Jesus, The Hope of the World
Our world is faced with many challenges. What do you think contributes to a sense of hopelessness among many? When is hope most difficult for you to find?
Isaiah describes the hopeful anticipation of the coming Messiah. Read Isaiah 9:6-7. How would this promise help provide hope for God’s people? How do these verses bring hope to you?
Read Lamentations 3:18-26. What do you notice about the writer’s journey from hopelessness to hope? What do you do to remain hopeful?
How does Peter describe the kind of hope available to the believer in Jesus (1 Peter 1:3)? A life of hope is one of God’s great desires for you. Read Romans 15:13. What would it look like for you to “abound in hope?”
No one would argue that life presents us with many challenges. How is the future anticipation of being with God forever a present hope? Is the reality of heaven a source of comfort for you? Why or why not?
Further Reading
Kindness Toward Ourselves
There is often enormous pressure to keep up with the non-stop noise and activity of our modern world. Jesus offers us an alternative to this frantic pace but following Him and resisting the pressure around us will require a simple act: kindness toward ourselves. Is...
Simple Unplugging
Our immediate access to people and information through the use of technology has become a prevailing cultural norm. What has become the normal daily consumption of input can have a numbing effect on our soul and lead to our faith gradually growing thinner and thinner...
Drinking Beauty
God paints on a large canvas. His creativity is seen in the grandeur of the mountains, in the wildflowers on a rolling hillside, in classic masterpieces in an art gallery, or in the curious expression on the face of a child. Beauty is all around us. But seeing it...
Pausing to Detach
So much about the pace of life conspires against us. We might even be convinced that the faster we go and the busier we become, the more we’ll get done. But what does that kind of toxicity do to our souls? Could it be that God invites us to find Him through a...
Never Give Up
Resilience is such a powerful concept. Some of our greatest heroes and inspirational characters in stories are defined as people of resilience. But what does it look like to have a resilient faith? Spoiler alert... it doesn't mean that things are always going to go...