Excerpts from the first sermon of 2022 for January 9-16 time of prayer and fasting.
2022 Fast Days Devotional
Day 8 - Dream with God.
Dreams are a kind of anticipation. It is an expression of hope for the future. Before anything happens in real life, someone has to imagine it.
When Israel was in exile, they almost lost hope. I say almost, because they didn’t ever entirely lose it. It just felt at times like they had. It is at times like that when we need to begin again to hope and to dream. God brought them back again to the land and Psalm 126 expresses what that felt like.
Psalm 126:1–6 ESV
1 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. 2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” 3 The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad. 4 Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negeb! 5 Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! 6 He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.
That’s called perspective. It’s the ability to see beyond the present moment to know that something better is possible and that it is coming.
It’s knowing that just because you are going through a time of sorrow, you will rejoice again. It’s knowing that just because you have fallen on hard times, you will prosper again. It’s knowing that even thought the present moment is lonely, discouraging and dark, that you will flourish again.
The present is not all there is. The present is no indication of the future. The future is beyond our present knowledge. And because we do not yet know what there is to know, there is always hope. More than that, our hope and trust is in the goodness of God who holds the past, present and future in His hand.
I said that anything that happens is first imagined by someone. That was true when God created the world. He imagined it all and spoke it into being. And God invites us to imagine the future with him.
God invites us to begin again. He invites us to imagine with Him a different future from the present. He invites us to use all of the knowledge and perspective that we have acquired from the past and imagine a possible future.
What are your thoughts about the present and the future?
How might you learn from the past to get perspective for the future?
What is God saying or causing you to imagine as you dream about the future?
2022 Fast Days Devotional
Day 8 - Dream with God.
Dreams are a kind of anticipation. It is an expression of hope for the future. Before anything happens in real life, someone has to imagine it.
When Israel was in exile, they almost lost hope. I say almost, because they didn’t ever entirely lose it. It just felt at times like they had. It is at times like that when we need to begin again to hope and to dream. God brought them back again to the land and Psalm 126 expresses what that felt like.
Psalm 126:1–6 ESV
1 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. 2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” 3 The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad. 4 Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negeb! 5 Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! 6 He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.
That’s called perspective. It’s the ability to see beyond the present moment to know that something better is possible and that it is coming.
It’s knowing that just because you are going through a time of sorrow, you will rejoice again. It’s knowing that just because you have fallen on hard times, you will prosper again. It’s knowing that even thought the present moment is lonely, discouraging and dark, that you will flourish again.
The present is not all there is. The present is no indication of the future. The future is beyond our present knowledge. And because we do not yet know what there is to know, there is always hope. More than that, our hope and trust is in the goodness of God who holds the past, present and future in His hand.
I said that anything that happens is first imagined by someone. That was true when God created the world. He imagined it all and spoke it into being. And God invites us to imagine the future with him.
God invites us to begin again. He invites us to imagine with Him a different future from the present. He invites us to use all of the knowledge and perspective that we have acquired from the past and imagine a possible future.