Nougat 1

Hi there

Has anyone made a promise and disappointed you before? Not a fun experience, right. That is a challenge of humility, we’re not always able to deliver what we promised. But Jesus does. And that’s what today’s Holy Nougat describes in our final day of focusing on our Hope in Christ.

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10:23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

To some extent, it is difficult for our Hope to remain constant when we’ve been disappointed so many times before. Several broken promises later, we’re scrambling to find the pieces of our trust in humanity and sometimes we add mistrust of Christ to the mix. That’s unfortunate, but fairly common. It happened when Jesus was literally walking on earth, I suspect it doesn’t surprise Him at all.

Remember the father who honestly confessed, ’Lord I believe, please move me past disbelief!’ (Mark 9:22-25)? Yes he said those words TO Jesus! His hopes had probably been dashed by a few snake oil salesmen (fraudulent healers), and Jesus was his last resort – he believed. But prior experience left him wary.

Been there before have you? And, if we’re honest, we might say that it’s even happened when we prayed, confident that Jesus would respond one way, and our faith shriveled a little each time we got a NO, or Not Yet. Unfortunately, our human selves have gone that route with Our God many times before.

But our story doesn’t have to end there. We can choose to turn it around. By focusing on the Big Picture, we note that Jesus is literally the answer to several promises in the Bible; including the promise to Adam and Eve after the fiasco in the Garden of Eden. (See Genesis 3:15, where God promises enmity between the snake and humans – some day it was about the ongoing war between the devil and humanity, thus Jesus’ death resolved that permanently). Additionally, we have heard several versions of the birth and death prophesies surrounding Jesus over time. Thus, our challenge is not really about the ‘Facts’ themselves, but more so about whether we find comfort in believing the Facts.

That, comes from our personal relationship with Jesus. And ultimately, EVERY single one of us will have to make a decision – do I personally believe in Jesus Christ as Lord of MY life, and what will I do with my (un)/belief?

Hope in Christ has an eternity warranty – we CAN believe it because He said so, if we believe in Him. With that, we go to God again and again, asking in Jesus’ name, knowing that God WILL hear us. We pray confident that like the other plagues to hit earth in recent centuries, this pandemic SHALL pass! And it will be by God’s might, even if some human gets the glory. We hold to the reality that God, Who has kept us and countless others alive is able to honor the promises made to us, including ‘Never again’ to wipe all humanity out like the days of Noah.

And, we pray, not only for ourselves and our beloved, but also for the rest of the world, where diseases and disastees continue to strike amid the pandemic. We pray for those newly homeless after a typhoon hit the Pacific, for those who’ve lost their livelihood due to locusts, those who died from lack of access to help during the pandemic, and all the other people impacted by different issues globally (or locally)!

We pray believing, holding steadfast to Our eternal Hope, for truly, Jesus through Whom we pray, is faithful.

May God’s peace be ours

In Christ’s love and grace . . .