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Sermon Outline

Psalms

Wait on the Lord

Lesson #13 for March 30, 2024

Scriptures:Psalm 27:14; 92; 126; 131;Romans 8:18-25; Matthew 18:3; Mark 16:1-8; 2 Peter 1:19.

  1. What have we learned about the book of Psalms and about God from this series of lessons?

[From the Bible study guide=BSG:] We have reached the last week in this quarter’s study of the Psalms. The spiritual journey has taken us through the experience of awe before the majestic Creator, King, and Judge; through the joys of divine deliverance, forgiveness, and salvation; through moments of surrender in grief and lament; and through the glorious promises of God’s everlasting presence and the anticipation of the unending universal worship of God. The journey continues, though, as we live in the hope of the Lord’s coming when our longing for God will find its ultimate fulfillment. If there is a final word that we can draw from the Psalms, it should be “wait on the Lord.”

Waiting on the Lord is not an idle and desperate biding of one’s time. Instead, waiting on the Lord is an act full of trust and faith, a trust and faith revealed in action. Waiting on the Lord transforms our gloomy evenings with the expectancy of the bright morning (Ps. 30:5,Ps. 143:8). It strengthens our hearts with renewed hope and peace. It motivates us to work harder, bringing in the sheaves of plentiful harvest from the Lord’s mission fields (Ps. 126:6,Matt. 9:36–38). Waiting on the Lord will never put us to shame but will be richly rewarded because the Lord is faithful to all His promises (Ps. 37:7–11, 18, 34;Ps. 71:1; Ps. 119:137, 138).?Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide* for Sabbath Afternoon, March 23.†‡§ [What would we do if we found out that Jesus had decided not to come back?]‡

Psalm 30:5: His anger lasts only a moment,

his goodness for a lifetime.

Tears may flow in the night,

but joy comes in the morning.—American Bible Society. (1992). The Holy Bible: The Good News Translation* (2nd ed.,Psalms 30:5). New York: American Bible Society [abbreviated as Good News Bible].‡ [Does His anger last only a moment? What is His anger?]‡

  1. What do we know about God’s anger or wrath? Remember that God’s wrath is simply His sadly turning away in loving disappointment from those who do not want Him anyway, thus, leaving them to the inevitable and awful consequences of their own continual rebellious choices. SeeRomans 6:23.
  2. We have seen in this series of lessons that taking the wicked to heaven, or even to admit Satan to heaven, would be “supreme torture” for them. (See Great Controversy 542-543; 670.2.)

Psalm 143:8: Remind me each morning of your constant love,

for I put my trust in you.

My prayers go up to you;

show me the way I should go.—Good News Bible.*

  1. Can God be constantly loving and be “angry” at the same time?
  2. God is desperately waiting for us to do what He has asked us to do so that He can come back. It might seem like we are waiting for Him. But, in actual fact, He is waiting for us.
  3. And what are we supposed to do while we are waiting? God offers us protection, care, and constant love.
  4. But, we must learn to trust Him.

Psalm 27:14: Trust in the LORD. [Wait on the LORD, KJV*]

Have faith, do not despair.

Trust in the LORD.—Good News Bible.*†‡

  1. One of the main theme words for this lesson is hope. Without hope we would be in serious trouble. However, we have a hope that is beyond belief! Jesus Christ is coming back again to correct all that is wrong.

Romans 8:18-25: 18 I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. 19All of creation waits with eager longing for God to reveal his children. 20For creation was condemned to lose its purpose, not of its own will, but because God willed it to be so. Yet there was the hope 21that creation itself would one day be set free from its slavery to decay and would share the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22For we know that up to the present time all of creation groans with pain, like the pain of childbirth. 23But it is not just creation alone which groans; we who have the Spirit as the first of God’s gifts also groan within ourselves, as we wait for God to make us his children and set our whole being free. 24For it was by hope that we were saved; but if we see what we hope for, then it is not really hope. For which of us hopes for something we see? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.—Good News Bible.*†

[BSG:] Perhaps one of the greatest stresses in life is the stress of waiting. No matter who we are, where we live, what our station in life is, we all at times must wait for things. From waiting in line in a store to waiting to hear a medical prognosis, we wait—which we don’t always like doing, do we?

