HOPE IN THE LORD

Psalm 146:5 “Happy are the youth whose hope is in the Lord.”

Hope is faith in action. Hope is what gets you through the night when darkness closes in on you. Hope is the belief that you are not permanently in the dark and boxed in with no way out.

As you graduate and go to the next chapter in your life, I encourage you to hope in the Lord. God has a plan for your life. His plan is to give you hope. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” ‘declares the Lord,’ “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Surrendering to God’s will gives you hope.

You might ask, “How can I know God’s will?” “I have to know His will before I can surrender to it.” God reveals His will to you as you walk with Him in obedience day by day. God does not reveal His will for most people with a giant rainbow flash in the sky with letters in rainbow letters. For most people, God reveals His will step by step.

The key to finding God’s will is to surrender your life to serve the Lord. Your tomorrows are wrapped up in complete surrender to the Lord. James 4:13-15, “Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’”

Sometimes God guides us in ways that at first, we’re not too happy about.

Surrender to God’s will. Give your future to God. Live one day at a time and daily surrender your life to the Lord. You have this promise: Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths.”

If you are in the will of God, then nothing else matters. If you are in the will of God, then whatever else happens to you does matter to God. And God is your refuge and strength.

God will never direct you into any kind of work that is contrary to the Word of God. Determine to be a student of God’s Word for the rest of your life. 2 Timothy 2:15, “Work hard so God can approve you. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed”. 

The hymn MY HOPE IS BUILT ON NOTHING LESS came as an inspiration to Edward Mote on his way to work one glorious day in 1834. Specifically, the thought to compose a hymn about the “Gracious experience of a Christian” came to him. As he went up Holdborn, he had the word “On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand” on his head. 

Verse 1

My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name. 

Chorus:

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand:
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand. 

Verse 2

When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil. 

Verse 3

His oath, his covenant, his blood,
support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay. 

Verse 4

When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found:
dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne