10 Reasons for Hope, episode 56 (rebroadcast)

0:00 If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right here at When You Love a Prodigal, and also help and hope for your own life journey. Today, we are continuing a five-part series on hope. We all need hope. We cling to hope. We weep when hope is lost and how we need to know how to keep hoping. It just escapes us and we lose grasp of it. It says, no, we're going to talk about 10 reasons you can keep hoping.

0:43 So be sure and jot down the one or more that encourage you the most in your journey, because you don't want to forget them. You need the reasons to keep hoping. Author and teacher Leslie Layland Fields, a good friend of mine, said she hated the movie The Power of the Dog. I have not seen it. It is the recipient, just now, of 12 Oscar nominations. She explains why she didn't like it. She says, art is one of the most powerful forces in the world. How will we wield it as makers of art and how will we use it as partakers of art?

1:27 Because of this movie, I strengthen my intentions to do well. I will always urge my memoir students to craft wise, layered narratives. I will continue to labor long on every book I write that I may find and write the truth in honest, nuanced, hopeful ways. And as a partaker of art, I will now work harder to avoid tales of unvarnished evil, because in the end, I need some shot of hope. I'm guessing that you do too.

2:09 Perhaps the Academy Fellows live in a different world, insulated world filled with crystals and sunshine. But out here, most of us are bruised people who desperately need to be reminded, however subtly, that hope is real. Grace is often present. Goodness counts. Love is possible and our lives matter. I believe this is more than mere artistic preference. The human race depends on it. And people who love a prodigal depend on it. It feels like we live in a battlefield, doesn't it?

2:52 Like we have a relentless enemy pursuing us and our loved prodigals. It seems too often every step in a good direction is followed by two steps in the wrong direction. It feels hopeless. It feels that way because we do have an enemy and he is determined to capture our wayward ones and take us down. Peter reminds us, be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, like your prodigal in mine.

3:35 But it's not hopeless. Our God has given us many promises that we can keep hoping even as we fight for our loved ones on our knees. These 10 assurances from God will lift you above the battlefield to see that he is with you and working with your prodigal. So here we go. Three sections, but 10 reasons. 10 reasons you can keep hoping. First, resist the enemy with the promise of God's presence. We read in Romans 8, God is on our side.

4:19 Romans assures us if God is for us, who can be against us. Doesn't that give you hope? That's that little bitty thought. If God is for us, the enemy can't undo us or our prodigal. Second, God holds us and our loved ones tightly. I love this verse. The apostle John tells us, I give them eternal life and they shall never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. I held onto that so many times when things were really difficult with our prodigal.

5:03 No one can snatch them out of God's hands. And the third one on fighting the devil, God never abandons us. In Deuteronomy we learn, the Lord himself goes before you and will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. So remember, God is always with you and you can counter the enemy's attacks. Second section of reasons is to receive God's assurances.

5:44 A reason to hold on to hope. The fourth reason, God himself fights for us. Isaiah exhorts us, so do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. That's true for you, but God's reaching out to your loved one because he loves them too. The fifth reason, God hears and answers. David declares, I sought the Lord and he answered me.

6:27 He delivered me from all my fears. When we go to God, tell him honestly how we feel, what we're afraid of, why we have no hope. He says, he'll answer and he will deliver you from those fears. And then sixth, oh I love this, God's love is unfailing and forever. Paul gives this amazing promise, you probably know it, but it's good to be reminded. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future nor any power, height nor depth nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

7:25 And a seventh reason to keep hoping. God is always with us. God himself said in Hebrews, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. Now I know sometimes it feels like he's left and you feel forsaken, but that's just because we don't see the whole picture and we don't understand what God is doing. But God's not a liar and when he says, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. We can hold on to that and have hope.

8:08 The final grouping, first resist the enemy, then receive God's assurance and keep on hoping. So here are the eighth and ninth and tenth reasons for not giving up. The eighth reason to not give up hope is that God is still working. In Philippians we read, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it onto completion until the day of Christ Jesus. We can claim that also for our loved one.

8:49 I've read the book, Hind's Feet on High Places, many times, and the chapter that most spoke to me had little much afraid who was trying to make it to the high places so she could live with the good king, the shepherd, the good shepherd. But her family was awful and her village was terrible and she was not doing well making it to the high places. And she came to a time where she was living, walking, trying to find her way out of a dense fog in a valley. And she's just, she's totally lost, she can't see, she doesn't know where she is.

9:34 And she remembers that the good shepherd said, call me and I will come. And she said, shepherd help. And he was there immediately. And she said, what am I supposed to do? How will I make it to the high places? Because I don't even know where I'm going or how to get there. I can't see. He said, oh, little much afraid. You just don't know. He says, I'm working in ways that you can't see. You just need to keep following the path. And even though you can't see, but one step ahead of you, you're going to get there.

10:15 Because I'm working behind the scenes. And that's what he says to us. He says just the same thing. He's working always to make things the way they need to be, to take care of you and your loved one. The ninth reason to keep hoping, God gives new hearts. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them. We read in Ezekiel. I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

10:59 They will be my people and I will be their God. Does that give you some hope? God's working. He's working in your life and my life, but he's working in our protocols to change their hearts, to give them a new heart that loves God and seeks to be and do what he has for them. And then the tenth reason to keep hoping. God's goodness will prevail. David assures us in Psalm 27. I remain confident of this.

11:39 I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. When he says, I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. I believe he's saying here and now. Yes, when we get to heaven, it'll be awesome. But he's saying, no, his goodness is going to be evident right here in our lives, ours and our protocols. Even in the darkest days or the fiercest battles, our God is there beside us, strengthening us, sustaining us.

12:25 And equally he is there for our loved ones, pursuing and wooing, reminding them of things they heard from you, loving them to themselves. I cling often to the verse in Romans 2, 4, when he tells them, quit trying to earn your way to God. He says, don't you know that I woo them with my loving kindness. And that's exactly what he's doing with your loved one. So keep hoping.

13:07 Some questions for you. What does today's battle for your loved one look like? And which of these reasons for hope encouraged you the most? I'm going to name them one by one just to remind you, God is on our side. God holds us and our loved ones tightly. God never abandons us. God fights for us. God hears and answers. God's love is unfailing and forever. God is always with us.

13:47 God is still working. God will give them new hearts and God's goodness will prevail. So next week, we will discover a door of hope and an anchor of hope. Does that sound good? Don't forget to take a look at the show notes. Check out JudyDouglas.com and go over and rate this podcast. Thanks so much for listening and being a part of this little community that we have. And I pray that God will really use these 10 reasons that you can trust him to enable you to keep hope alive.

14:37 Until next week, God bless you.