For Thought and Meditation - Friday, October 22

Good morning all. I really like this message today. Have a safe and blessed day.

Friday, October 22, 2021 - Pastor Greg Laurie

HOPE: Holding on with Patient Expectation

“When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple."
—Jonah 2:7

A lot of people in our culture today are starting to lose hope. Experts say that one of the reasons suicide rates are so high is because people have lost hope.

From the inside of a very large fish, Jonah was beginning to lose hope. But then he prayed. Jonah said, “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple. . . . But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:7, 9 NKJV).

Notice that Jonah didn’t have any promise that God would deliver him from the belly of that beast. But he gave thanks to the Lord while he was there.

Maybe you’re going through a hard time right now, and you’re thinking, “I don't feel like giving thanks to God. I’ll give thanks when I get through this problem.”

Give thanks to God now. When Paul and Silas were thrown into prison for preaching the gospel, we read that “at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God” (Acts 16:25 NKJV).

The Bible says, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! for His mercy endures forever” (1 Chronicles 16:34 NKJV). It doesn’t say, “Give thanks to the Lord when you feel good” or “give thanks to the Lord when circumstances are good.”

If you’re losing hope today, don’t give up. I don’t know what kind of situation you’re in right now, but you’re going to get through it. Remember this acronym for hope: holding on with patient expectation.

Don’t lose hope. God is in control. God is sovereign. And if He got Jonah out of a fish, then God can get you through whatever you’re facing today.

Great teaching, if you are going through some thing, focus on going through not being stuck in something.

Amen, All things are from God !

amen!!!

God is great, God is good, and He takes care of us in the midst of all of our troubles. Even when we do not recognize it at the time we will recognize it later. I have a client who was shot 10 times by her husband years ago before he shot himself to death. God walked her through the stuff her husband put there to keep the police out, and walked her right into the hands of the police before she collapsed. Even the MD who worked on her in the ER wrote in his notes that he was not responsible for saving her life because he did not expect her to live. Everything she has been through since she gives glory to God for keeping her alive to raise her son, now a Freshman in college. She is now writing a book of her experiences that I hope Zondervan will publish. She is even now living on the Grace of God and not her own ability. She is in an apartment that she cannot afford but God has kept her there for over a year.

We often do not realize until later that we are in the Valley of the Shadow of Death until after the experience.