SUNDAY 23RD APRIL 2017

TOPIC: WHAT TO DO IN A CRISIS (3)
TEXT: Acts 27:20 “The terrible storm raged for many days, blotting out the sun and the stars, until at last all hope was gone…”

Thirdly, DON’T DESPAIR. ‘When … the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope.’ The last thing we throw overboard when we face a crisis is — hope and when we throw that away, we’ve pretty much had it’. Are you wrestling with an issue that’s been battering you back and forth? Have you come to the point where you’ve thrown things out, and now you’re at the point of despair? Remember, the sailors on Paul’s ship ‘finally gave up all hope’ because they forgot that God was in control. They forgot He had a plan and they forgot that He can inject hope into an absolutely hopeless situation.
When the Bible speaks of ‘hope’ it’s not talking about luck, or chance, or accident. No, it’s talking about focused faith! ‘ Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD’ (Psalm 31:24).
‘The eyes of the LORD are on those … whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name’ (Psalm 33:18-21). Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God’.
Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope’ . So the word for you today is: Don’t despair, but Put your hope in God’.

MEDITATION: Romans 15:5-6, Ps 42: 11

BIBLE STUDY
Lev. 27; Ps. 34; Eccl. 10; Titus. 2