It’s easy to lose hope…

While there are probably countless benefits to living in the connected society that we find ourselves, it is also not without it’s downsides. One of the biggest being, we also have access to all the bad that is going on in the world.

They called on God for a deeper sense of assured hope.

I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers . . . that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints (Ephesians 1:16,18).

We don’t just have access to all the junk that goes on in our own lives, we have access to all the junk going on in everyone else’s lives. We don’t have to listen to the news to be depressed anymore, we can get a good dose of depression from Facebook, Google and Twitter. And we don’t even have to be at home to get the bad news, it finds us out on the road.

Hope isn’t often shared through these channels, it’s pain and heartache. And since this is true, we must be very conscious about the hope in our lives. We can’t just expect to find hope, we have to seek it out. We have to pray for it.

And we don’t just have to ask for it on our own behalf, but on behalf of others as well. As you see in the prayer, Paul is praying that the Ephesians would “know what is the hope to which He has called you.” He’s not praying it for himself, he’s praying it for a whole church.

So, we can pray this for our church too. And we should. No, we must. We have to be in tune with the hope we have so that others see that hope in us. Hope isn’t the norm. So, when others see it in someone – the hope catches their attention. We must be a church of hope. We must be a people that exemplify the hope that we have been called to. It’s an amazing hope, and in spite of all the problems that may have gone on this past week, the hope is still greater than anything in this life.

The Three for Morning, Afternoon and Evening.

“Now for Next” Prayer

What do we need to do now as a church to be ready for what God has for us next.

“What’s My Role” Prayer

Pray for God to show us the role we will play individually in accomplishing that mission.

The Conclusion

Ephesians 3:14-21

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.