What, then, about waiting for God? The notion of waiting on the Lord is found not only in the Psalms but abounds all through the Bible. The operative word in all this is perseverance. Perseverance is our supreme commitment of refusing to succumb to fear of disappointment that somehow God will not come through for us. God’s devoted child waits, knowing with certainty that God is faithful and those who wait on Him can trust that if we leave our situation to Him, we can be sure that He will work it out for our best, even if at the time we don’t necessarily see it that way.

Waiting on the Lord is more than just hanging on. It is a deep longing for God that is compared to intense thirst in a dry land (Ps. 63:1). The psalmist waits on many blessings from God, but his yearning to be brought close to his God surpasses any other desire and need in life.?Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide* for Sunday, March 24.†‡§

  1. Are we indeed waiting with earnest longing for the coming of the Lord? Or, would we prefer that He wait a while longer so that we can go on sinning a little longer?
  2. What has God asked us to do while we wait? We are to bear witness to the trust, love, and hope that we have in Him.
  3. Remember that if Christ does not intend to come back for us, there was no reason for Him to come the first time!

Acts 1:4-8: 4And when they came together, he gave them this order: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift I told you about, the gift my Father promised. 5John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” [Did they ask for an explanation?]

6 When the apostles met together with Jesus, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time give the Kingdom back to Israel?” [That was Israel’s great hope!]

7 Jesus said to them, “The times and occasions are set by my Father’s own authority, and it is not for you to know when they will be. 8But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”—Good News Bible.*†‡

  1. In this lesson, we will see some interesting ideas used to present the truth about our waiting and trusting in God.
  2. ReadPsalm 131:1-3. God is asking us to practice love. Love is the essence of His kingdom while we are still on this earth. Unfortunately, we are born selfish. This has a tendency to cause us to become self-centered; all we want to think about is ourselves. We are blinded to the higher cause of love which is the nature of God.
  3. Understanding God’s love is a challenge. His love is a great mystery. Why does He love us so much? Why was He willing to come and die on our behalf? Modern science reaches deeper and deeper into the extremes of our world. It continues to learn how much there is that we are not able to actually know completely.

[BSG:] Modern science has shown us that even the “simplest” things can be incredibly complicated and far beyond our understanding, at least for now. In fact, there’s a great irony: the more we learn about the physical world, the greater the mysteries that appear before us.?Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide* for Monday, March 25.‡

  1. But, if we trust in God, we can wait in patience for Him to explain everything in the future.
  2. God does not try to take us away from whatever support we may feel in this world without offering us much better support in terms of His kingdom. It is like a small child who is weaning from the mother’s breast but learning how to eat solid food.
  3. So, why has God waited 2000 years and still has not come back?

Hebrews 5:12-6:3: 12There has been enough time for you to be teachers—yet you still need someone to teach you the first lessons of God’s message. Instead of eating solid food, you still have to drink milk. 13Anyone who has to drink milk is still a child, without any experience in the matter of right and wrong. 14Solid food, on the other hand, is for adults, who through practice are able to distinguish between good and evil.

6:1 Let us go forward, then, to mature teaching and leave behind us the first lessons of the Christian message. We should not lay again the foundation of turning away from useless works and believing in God; 2of the teaching about baptisms and the laying on of hands; of the resurrection of the dead and the eternal judgement. 3Let us go forward! And this is what we will do, if God allows.—Good News Bible.*

  1. But, God does not want us to think that His plan of salvation is too complicated for even a small child to understand.

Matthew 18:3: And [Jesus] said, “I assure you that unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven.”—Good News Bible.*‡

Ephesians 4:13-16: 13And so we shall all come together to that oneness in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God; we shall become mature people, reaching to the very height of Christ’s full stature. 14Then we shall no longer be children, carried by the waves and blown about by every shifting wind of the teaching of deceitful people, who lead others into error by the tricks they invent. 15Instead, by speaking the truth in a spirit of love, we must grow up in every way to Christ, who is the head. 16Under his control all the different parts of the body fit together, and the whole body is held together by every joint with which it is provided. So when each separate part works as it should, the whole body grows and builds itself up through love.—Good News Bible.*†

  1. In what ways are we to be as little children? And in what ways are we to grow up? The psalmists in Babylonian captivity looked forward earnestly for the time when they would be taken back safely to Jerusalem. Think of God’s miraculous deliverance of Israel from Egyptian slavery. Think of the other times when God helped them to regain their independence from nations which had conquered them. And remember, of course, the Babylonian captivity, Assyrian captivity, and Medo-Persian captivity. In each case, God delivered them and returned them to their sovereignty. These deliverances by God certainly should give us reasons to hope.
  2. Many years after the Psalms were written, Isaiah talked about those nations that had conquered at least portions of Israel.

