God Is In Control
Psalm 33:22 ‑
May your unfailing love be with us, LORD, even as we put our hope in you.
Remaining hopeful in a hopelessly broken world.
I. Throughout the pages of Scripture, we are told to put our hope in God.
Romans 8:18-30 (NLT)
18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later. 19 For all creation is waiting patiently and hopefully for that future day[b] when God will resurrect his children. 20-21 For on that day thorns and thistles, sin, death, and decay[c]—the things that overcame the world against its will at God’s command—will all disappear, and the world around us will share in the glorious freedom from sin which God’s children enjoy.
22 For we know that even the things of nature, like animals and plants, suffer in sickness and death as they await this great event.[d] 23 And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us—bodies that will never be sick again and will never die.
24 We are saved by trusting. And trusting means looking forward to getting something we don’t yet have—for a man who already has something doesn’t need to hope and trust that he will get it. 25 But if we must keep trusting God for something that hasn’t happened yet, it teaches us to wait patiently and confidently.
26 And in the same way—by our faith[e]—the Holy Spirit helps us with our daily problems and in our praying. For we don’t even know what we should pray for nor how to pray as we should, but the Holy Spirit prays for us with such feeling that it cannot be expressed in words. 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows, of course, what the Spirit is saying as he pleads for us in harmony with God’s own will. 28 And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into his plans.
29 For from the very beginning God decided that those who came to him—and all along he knew who would—should become like his Son, so that his Son would be the First, with many brothers. 30 And having chosen us, he called us to come to him; and when we came, he declared us “not guilty,” filled us with Christ’s goodness, gave us right standing with himself, and promised us his glory.
20For the creation was subjected to frustration . . .
. . . in hope 21that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay.
- June 11, 1979 – John Wayne died
- September 5, 1997 – Mother Teresa died.
- June 5, 2004 – Ronald Reagan died.
24For in this hope we were saved.
25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
31What, then, shall we say in response to these things?
32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
II. We have been invited to lean against God’s love for us.
May your unfailing love be with us, LORD,
even as we put our hope in you. (Psalm 33:22)
