2021 Daily Devotion - Day 362

-
“Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.” — Samuel Smiles

We really do have a choice. We can travel toward hope or away from it. We travel toward it when we are looking for the good in our situations. We travel toward it when our outlook is to believe things can always get better. We move away from hope when all we can see and talk about is how terrible things are. When we expect things to fail and not work out, we are migrating away from hope. Which journey will you take? I promise – you do have a choice in which direction you go. And I firmly believe, if you travel toward hope, things are bound to become better. They almost have to. Simply because, at least you are on the road to hope, and this, in and of itself, is better.

Samuel Smiles says when we journey toward hope, it casts a “shadow of our burden behind us.” This could also be said of our Lord Jesus Christ. Moving toward Him will result in greater hope and will create a shadow of our burden behind us. When we journey toward Him, we experience His power and forgiveness.

John 6:37 ESV
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

Isn’t wonderful to know you can never be turned away from Jesus? No matter who you are or what you have done, you can journey toward Him and never be turned away.

Pray with me:
Lord Jesus Christ, we are glad to know the closer we come to You, the more we experience hope. And because of Your brightness, the burdens we carry are just shadows of the past. Help us to experience greater hope. In Your holy name. Amen.

Yours because of Him,
Pastor John R. Steward
Senior Pastor
Mount of Olives Church
Tags:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2021 Daily Devotion - Day 369

-
Palm Sunday Matthew 21:1-11NRSV When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, “Tell the daughter of Zion, look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes i...
More »

2020 Daily Devotion - Day 81

-
John 15:15 NRS I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. From an article on some of the great hymns of the church, we learn about the hymn, “What a Friend we have in Jesus”:   In 1844 a young Irishman, Joseph Scriven, had completed his college education and returned home to marry his sweetheart. As he was traveling to meet her on the day before the planned wedding, he came upon a horrible scene—his beautiful fiancée tragically lying under the water in a creek bed after falling off her horse. Later, Scriven moved to Canada and eventually fell in love again, only to experience devastation once more when she became ill and died just weeks before their marriage. For the second time, this humble Christian felt the loss of the woman he loved. The following year, he wrote a poem to his mother in Ireland that desc...
More »

2020 Daily Devotion - Day 120

-
"An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?" Many people often look at the negative side of life. President Reagan used to say that when people do this, it’s as if when you “give them a silver lining, they will find a cloud”. Of course, he was using the old saying “in every cloud, there is a silver lining” and reversing it to make a point. It is very important to be a “glass half full” kind of person. Looking for and expecting good things helps us to stay hope-filled. So, on this new day, be a positive person. Look for the good in everything. Look for hope in everything. Refuse to let yourselves dwell on the negative. Speak to others in inspirational ways, and you will find that your days will be better. Ephesians 4:29 ESV Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. Pray with Me: Heavenly Father, so many peop...
More »