Isaiah 29:7-8: 7 Then all the armies of the nations attacking the city of God’s altar, all their weapons and equipment—everything—will vanish like a dream, like something imagined in the night. 8All the nations that assemble to attack Jerusalem will be like a starving person who dreams he is eating and wakes up hungry, or like someone dying of thirst who dreams he is drinking and wakes with a dry throat.—Good News Bible.*†

  1. Does this have anything to do with the conflicts in the Middle East today?
  2. So, one of our challenges is to review and review again what God has done in the past to see what we can learn from those experiences. And those recoveries should give us renewed hope. Through Moses, God had given them some powerful promises.

Deuteronomy 11:14: “If you do, he will send rain on your land when it is needed, in the autumn and in the spring, so that there will be corn, wine, and olive oil for you.”—Good News Bible.*

Deuteronomy 28:12: “He will send rain in season from his rich storehouse in the sky and bless all your work, so that you will lend to many nations, but you will not have to borrow from any.”—Good News Bible.*

  1. One of the motifs that God has used to teach His children about the necessity of being patient is to think about the harvest. One has to cast his seed into the soil and wait and wait more for it to come up to sprout and to yield its abundance.
  2. It is interesting to notice that God intended for the children of Israel to enter the land of Canaan and drive out some fearsome enemies. And then, He told them that they were to go three times a year to Jerusalem. In some cases, traveling from Galilee, the round trip would take about a month. Would it be safe for them to leave their homes and travel to Jerusalem, leaving everything in the hands of God until they returned? Did some people stay home?

Exodus 34:23-24: 23 “Three times a year all your men must come to worship me, the LORD, the God of Israel. 24After I have driven out the nations before you and extended your territory, no one will try to conquer your country during the three festivals.”?Good News Bible.*†

  1. What would we do if we felt that God expected us to take up to a month three times a year to travel to a certain place and celebrate what He has done and what He is doing now? Would we trust God with our property, even for a few days? Or, do we depend on all our security measures?
  2. Can you think of times in your own life when you saw unmistakable working by God to preserve your life and the lives of others? Or, help you in some other way?
  3. Read Psalm 92.

[BSG:] The praise of God for the great works of His hands (Ps. 92:4, 5) and the Eden-like portrayal of the righteous (Ps. 92:12–14) clearly point to Creation, the first aspect that the Sabbath commemorates. The psalm also magnifies the Lord for His victory over enemies as the God of justice (Ps. 92:7–15) and so reinforces the second Sabbath theme—redemption from evil (Deut. 5:12–15). Thus, Psalm 92 extols God for His past Creation and present sustaining of the world, and it points to the end-time hope in eternal divine peace and order.?Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide* for Wednesday, March 27.†‡§

  1. We live in a wicked world. Places where there are thieves and murderers surrounding us. Even in this environment, can we trust God?
  2. In ancient times, special individuals were set apart as priests or kings by the anointing of oil from a prominent leader, usually, the high priest.
  3. In Ezekiel 20, we are told several times that God has given us the Sabbath as a special holy day for us to commemorate and remember all that He has done for us and all that He plans to do for us. (SeeEzekiel 20:20. CompareExodus 31:13 andHebrews 4:1-10.) In Psalm 92, the psalmist repeated the trust and hope that he had in God who protected him under all circumstances. It is safe for one to go to sleep at night because s/he will wake up happy.
  4. In a number of different places in the Psalms, it suggests that the time of day which best represents the hope we have in God is the morning. In fact, the psalmists tell us that joy comes in the morning. SeePsalm 5:3; 30:5; 49:14; 59:16; 92:2; 119:147; and compare2 Peter 1:19 withRevelation 22:16. The joy of the Lord is compared to the dawning of the day. Jesus is described as the bright morning star.

