There Is Hope. Don’t Be Discouraged.
READ EZEKIEL 37:1-14
MEDITATION: Notice that we are continuing our reflection from yesterday. As hopeless as these bones were, there was still hope. People may say you are broke but there is still hope. If God can bring dry bones together again, He can do the same for you; there is still hope. God delights in doing the impossible!
When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you are slamming the door in the face of God. There are no hopeless situations. There are only people who have grown hopeless about them. Psalms 42:11 “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”
The single greatest weapon that the devil has to use against the people of God is discouragement. If the devil can get you discouraged then you will
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Not pray (what’s the use, God doesn’t hear)
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Not read the bible (what’s the use God doesn’t speak to me)
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Not pay all of your tithe (what’s the use, I can barely make it now)
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Not give in the offering (things are really tight now)
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Stub up at what the preacher is saying (this guy doesn’t live in reality)
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Look at everyone else and not to Jesus (I can’t believe them)
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Not come to church (What’s the use)
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Lose sight of what God has for you and for this Church!
Because of this weapon of discouragement, statistics tell us that every month in America 200 pastors quit the ministry, because of this great weapon of discouragement many churches every month put a pad lock on the door and close down in God’s own country. Because of this weapon called discouragement the people of God become down hearted, hopeless, weighed down and weary in well doing.
The Devil was having a yard sale, and all of his tools were marked with different prices. They were a fiendish lot. There was hatred, jealousy, deceit, lying, and pride–all at expensive prices. But over to the side of the yard on display was a tool more obviously worn than any of the other tools. It was also the most costly. The tool was labeled DISCOURAGEMENT. When questioned, the Devil said, “It’s more useful to me than any other tool. When I can’t bring down my victims with any of the rest of these tools, I use discouragement, because so few people realize that it belongs to me.” Satan is never happier than when he sees people giving in and giving up to despair and becoming lost in hopelessness. There is hope for the hopeless! Keep in mind that NO WEAPON….WE ARE MORE…I CAN DO…
“No one is hopeless whose hope is in God.” Have you ever been in despair? Are you living in despair presently? Have you ever felt like your whole world is caving in around you and there is absolutely no hope? Have you lost hope that things can change for the better for you? The answer is simple. Quit looking at your circumstances and look at God. A pessimist finds a problem in every opportunity, but an optimist finds opportunity in every problem. Don’t despair, for God is the answer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbH_fJDmyaEI
ACTION: Place in your bowl all the things that frustrate you in life; all the things that dampen your hope and enthusiasm; those things that threaten to steal your joy away and pull you under a torrent of unending waves of anxiety, disappointment and despair.
