hope

There seems to be an abundance of "stony ground" Christians these days. Initially, they get excited about the Word of God. They'll hear a message on prosperity, for instance, and they'll go home saying, "Hallelujah! I'm going to prosper in the Name of Jesus!" But then, somehow, things don't work out like they thought they should.

Their bank balance doesn't double overnight. They go through some disappointments. They suffer some criticism. Then, before you know it, their faith has withered away.

Some years back, I was praying and walking the floor of our little house in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I was walking up and down confessing 1 John 4:4, "Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world." Greater is He.... Greater is He.... Suddenly, revelation knowledge welled up in me and I knew, Oh! God is in me!

One day as I was walking along a highway through a park praying, I asked a simple question, "Lord, what do You want me to tell Your people?" Without a moment's hesitation, these words came ringing through my spirit and my mind:

Tell them how much I love them.

They were so filled with love and compassion that it defies words to express it. For days afterward all I could think of was 1 John 4:16. "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us."

There are those who've said that some of the diseases that are on the rampage right now, diseases such as AIDS, are God's way of punishing immoral people today. There is absolutely no scriptural basis for that!

More than 21 years ago, God said something to me that will mark my ministry forever. It was this: The only hope that any man has anywhere in the world is faith in Jesus Christ.

In light of what's happening around us today, the truth of that statement is more painfully obvious than ever before. We are a generation with diseases no man can heal, with problems no man can solve. What fleeting successes we have are quickly overshadowed by new and greater crises.

Look up...because in times like these, your very life may depend on it.

Some time ago, the Lord showed me that a spirit of weariness is trying to work its way into our lives these days through all the pressure and bad news that surround us. It's working to get our eyes off the Word of God by bombarding us with negative forces. It's trying to get us to look down at defeat instead of up at Jesus.

Today people everywhere are gathering together to celebrate the first bright moments of the new year.

Yet, for thousands of others, this day will be the toughest 24 hours of their lives. For those people, New Year's Day will serve only as a dim reminder of loneliness and loss. It will simply mark the beginning of another year of failure.

What about you? What's this year really going to be like for you?