[BSG:] In the Psalms, morning is typically the time when God’s redemption is anticipated. Morning reveals God’s favor, which ends the long night of despair and trouble (Ps. 130:5, 6). In Psalm 143, God’s deliverance will reverse the present darkness of death (Ps. 143:3) into the light of a new morning (Ps. 143:8), and from being in the pit (Ps. 143:7) into residing in “the land of uprightness” (Ps. 143:10).?Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide* for Thursday, March 28.‡§

  1. Read Psalm 143. Clearly, the psalmist felt that his only hope for protection was in the Lord. Do we feel that way today?
  2. There is one very important moment in salvation history that is connected with early morning.

Mark 16:1-8: 1 After the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices to go and anoint the body of Jesus. 2Very early on Sunday morning, at sunrise, they went to the tomb. 3–4On the way they said to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” (It was a very large stone.) Then they looked up and saw that the stone had already been rolled back. 5So they entered the tomb, where they saw a young man sitting on the right, wearing a white robe—and they were alarmed.

6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is not here—he has been raised! Look, here is the place where they put him. 7Now go and give this message to his disciples, including Peter: ‘He is going to Galilee ahead of you; there you will see him, just as he told you.’ ”

8 So they went out and ran from the tomb, distressed and terrified. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.—Good News Bible.*†

  1. Do you think the heavenly host was anxious to welcome Jesus back to heaven? Is that why we have the words, “Very early on Sunday morning”?
  2. The fact that Jesus arose from the dead in His own power and went back to heaven a short time later is proof that God can raise us from the dead and take us to heaaven.

[BSG:] As the morning star announces the birth of a new day, so faith heralds the new reality of eternal life in God’s children (2 Pet. 1:19). Jesus is called the bright and morning star (Rev. 22:16), whom we eagerly await to establish His kingdom in which there will be no more night, evil, and death (Rev. 21:1–8, 25). In the end, more than anything else, this is what we are waiting for when we talk about waiting on the Lord. And, surely, the wait is worth it.?Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide* for Thursday, March 28.†‡§

2 Peter 1:19: So we are even more confident of the message proclaimed by the prophets. You will do well to pay attention to it, because it is like a lamp shining in a dark place until the Day dawns and the light of the morning star shines in your hearts.—Good News Bible.*†

[From the writings of Ellen G. White=EGW:] Over the rent sepulcher of Joseph, Christ had proclaimed in triumph, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” These words could be spoken only by the Deity. [See Desire of Ages 753-754.] All created beings live by the will and power of God. They are dependent recipients of the life of God. From the highest seraph to the humblest animate being, all are replenished from the Source of life. Only He who is one with God could say, I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again. In His divinity, Christ possessed the power to break the bonds of death.—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages* 785.3.†‡ [SeeJohn 10:18.]‡

[BSG:] Death, it has been said, has been etched in our cells at birth. Though true, at least for us fallen beings, what has the resurrection of Jesus promised us about the temporality of death? Why must we never forget just how temporal death is for us??Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide* for Thursday, March 28.‡

[BSG:] When waiting strikes us as burdensome, uncertain, and lonely, we should remember the disciples on the day of Jesus’ ascension to heaven (Acts 1:4–11). Jesus was taken up to heaven before their eyes, while they were left behind to wait for Him to come back on some unknown future day. Who has ever experienced a more intense yearning to receive God’s blessing now than the disciples on that day? They surely longed, “Lord, take us with You now.” Yet, they were instructed to wait for the promise of the Father and for Jesus’ return. If we think that the disciples were filled with despair and disappointment, we will be surprised. They returned to Jerusalem and did exactly what Jesus told them—they waited for the gift of the Holy Spirit and then preached the gospel to the world with power (Acts 1:12–14, Acts 2).?Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide* for Friday, March 29.†‡§

  1. Try to imagine yourself with the 11 disciples, standing on the Mount of Olives and watching Jesus ascend slowly to be received by a cloud of angels and taken up to heaven. How do you suppose it made them feel when two bright shining angels stood beside them and said: “Look, be assured that Jesus will come again just as you have seen Him go into heaven.”
  2. Some people have questioned how we are to distinguish the true second coming of Jesus from those false messiahs and false christs (SeeMatthew 24:23-24.) that we are told will come before Him. The answer really is not very complicated! When the true Jesus shows up, all we have to do is look up; the entire heavens will be full of bright, shining angels. Satan will never be allowed to duplicate Christ’s manner of coming.

