Hope!

“We are all broadcasting something with our lives…what are you broadcasting?”

These words came from a sermon series on Hope by Louie Giglio that one of our precious nephews shared with me not long after Pete went home. I listened to it then and I knew it had a powerful message but my heart was still so hurt, I could not absorb it all. I decided to listen to it again yesterday and oh, my…did God ever speak to me with these words! I am going to share some of his thoughts with you today.

Louie focused his sermon on John 16:33
“I have told you all of this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth, you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, (hold on, don’t give up) because I have overcome the world!”

“Trouble comes, life hurts, stuff happens but God is bigger and God has a plan and God is always at work. We are not exempt from difficulties as followers of Jesus, we are going to have just the same hardships as the rest of the world has but we have confidence in the Jesus who said, ‘In it all, through it all, no matter what happens, at all times, I am an overcoming Savior and there is hope in that!’”

In Sunday School, we are doing a church wide study on the preciousness of the Bible and how we should apply it in our lives. Yesterday, in one of the young married Sunday School classes Pete and I have been honored to invest in these last few years, I shared this thought with them…We had been talking earlier about the Gamecocks great victory over Georgia the night before… “A football team gets up at 6 AM during the hot summer months and goes to lift weights, run sprints and practice together and does the work in the off season when no one is seeing them and it is not fun or glorious. But when October comes and they are out on the field and are able to play well the whole game and win the games they want to win, they are so thankful for the work they did in the offseason. I can honestly tell you that since Pete died, I am pulling my strength from all the years of spending time with the Lord on a daily basis, reading His word, praying, listening, getting to know Him, building a relationship with Him! When the storm hit - that is what was still there! God is giving me hope through my deep relationship with Him. Don’t neglect that daily time now – you will need those reservoirs  when troubles come….”

Louie said, “Suffering and hardship are an amplifier to whatever is in our hearts.” He challenges us to keep our foremost mission in life one that puts bringing glory to Jesus as the main thing…no matter what happens to us in life! Whew! What a challenge…yet I do believe, it is one we are called to do as His children. So even in the pain, even in the sorrow, even in the midst of major life adjustments, even in the good times, even in the exciting times, I need to be thinking of what I am broadcasting with my life! O Lord, may I be an amplifier for You through this hard journey... 

"We are all broadcasting something with our lives...what are you broadcasting?"

 

Louie Giglio's series on Hope