A paper I wrote for school in 2010.
Hope for the Hopeless
Right now around the world there are 1,027,415,880 undernourished people and counting. 1,411,960,190 people around the world have no access to safe clean drinking water. 3,381,539 people died from water related diseases just in this year. 676,317 people have died from malaria this year. HIV and Aids have taken the lives of over 1,367,436 people while 32,113,506 of them are living effected by it at the moment. Cancer has stolen the future of over 5,093,568 people and counting just this year alone. 4,491,236 people across the world have died from smoking in 2010 alone. 718,600 people have taken their own lives this year not to mention that some 30,857,700 babies have been aborted this year.
“Day after day a loving Creator looks down on a broken planet longing for the day when the object of His affection will walk hand in hand with Him into indescribable beauty in the halls of Eternity.”
-Kris Vallotton
This world may be poverty stricken, it may have thousands of people going hungry everyday, there may be wars going on in other countries that we have never even set ears on and we might even have cereal killers walking the streets of our very own city and yet aside from all that, I just can’t help but think of how GREAT our God truly is! The light will ALWAYS shine in the darkness. Daily the enemy is destroying our earthly hopes of having and living in happiness. Yes the things going on to this world are affecting us but just imagine how heart broken our Creator must feel as He looks down on so many of His children who are conforming to the ways of this world which are also the ways of the enemy.
There is a song called God of This City by a Christian artist named Chris Tomlin. In the lyrics he writes “You’re the Light in this darkness. You’re the Hope to the hopeless. You’re the Peace to the restless. There is no one like our God. For greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this City.” All around us are people constantly saying and talking about how messed up this world is, complaining about government issues, saying how there are people in other countries who never get to eat. A good number of those people are the exact ones who, when the opportunity arises to help fight these problems, end up backing down and saying there is nothing they can do.
“Thinking faith thoughts and speaking faith words will lead your heart out of defeat and into victory.”
-Kenneth Hagin
So what we should do is walk by faith, even when we cannot see. That is exactly what faith is, the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Jesus Christ died on the cross to give each and every one of us the chance at having eternal salvation in Heaven with the Lord God Almighty. The weight of our sins He carried on His shoulders. He brought mercy and grace into this world while nailed to the cross. He gave up His life because He believes we are worth it. He loves us enough to give His life, just like God loves us enough to give the life of His one and only Beloved Son. God’s purpose of making us was so we could love Him and follow Him, to walk into our divine destinies He has created for us. God is a Lover looking for a lover.
The reason there is sin in the world is because some years ago when this world was created God made man with their own free will. God wants us to love Him because we deeply desire to please and serve Him, which is the purpose behind free will. Through deceit the enemy stole this sinless world right out from under Adam and Eve, making them believe that if they did as he said they could be the rulers of this earth. Yes our messed up world can trace back to the beginning when man fell. Yes the enemy can create destruction on his own. Yet somewhere along this broken road people are using their free will and putting their hope in something perceived as the right thing to do when in reality they will only get there chance at true happiness swiped right out from under them.
‘What you do is usually a result of what you believe.”
-Tom Hammond
God knows everything you will do from the time you are born till the very minute you take your last breath and every breath in between we have a choice what to make of it. Will you breathe for this world or will you choose to take each breath for the One who gave you your breath in the first place. To what length will you go to leave an inheritance to your children and your children’s children? I know I do not want my kids raising their kids in a world like this. The only thing we can put our hope in is Christ Himself.
If you think there isn’t anything that you could possibly do that would make a difference in the nations you are wrong. We live under an open Heaven. No prayer goes unheard. That is probably the easiest and best thing we could ever do for this country is pray, pray, pray. Everything God can do, prayer can do. Things CAN, WILL, and DO change when we pray! Kathryn Kuhlman, a great revivalist from years ago, once said that “The greatest power that God has given to any individual is the power of prayer.” The Bible says where you sow your seed there will be a great harvest. Prayer is like sowing seeds. When you plant a seed it goes deep into the ground, gets watered and soon sprouts up great things. When you pray, your prayers go straight up to Heaven, to the throne of God and the more you pray the seed gets watered and soon you will see the fruits of your labor.
“We cannot exercise our faith beyond what we believe to be possible.”
-Revivalist John G. Lake
One of my favorite missionaries to read about is Heidi Baker. She and her husband live in Mozambique Africa and have seen God bring the harvest of MANY seeds they have sown into the lives of the people all around them. Their Iris Ministries alone has thousands of church plants over in their area and across the world. They have seen countless miracles from God. Heidi’s ministry is not to make people repent and come to Jesus. Her goal is to do all she can do, which is love the people God puts in her path. The only way she or anyone else in this world is capable of this love is because our Father loved us first. By her loving these women, men and children, God brings her to the point where they eventually see the Father’s heart in her. She lives each day in the mind set of being the hands and feet of Jesus and spreads not just His Word but mainly His love. His amazing love! With out this love the Bible is just words. Saying I love you is meaningless with out Christ demonstrating on the cross what true love really is.
“The impossible bows down to the name of Jesus.”
-Bill Johnson.
In Heidi Baker’s book called Compelled by Love she says “Prayer is not asking. True prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, listening to His voice in the depths of our hearts.” In John 14:12 it says “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” This is a promise from God Himself that we have the ability to live a life with endless wishes and endless joy if we can trust in Him and know He is our only hope. The day you call on the name of the Lord He will set you free. He says we can ask Him for anything. He works all things for our good. God has predestined each of us to win and it is our choice if we want to walk by faith with Him, even if we can’t see the plan He has prepared for us, or to take the side road and be conformed to this world.
“God only leads us into battles we are trained to win.”
-Bill Johnson
My point is that we are called to glory. God has an amazing call and purpose on each one of our lives. The statistics in the beginning maybe be our families inheritance if we don’t choose to follow God. It breaks His heart just as much as it does us to see this world falling apart at our fingertips. He didn’t plan for any of those deaths to take place or the diseases to attack those people’s bodies. That is all the work of the enemy. Don’t tell your God how big your storm is; tell your storm how big your God is! You can make a difference in this world. A great first step is praying. The devil is only as big as you let him be. When Jesus died on the cross he went down in to hell and stole keys to eternity back and He won the battle for us all. The people who think they are fighting a battle against good and evil are wrong. There is no battle. God has already won. When this is all over Christ is the one who will stand firm on His promises. The enemy has nothing to fall back on except all the people he has already deceived. I can’t explain how I know God is real. I can’t explain how I know the Bible is real. I can’t explain how I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and He died on the cross for all my sins. But without a doubt I can say that I serve a great God and He is all that I need. He is all that I want. He is everything my heart could ever ask for. I know, that I know, that I know Jesus Christ is the Living King. The One who was, is, and who is to come. I have never been so sure of anything in my life. I have surrendered everything I am to the only One. I have died to my self and have now found my true purpose in this world. If God were easily explained He wouldn’t be BIG enough to worship.
“He’s bringing hope to the hopeless, sharing His heart with the broken, and giving His home to the orphan, He is The Joy.”
-Hopes Anthem by William Matthews
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