[EGW:] Then if Christ is dwelling in our hearts, He will work in us “both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”Philippians 2:13. We shall work as He worked; we shall manifest the same spirit. And thus, loving Him and abiding in Him, we shall “grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.”Ephesians 4:15.—Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ* 75.2.‡

  1. Think of all the great heroes of faith who had to wait for long periods of time before they could receive what they were waiting for. Think about Abraham and Sarah waiting for a baby until they were far past the time when babies could have been born to them.
  2. Think about Moses who waited for 80 years before God finally gave him his work of leading the children of Israel out of Egypt. And there are many others mentioned in Hebrews 11. Of course, we know that the waiting time will come to an end with the second coming of Jesus.
  3. And what about those who have already died? For each of them, the next moment in time is when they will see Jesus—some at the second coming and others at the third coming.
  4. Abraham was given that incredible challenge and promise at the age of 75. Twenty-five years went by. When it seemed like he was too old, he was given the promised child.
  5. Try to imagine the children of Israel living for more than 100 years through that Egyptian slavery and waiting for God to do something!

[BSG:] Waiting is made up of two variables: (1) the anticipation of the fulfillment of a promise, and (2) the expectation that what is promised will be fulfilled within, or by, a certain time. In life, when we wait, we actively anticipate an event to come, whether we await a new job, an imminent wedding, the birth of a baby, the completion of an academic degree, an upcoming voyage, a new appointment, et cetera. A lapse of time must transpire between the anticipation of the event itself and its fulfillment. The same is true for God’s promises in our daily life as well as for the ultimate fulfillment of the great events in the plan of Redemption.?Adult Teachers Sabbath School Bible Study Guide* 171.‡

  1. There are six Hebrew words used by the psalmists to describe waiting or hoping. See Adult Teachers Sabbath School Bible Study Guide 171-175.
  2. The first Hebrew word for waiting or hoping is qawah, which means “to wait for,” “to wait,” “to expect.” This word is used 20 times in the Psalms. Each time, it suggests that God is the One for whom we should wait. This word can also be used in a negative sense as in waiting for your enemies to conquer you.
  3. The second Hebrew word for waiting or hoping is yahal.

[BSG:] Yahal means “to wait, hope, endure, long for.”… Yahal is usually connected with qawah….

In the book of Job, yahal is usually applied to hope that is futile or seems useless, and is thus not connected to God (Job 6:11,Job 14:14,Job 29:21). But such is not the case in the Psalter. God is the explicit object of the hope that is rendered from yahal, as indicated inPsalm 31:24, “all you who hope in the Lord” (NKJV);Psalm 33:22, “just as we hope in You” (NKJV);Psalm 38:15, “for in You, O Lord, I hope” (NKJV);Psalm 39:7, “my hope is in You” (NKJV);Psalm 42:11, “hope in God” (NKJV); andPsalm 69:3, “my eyes fail while I wait for my God” (NKJV). Our Creator is worthy of all our confidence. Our trust in His faithfulness and love is the foundation of all true religion, and the basis of the relationship between God and humans. This relationship is based on His mercy and on His loving-kindness, which He bestows upon those who trust in Him (Ps. 33:18,Ps. 147:11).?Adult Teachers Sabbath School Bible Study Guide* 172.†‡§

  1. It should be clear to all of us by now that it is in the pages of Scripture that we find the evidence for basing our trust and hope in God.
  2. Another Hebrew word for waiting is hkah.

[BSG:] Hkah means “to wait, endure, expect, hope.”… The object of hkah is usually God (Isa. 8:17; Isa. 30:18; Isa. 64:3, 4; Zeph. 3:8).?Adult Teachers Sabbath School Bible Study Guide* 173.‡§

  1. Living in our modern, secular, materialistic culture, we tend to put our faith in money, our abilities, our degrees, science, or even in our countries. As Christians, our trust should rest primarily in the Lord.
  2. ReadPsalm 33:1-17. This psalm tells us that, ultimately, God is in control of everything!
  3. In Psalm 106, there is a review of Israelite history. Perhaps the most telling portion of that psalm is verses 13-21 with the stories of the gold bull calf; the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and the consequences of that rebellion; and the craving for meat.

