Series: Hope
Message: Hope
Preacher: Tony Hunter
Daily Walk: Tony Hunter
Refresh: Open with prayer. Read or listen to Psalm 79:1-8.
Read: Romans 8:31-38 (ESV). As you read the English Standard Version, note 1-3 insights or questions.
Reflect: When I was in the first grade, softball was the game that was played at school. Every day that the weather would allow, we could be found out in front of the school playing. The first four grades always had recess and gym class together—the school was pretty small—which made the game a bit diverse in skill level. There were two student in particular—both fourth graders—who were never allowed to play on the same team because they were both so good. Their names were Gary and Larry. No matter how the teams were divided, they were never allowed to be on the same team. It just wouldn’t have been fair. To demonstrate this unfairness, one day the teacher allowed them to play together. The teams were divided like this: Gary and Larry versus the rest of the first through fourth graders. There were roughly ten of us against the two of them. And some of the rest of us were pretty OK at softball ourselves.
To make a long and embarrassing story short, it wasn’t even close. They destroyed us. They basically hit home runs every time they stepped up to the plate. We never even got one of them out. At some point during each inning, the teacher would declare their half of the inning done just so other people could get a chance to bat. Compared to the rest of us, they were simply unbeatable.
I think we have probably all been in situations where there was this one person we knew we could count on. When they were there, we could relax. We had confidence. We could breath easy. So, why do we struggle with the idea that with God on our side, the one who created all things, who is above all things and powers and beings, that with Him on our side no one can stand against us? We say the words, but do we accept it’s truth? Or do we doubt it’s truth? Is it because we doubt He is with us? Do we doubt His power? Do we doubt His desire?
Maybe we have needed God to stand for us. But maybe God isn’t going to stop every bully in the now. Maybe He isn’t going to rescue every child in the now. We have all seen too much horror in our world. We know, even if we don’t know how to frame it, that it’s true. Hope doesn't come through a team of God’s greatest players. God only needed The One.
Recalibrate:
Respond: Pray for the shift in your perspective that will allow you to see God move in your personal world.
Research: How has God stood up for the lives of people in your personal communities, and how do their stories relate to your own?