Sunday, January 04, 2009 High Hopes
Dr. Frederick K.C. Price
Hebrews 10:23 says: "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful."
There are two words in that verse which I want to examine-confession and hope. Before I learned how to walk by faith, all my wife and I lived on was hope. But hope will not change your circumstances. It takes faith to release the power of God to change your circumstances. Hope will only keep you alive until things change. If you never bring faith to bear upon your circumstances, all you will do is live in hope. Your circumstances will never change.
However, in order to really walk by faith, you have to have hope. Hope is a goal setter. What's your goal? My goal or objective is to reach the top of the mountain in all areas of life. Everybody should have a goal. If you do not set a goal you will never reach one. This is one reason why many people, and even many Christians, never achieve anything. They never set goals. They have nothing for their faith to obtain. Hope sets the goal and faith achieves it.
Hebrews 11:1 says: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Hope by itself has no substance. Faith adds substance to your hope. If you do not have hope then you have nothing for your faith to obtain. On the other hand, if you have hope and do not have faith then you have nothing by which to obtain that which you hope for.
I want to challenge each of you to high hopes this New Year. I have high hopes and I obtain the goals I set. Though there still are some that have yet to manifest. I know that some things take more time than others.
I want to challenge you to have high hopes, to set some goals for 2009. If you do not set any goals you will never reach any. Now be careful and use wisdom when you set your goals. Do not set them so high that you become frustrated and lose hope. If you do, it will cause you to give up and do nothing.
Have you set goals concerning your financial and spiritual needs? Do you have any goals with regard to your desires, your family, your husband, your wife, your children, your job, your career, your education, your ministry or your physical health?
You need to have high hopes and there are steps you can take to obtain any goal. The first one is to remain steadfast, as it says in Hebrews 10:23. You have to be tenacious and hold on to your goals. Do not let go until your goal manifests. It takes that kind of attitude. Stay with it even if it takes forever. It may take a while for your goal to come to pass, but if you remain steadfast sooner or later it will manifest.
First Corinthians 15:58 says: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."
If you want to reach your high hopes you have to be steadfast. Even if hell rises up against you, if the water rises, you stick with the goal. This is what steadfast means. It takes discipline and commitment to be constant.
Jesus said in John 15:18-19: "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. "If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you."
The enemy will put pressure on you when you attempt to reach your goal. But you can handle it. Jesus did. You are in good company. In fact, you are running with the best. He has already warned you. If they persecuted Him they will persecute you.
Situations may arise in which you are unable to figure out what to do. We all have encountered this at one time or another in our lives. When you are walking in the Word and by the Holy Spirit you have divine, inside information to meet your goal.
Second Corinthians 4:8-9 says: "We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;"
If you are steadfast, standing through the persecution, deliverance is at hand. You can obtain your High Hopes.
This devotional was excerpted from Dr. Price's audio teaching, "High Hopes." Please call us at (800) 927-3436 or visit our website: www.faithdome.org for a complete list of his products.
Dr. Frederick K.C. Price is the founder and pastor of Crenshaw Christian Center West in Los Angeles and CCC East in Manhattan. To obtain more information about his ministry, please call (800) 927-3436 or visit http://www.faithdome.org/.
2 comments:
New Year, clean slate, an opportunity to start over again. In some cases I believe you may need to go back and close some doors before starting new. Easier said then done but if you don't you are only carrying old baggage (unhealed wounds, relationships, etc. etc) right into your next opportunity and that usally doesn't have very good results. Like the old saying goes.."Out with the old..."
My belief is that if you want to see things change you need to change your methods because it is apparent that if they are your methods, they aren't working to good for you. I've been there. I've had to change my methods and they work...I promise!!! There is a manual that has already been written for us...yep, Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth (BIBLE).
Anyways, one needs to write their goals on paper in order of priority. When they are written on paper somehow most of them manifest themselves, not magically...you need to put a little elbow grease into it yourself. With elbow grease and Hebrews 11:1 things will come to pass.
When you have a chance, read the section on Creative Visualization. Put it to practice with perseverance (the devil will always try to trip you up just when your blessing is ready to manifest. You will need to persevere and persist more at this time)...everything happens at the appropriate time.
NOTE: This year will be your best year no matter what the economists tell you. Set everything in motion and you will see.
AMEN!
Hope needs faith, faith needs hope!This basic, oh-so-simple common sense truth ....that is not always so common or oh-so-simple to remember and believe, is something that I have been blessed with over this last year to have been planted in my life. Now this year it's up to me to grow it! I've pretty much always been hopeful,adding faith to that hope has made an amazing difference in my life! It is a work in progress for sure, but a job well worth the effort!
AMEN!
Change is hard, change is scary and change, is neccesary!
Change your methods, change your belief system, change your minds and change your hearts, and watch God change your life!
Doing things the same way, over and over, but expecting different results sounds alot like a definition I've heard.... of insanity! And.....
AMEN!
Persevere and persist, persist and persevere, be faithful, and your reward wil come in God's perfect time.
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