephesians painting a glorious word picture of who we are and what we have in Christ. 

Paul is living under house arrest, chained to a Roman Soldier. Paul isn’t free to come and go as he pleases. Paul’s life seemed to go from one crisis to the next. If you think your life has challenges, Paul would claim that his life had even more difficulties. He has been in prison frequently, flogged, exposed to death, beaten with rods, pelted with stones and shipwrecked. He has been in danger from rivers, bandits, Jews and Gentiles. He’s gone without sleep, known what it is to be hungry and thirsty, cold and naked. (2 Cor 11:23-29). 

Paul lived his life above these circumstances, because he lived with a fresh perspective that looked to God.

God’s grace transformed Paul from a Jewish leader who persecuted Christ followers to a preacher of the boundless riches of Christ. Paul knew that it was not his own abilities but the grace of God that enabled him to preach. Since God’s grace transformed Pauls’ life, Paul knew that God’s grace was sufficient for each day of his life. Paul knew he didn’t need to trust in his own abilities to change his situation. Paul knew that he could totally depend on God.

By his grace, God chose to reveal the mystery of his divine plan to Paul. God in his manifold wisdom had an eternal plan before the dawn of creation to join together people from all tribes and nations into one body through faith in Christ. Paul knew that God who was wise enough to craft this divine plan of salvation, was more than wise enough to care for the littlest of details of his life. 

When Paul became a servant of the gospel, Paul knew that this was a gift of God’s grace made possible only by the incomparable greatness of God’s power. Paul trusted that this power of God which raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:6) was more than sufficient for whatever happened in his life today and tomorrow.

Not only did Paul have the privilege and task of proclaiming that we could approach God with freedom and confidence because God’s eternal purposes had been accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul knew that it was personally true. Paul knew that he was in Christ and through faith in Christ he could boldly and freely approach the throne of grace as God’s child (Eph 3:12).

When you by faith believed the gospel message which is rooted in eternity, you entered into a secure relationship with God. You can come to God with boldness and confidence! At any time, in any place– your Heavenly Father is waiting in love ready to listen to your pleas, to ease your burdens, and to give you peace, joy, grace and wisdom.

Photo Credit: ExistenceOfGod.org