Psalm 106:13-21: 13 But they [the Israelites] quickly forgot what he had done

and acted without waiting for his advice.

14 They were filled with craving in the desert

and put God to the test;

15 so he gave them what they asked for,

but also sent a terrible disease among them.

16 There in the desert they were jealous of Moses

and of Aaron, the LORD’s holy servant.

17 Then the earth opened up and swallowed Dathan

and buried Abiram and his family;

18 fire came down on their followers

and burnt up those wicked people.

19 They made a gold bull calf at Sinai

and worshipped that idol;

20 they exchanged the glory of God

for the image of an animal that eats grass.

21 They forgot the God who had saved them

by his mighty acts in Egypt.—Good News Bible.*†‡

  1. Many times in the wilderness wanderings, the children of Israel turned away from God.
  2. Another Hebrew word associated with waiting and hoping is dumah.

[BSG:] Dumah is a noun that means “silence, rest.” “It refers to the silence of death ([Pss.] 94:17; 115:17) .  .  . dumah refers to a silence or rest that reflects trust in God (Ps. 39:2 [3]; 62:1 [2]) or to a lack of silence that results from God’s apparent inactivity ([Ps.] 22:2).”—New International Dictionary of Old Testament Exegesis, entry on dumah, vol. 1, p. 912.?Adult Teachers Sabbath School Bible Study Guide* 173.‡?§

  1. Yet another Hebrew word associated with waiting and hoping is sabar.

[BSG:] The verb sabar is used less often for hope in the Old Testament than the other words we’ve considered thus far. Sabar conveys the idea of “to expect, hope, examine.” The psalmist states with confidence, “Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope [sabar] is in the Lord his God” (Ps. 146:5, NKJV). Trusting the Lord will bring happiness to the believer, even in the midst of trials. We have studied about the reasons to trust God and to worship Him; the core of these reasons is hope.?Adult Teachers Sabbath School Bible Study Guide* 174.†‡?§

Psalm 145:15: All living things look hopefully to you,

and you give them food when they need it.—Good News Bible.*

  1. Still another Hebrew word associated with waiting and hoping is hil.

[BSG:] The verb hil means “to labor, writhe, tremble” and also “to bring to labor” or “brought to birth.” Thus,Psalm 37:7 can be translated, literally: “Rest in YHWH [sic] and ‘travail, or bring forth in birth’ for Him” (emphasis supplied). The implication is that the long-suffering endurance we must have as we wait for God’s promises to be fulfilled is like the anguish of an expectant mother ready to deliver her child. This period of suffering implies hard labor, intense pain, and tears. The result of the newborn baby, however, offsets the anticipation and experience of suffering. In the same way, waiting for the Lord often involves temporary anguish and suffering, but the outcome will be rich in blessings from the Lord.?Adult Teachers Sabbath School Bible Study Guide* 174-175.‡§

Psalm 37:7: Be patient and wait for the LORD to act;

don’t be worried about those who prosper

or those who succeed in their evil plans.—Good News Bible.*

  1. Paul also recognized that hope was a very important part of the Christian’s life.

1 Corinthians 13:13: Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love.—Good News Bible.*†

[BSG:] Hope motivates us to persevere in the face of sickness or tragedy. Hope is the fire that burns inside of us, igniting the desire to grasp the power in God’s promises. This flame is fed by the daily reading of and meditation upon the Scriptures. Every trouble in our lives finds its solution in a specific gem of Bible truth. Hope is the hand that catches these scintillating treasures and sets them firmly in the heart. As we wait for God’s fulfillment, our endurance will be tested, sometimes for hours, sometimes for years, but hope gives us the strength to be steadfast, no matter the duration or severity of our trial.

Assuredly, hope is the attribute that keeps our eyes turned toward heaven as we await the second coming of Jesus.?Adult Teachers Sabbath School Bible Study Guide* 175.‡

©2024, Kenneth Hart, MD, MA, MPH. Permission is hereby granted for any noncommercial use of these materials. Free distribution of all or of a portion of this material such as to a Bible study class is encouraged. *Electronic version. †Bold type is added. ‡Brackets and content in brackets are added. ?Brackets and the content in brackets within the paragraph are in the Bible study guide or source. §Italic type is in the source.

Last Modified: February 3, 2024                                                                                        Email: Info@theox.org