Daily Hope Devotional

“Sink your roots in Him and build on Him. Be strengthened by the faith that you were taught, and overflow with thanksgiving.”  ( Colossians 2:7 GW) An attitude of radical gratitude is God’s will for you because it develops your faith. How does gratitude develop my faith? It happens when times are tough — when things don’t make sense, when you can’t figure it out, when your prayers are unanswered, when everything is going the way you didn’t want it to go. It happens when you can say in those circumstances, “God, I know you’re in control. I know You love me, and I know You can bring good out of this. I’m thankful that You’re bigger than my problem.”  Anybody can thank God for good things. But if you can thank God even in the bad times, your faith will grow stronger as your roots go deeper.  Habakkuk was going through tough times. He said,  “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vin...

“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  (1 Thessalonians  5:18  NIV) Thanksgiving is not supposed to be a day that we celebrate once a year. It is to be a spiritual habit of the radical believer. The more deeply you understand God’s love, the more grateful you’re going to be.  So what does it mean to be radically grateful?  The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians  5:18 ,  “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”  (NIV). That’s radical gratitude.  In all circumstances  give thanks, because it’s God’s will for you.  You can thank God in every circumstance because God is in control. He can bring good out of evil. He can turn around the stupid mistakes you make. No matter what happens, God isn’t going to stop loving you. There are a hundred things to be thankful for in any circumstance, even when the...

“You are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety.”  (2 Corinthians 1:11 NLT) To get through what you’re going through, you need to recruit other people to pray for you. This is very easy when you’re in a small group. When you’re going through a tough time and you’re not in a small group, you are unprotected. You don’t have the strength that people in a small group do because you don’t have people praying for you.  The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1:11,  “You are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety”  (NLT). I’ll be honest with you: I don’t know how this works. But there is additional power in group prayer that is not there when you just pray for y...

“God comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things.”  (2 Corinthians 1:4, 6 NLT) Your pain often reveals God’s purpose for you. God never wastes a hurt! If you’ve gone through a hurt, He wants you to help other people going through that same hurt. He wants you to share it. God can use the problems in your life to give you a ministry to others. In fact, the very thing you’re most ashamed of in your life and resent the most could become your greatest ministry in helping other people.  Who can better help somebody going through a bankruptcy than somebody who went through a bankruptcy? Who can better help somebody struggling with an addiction than somebody who’s struggled with an addiction? Who can better help parents of a special needs child ...

“Now that the worst is over, we're pleased we can report that we've come out of this with conscience and faith intact, and can face the world — and even more importantly, face you with our heads held high. But it wasn't by any fancy footwork on our part. It was God Who kept us focused on Him, uncompromised.”  (2 Corinthians 1:12MSG) Regardless of your circumstances and how you feel, hang on to God’s unchanging character. 2 Corinthians  1:12  says,  “Now that the worst is over, we're pleased we can report that we've come out of this with conscience and faith intact, and can face the world — and even more importantly, face you with our heads held high. But it wasn't by any fancy footwork on our part. It was God Who kept us focused on Him, uncompromised.” Your circumstances cannot change the character of God. God’s grace is still in full force; He is still for you, even when you don’t feel it.  Remi...

“From such terrible dangers of death He saved us, and will save us; and we have placed our hope in Him that He will save us again.”  (2 Corinthians  1:10  TEV)  God is watching over you, so don’t listen to your fears. This is a choice. Trust God, and don’t give in to your fears. 2 Corinthians  1:10  says,  “From such terrible dangers of death He saved us, and will save us; and we have placed our hope in Him that He will save us again”  (TEV).  God’s promise to believers is that, no matter what happens to us, He is working for our good — if we love Him and follow Him. If you're a believer, the Bible says all things are working together for good —  not that all things are good  but that they are  working together  for good.  That means we can stop listening to our fears. There is no difficulty, dilemma, defeat, or disaster in the life of a believer that...

“We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, Who raises the dead.”  (2 Corinthians 1:8b-9 NLT) Did Jesus suffer? Was He sometimes lonely? Was He tempted to be discouraged? Was He misunderstood, maligned, and criticized unjustly? Of course! None of us are exempt from suffering, loneliness, discouragement, or unjust criticism, because God is developing within us the character of Christ, and, in order to do this, He must take us through all of the circumstances in life through which He took Christ. Does this mean God causes tragedies? No. God is good, and He will not cause evil or do evil. But God can use dark and stressful times for good. He'll use them to teach us to trust Him, to show us how to help others, and to draw us closer to other believers. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1:8b-9, ...