Jeremiah 29:11-12 (NIV)
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. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will
listen to you.
The school system in a large city had a program to help
children keep up with their schoolwork during stays in the city's hospitals.
One day a teacher who was assigned to the program received a routine call
asking her to visit a particular child. She took the child's name and room
number and talked briefly with the child's regular class teacher. "We're
studying nouns and adverbs in his class now," the teacher said, "and
I'd be grateful if you could help him understand them so he doesn't fall too
far behind."
The hospital program teacher went to see the boy that
afternoon. No one had mentioned to her that the boy had been badly burned and
was in great pain. Upset at the sight of the boy, she stammered as she told
him, 'I've been sent by your school to help you with nouns and adverbs."
When she left she felt she hadn't accomplished much.
But the next day, a nurse asked her, "What did you
DO to that boy?"
The teacher felt she must have done something wrong and
began to apologize.
"No, no," said the nurse. "You don't know
what I mean. We've been worried about that little boy, but ever since
yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He's fighting back, responding to
treatment. It's as though he's decided to LIVE!"
Two weeks later the boy explained that he had completely
given up hope until the teacher arrived. Everything changed when he came to a
simple realization. He expressed it this way: "They wouldn't send a
teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a DYING boy, would they?"
What made the difference in this little boy? In a word,
"HOPE!" Feeling hopeless and helpless in his badly burned and painful
condition, he found HOPE in the presence of the teacher.
What a lesson for US. . .
Due to our sin, WE are also hopeless and helpless! There
is nothing that you and I can do in our own power to improve our condition.
"The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23), and that leaves us with...
NO HOPE, for "ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"
(Romans 3:23).
But then the Teacher, Jesus Christ, came into this world
to open a pathway back from sin's dark grip of DEATH. He demonstrated the
reality of LIFE beyond the grave by His OWN resurrection from the dead and
revealed the WAY to that LIFE giving us HOPE!
He said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no
one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). We have HOPE
because. . . Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins making our forgiveness
available. We access that HOPE by. . . Believing in Him (Acts 16:30-31),
repenting of our sins (Acts 17:30-31), confessing Jesus before men (Romans
10:9-10), being baptized (immersed) for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38),
and then following Him faithfully (Revelation 2:10).
With the HOPE that Jesus gives, WE have a new lease on
LIFE!
Dear Lord, We thank You that we can put our complete
trust in You and because if that we have hope. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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