Empty is an Illusion & Hope is an Anchor
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Empty is an Illusion & Hope is an Anchor
September 17th, 2023
Biblical hope is a confident expectation anchored in the Hope of Jesus
1 Timothy 1:1,2 (NIV)
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope… 2 To Timothy my true son in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Colossians 1:27 (NIV) “it is Christ in you the Hope of glory.”
Biblical Hope is not an outcome-based emotion but a confident trust in the person who lives/dwells inside of us. Making Hope something that can be learned, practiced and shared!
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV) “therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”Genesis 1:1-3a (NIV)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
God preceded empty.
God was present in empty.
God produced full out of empty.
Conclusion: Empty isn’t empty. Empty is an illusion.
Empty is when what we are facing completely absorbs all of our available resources without changing the result.
You can’t trust your eyes, your feelings or even your ability to reason in situations that appear to be empty, you have to trust the truth: With God, empty is an illusion and Hope is an anchor. Emotions/feelings are real but they aren’t always true.
4 Hope Axioms
When you wait that long for something, it is easy to lose Hope.
Few people feel worthy of Hope when they are empty.
Hope can look much different than you imagine.
It’s easier to believe in the empty you feel than the Hope you are promised.
Funny thing about hope, when we need it the most is when we are in circumstances when we believe it the least. In the middle of your empty, when God speaks Hope, take His word for it!
Romans 4:17b (NIV)
“the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.”
Empty is the best frame by which to see God. Until God frames Himself in our “empty” we will never see Him in His proper scope. God isn’t God because He makes stuff go away. God is God because He creates something new where there wasn’t anything there before.
2 Corinthians 4:6-12 (NIV)
6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
Hope in an Anchor!
Hebrews 6:17-20 (Amplified)
17 In the same way God, in His desire to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable nature of His purpose, intervened and guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things [His promise and His oath] in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled [to Him] for refuge would have strong encouragement and indwelling strength to hold tightly to the hope set before us. 19 This hope [this confident assurance] we have as an anchor of the soul [it cannot slip and it cannot break down under whatever pressure bears upon it]—a safe and steadfast hope that enters within the veil [of the heavenly temple, that most Holy Place in which the very presence of God dwells], 20 where Jesus has entered [in advance] as a forerunner for us, having become a High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
In John 16:33 “In this world you will have trouble but take heart for I have overcome the world.” *In this world you will face what looks empty but I have overcome the source of empty – take hope, grab the anchor.
Empty is an illusion and Hope is an anchor!