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What’s the worst thing that can happen? When I get really stressed, I start thinking about worst case scenarios and how things could happen and how they could get resolved.
Hope in Hardship
What’s the worst that can happen?
- House burnt down, lose a child, get in a car accident, natural disaster, lose employment, get attacked, be rejected by a loved one. Is that the worst that can happen?
- The worst that can happen: separation from God, not hardship
- Romans 8
- Good news: hardships come, God never leaves
- Ps 119:71 “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I could learn your statutes.”
- Isaiah 3 & 4 where is the hope? Where is the hope when everything is taken away?
- judgment & punishment vs blessing & restoration
- God is present in both
- Does not leave us when things are hard, even when we mess up
- He disciplines those He loves, He does not leave us when we mess up
- James 1:2-3
- Trials are actually good, trials teach us, trials point us to Him
Has someone ever left your life? Someone who in theory should be in your life, but they are no longer here - whether by choice, by death, by circumstance. You are separated from them. They are not in your life. Your heart aches for them.
We are not meant to be alone, but that does not take away that people do leave. That’s not something we can control - circumstances and others choices. So it’s important that we do not put so much weight in the presence of others.
Instead, we want to rely on Him who never leaves. The real "never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and hurt you."
He Stays / Never Leaves
- His Presence - Israelites
- Exodus 33:3, 14
- Moses pleaded for God to go with them
- His presence went with them - He was their God and they were His people
- Jesus came
- Matthew 1:23 “See the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel, which is translated ‘God with us.’”
- John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
- Jesus returned to heaven, seated at the right side of the throne of heaven, but He did not leave us. Matthew 28 "surely I am with you always"
- Holy Spirit dwells in us
- John 16
- Acts
- the Holy Spirit dwells in us, we are the temple
WE CANNOT BE SEPARATED FROM HIM
- Romans 8:38-39
- Psalm 139:1-10
- You cannot escape His love Ps 23:6 “Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the LORD as long as I live.”
