Christ In Me.

He is the Hope of Glory. Hope is one of those things that encourages me the most...when everything seems to be going wrong, we have hope...when all is well, we have hope...when we don't know where God is leading us, we have hope...when we think that we have failed so miserably that it can never be mended, we have hope.

"We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know how much God loves us and we have put our trust in His love." --Romans 5:3-5

(Yes T, I did have to work Romans 5 in there.) When all else fails, when all else fades, when all hope seems lost...God is there. He is constant. He is sovereign.

"Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping--believing that he would become the father of many nations." --Romans 4:18

I didn't mean to put another Romans quote in there, but I couldn't help it. Abraham had no reason to doubt God, because He had proven Himself faithful time and time again...but I'm sure the people around him were ridiculing Abraham's stubborn and immovable faith in the midst of it all. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed.

2 Corinthians 2:16-17 talks about the way that we are not adequate in ourselves to fulfill the jobs and purposes that God has called us to. Sometimes our human nature and pride want us to think that we are righteous enough to do great things for the Kingdom...false. I know that this has become a common theme in my posts lately, but we are not enough...we are second. Our adequacy is always from God. And this fact never ceases to amaze me...how could He care enough about his imperfect and rebellious creation to orchestrate everything so perfectly for us, according to His plan? My commentary about these two verses says "As we realize that God has equipped us, we can overcome our feelings of inadequacy. Serving Christ, therefore, requires that we focus on what he can do through us, not on what we can't do by ourselves." Mmm mmm mmm. I can't even add to that.

Depend on Him.