Preparing our Hearts to Worship
In an effort to help you prepare for the October 6, 2019, Sunday morning corporate worship gathering and to aid you in your own reflections on What God wants us to Believe, Do, and Become. I wanted to pose a few questions and provide a few resources to prayerfully consider over the coming days. Our sermon is entitled, “Hope is…”. The main Scriptures for the day are the Lamentations 3:19-26.
(Pick and choose from the many resources and options, which I have tried to make available for your devotional life.)
From the Scriptures
Please read through Chapter 25 of Believe this week, this is an edited selection of Scriptures from the NIV that seeks to show how certain beliefs, ways of living and character qualities are elaborated upon throughout all of Scripture.
You may also like to read and reflect upon these other New Testament passages Hebrews 12:1-2, Romans 12:12, Amos 5:7, 6:12, Lamentations 1-5.
From the Creeds and Confessions
Westminster Confession of Faith, Article 18.1 Although hypocrites and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God, and estate of salvation (which hope of theirs shall perish): yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him, may, in this life, be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace, and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed.
Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation
Baltimore Catechism of the Catholic Church 1891 NOTE: While I do not subscribe to everything in the Catholic Church and her catechism, this is one of the only catechism that addresses the concept of Hope Q. 466. What is Hope? A. Hope is a Divine virtue by which we firmly trust that God will give us eternal life and the means to obtain it.
Catechism of the Catholic Church NOTE: While I do not subscribe to everything in the Catholic Church and her catechism, this is one of the only catechism that addresses the concept of Hope 1817 Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”84 “The Holy Spirit . . . he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.”85 1818 The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men’s activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity. 1819 Christian hope takes up and fulfills the hope of the chosen people which has its origin and model in the hope of Abraham, who was blessed abundantly by the promises of God fulfilled in Isaac, and who was purified by the test of the sacrifice.86 “Hoping against hope, he believed, and thus became the father of many nations.”87 1820 Christian hope unfolds from the beginning of Jesus’ preaching in the proclamation of the beatitudes. The beatitudes raise our hope toward heaven as the new Promised Land; they trace the path that leads through the trials that await the disciples of Jesus. But through the merits of Jesus Christ and of his Passion, God keeps us in the “hope that does not disappoint.”88 Hope is the “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul . . . that enters . . . where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.”89 Hope is also a weapon that protects us in the struggle of salvation: “Let us . . . put on the breastplate of faith and charity, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.”90 It affords us joy even under trial: “Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation.”91 Hope is expressed and nourished in prayer, especially in the Our Father, the summary of everything that hope leads us to desire. 1821 We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love him and do his will.92 In every circumstance, each one of us should hope, with the grace of God, to persevere “to the end”93 and to obtain the joy of heaven, as God’s eternal reward for the good works accomplished with the grace of Christ. In hope, the Church prays for “all men to be saved.”94 She longs to be united with Christ, her Bridegroom, in the glory of heaven: Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one. Dream that the more you struggle, the more you prove the love that you bear your God, and the more you will rejoice one day with your Beloved, in a happiness and rapture that can never end.95
From the songs, hymns and spiritual songs of the Church
The steadfast love of the Lord (Hillsong): Lyrics, Video
Faithfulness (Hillsong): Lyrics, Video
For Thoughtful Reflection, Prayer, or further Study
Read and reflect upon Desiring God’s New Mercies every morning.
Read and reflect upon ReFrame Media’s Wait Quietly.
The Sermon will be available online on October 6, 2019 at 12:30 pm.
Disclaimer: Reference to a particular article or website does not constitute endorsement or agreement with everything in that article or on that website.
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