Our Inspiration of Hope: God Desires For You to Be Great

Shared on October 9, 2024

Join Pastor McCrary for the second part of the study – Our Inspiration of Hope. Pastor breaks down how we know for a fact that God loves us and desires for us to be great! God’s love of us is certainly a reason why you should live with hope today!

Introduction

This is part two of last week’s study – “Our Inspiration of Hope”. I highly recommend that you take a look at that study before continuing in this study. I would also highly recommend watching this week’s study along with your study of this commentary. Both my videos and commentaries go hand in hand as I teach from my commentaries.

God’s Desire For His Children

Last week’s study ended with God’s words to the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 29:11. The Lord said to Jeremiah, “I know the thoughts that I think toward you … thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” After taking a look at Joseph’s dreams in last week’s study, we should understand God has similar dreams in mind for us as well.

Are we a child of God?

We must understand that God’s statement to Jeremiah was directed to all of His children.  Who are God’s children? 

Is it just Israel, the Jews?  Israel is God’s chosen.  However, Jesus made it very clear that anybody can be a child of God.  Jesus said that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).  

Jesus also stated that He had other sheep who were not of the fold of  the Jews that He will also bring into His flock.  The other sheep, you should know and understand are the gentiles (John 10:16).  What this means is that even those outside of the bloodline of Israel can be of the fold of Christ – a child of God.

 God’s thoughts towards you are not evil.  We also know this to be true because of what Jesus taught the disciples about being in fellowship with the Lord.  In John 15:7-8, Jesus stated that the Lord will give us what we desire if this criteria is met:  we abide in Him and His words abide in us.  Second:  When we ask in fellowship and in faith.

Even more, if we go back to God making man, God was hopeful of what man could achieve.  Firstly, God created mankind in His image and likeness (Gen. 1:26).  Secondly, God created man to be fruitful and multiply (Gen. 1:28).  The Lord desires for us to grow as beings – to know His greatest gift of true love and living in peace (harmony) with each other.  

In other words, the Lord’s desire for mankind was to be great— He created all of us to be holy and righteous.  I think something that bothers me about Joseph’s story is the lack of support from his brothers, and even Jacob in this moment.  Over the years, I have found it to be very interesting who will support you and who won’t support you.  Thankfully, God is always in support of us growing for the better.

So, on an individual level, the dreams God gave Joseph was because the Lord desired for him to be great!  Now, as the Lord desired for Joseph to be great, He also desires for us to be great.  Does that mean that your family is going to one day fall down before you?  Let’s not think that way!  However, God does have unique blessings for all of us, as individuals, to enjoy (Jas. 1:17).  

The Inspiration of Our Hope

From Joseph’s two dreams, the biggest thing we should take away is God’s hope in us.  Knowing that God believes in you, hopes in you, should inspire hope in all of us!  Knowing that the Lord will never give up on you should be reason for you to never give up on yourself or on the Lord. 

Giving of the Holy Spirit

Again, some of us may not feel this way because we may be going through trials and tribulations.  You know, it can be really difficult for us to believe that God has what’s best for us in mind when we are on hard times.  However, even in hard times, the Lord is your hope and will inspire hope.

Jesus told the disciples that they would have tribulation in the world.  However, Jesus told them to be of good cheer because in Him, they would have peace (John 16:33).  Peace – rest.  “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14:27).

To be very clear, Jesus was making the disciples, and therefore us, aware that we are definitely going to have hard times in the world,  Yet, He was expressing to the disciples that there would always be hope.  The reason for that hope is what Jesus was giving to them!

When Jesus ascended, He gave to the disciples another Helper – the Spirit of truth – the Holy Spirit (John 14:16; 16:5-7).  The role of the Holy Spirit, we should always remember, is to guide Jesus’ disciples into all truth (John 14:13).  To be clear, when I say Jesus’ disciples, I am talking about all of us who are of sincere faith. 

Now, let’s understand, leading us into all truth means that the Holy Spirit’s role is to always stir on the right path.  The Holy Spirit will never mislead you.  The Holy Spirit’s desire is for you to prosper, to be blessed.  So, should you heed the guidance of the Holy Spirit or ignore Him?  If you trust in the Spirit and heed His voice, even in all your troubles, there is always hope. 

Hope is needed

So, how does it make you feel to know that the Lord desires for you to be great?  For me, such thought uplifts my spirit because, again, God’s desire towards us shows His great love for us.  So, because the Lord loves me, believes in me, and hopes in me, it gives me hope in myself.  

Knowing that the Lord loves, believes, and hopes in you should fill you with hope in yourself as well.  Something I believe many of us need to hear today is that the Lord loves, believes, and hopes in us.  I say this because I believe we fail to realize the power that’s in the love, faith, and hope God has in us.  In other words, I feel we lack an understanding of the power of hope.

So many of us are fighting demons we are unable to overcome because we don’t lean on hope to overcome.  Some of those demons include fear, worry, and doubt.  Some of us are in the pit of despair and depression and can’t get out of those pits because we don’t believe we can— we have given up hope.

Let me ask you this: What do you think you can accomplish without hope?  There is a twisted and wicked mindset that would answer this question that we do plenty of things without hope.  For example, some will point out that we wake up from deep sleep without hope.  There is such a deep rooted wickedness in hearts of people who truly do limit what they and what others are capable of.

WIthout hope, we would be mindless zombies.  Think about this, even your pets live with what seems like a semblance of hope.  Our pets will look at us every time we go to where their food is thinking this is the time!  I’m sure someone wise will argue against this notion but on a serious note, I don’t believe one can truly live without hope.

Something you must never do as a child of God is give away the hope that God has in you.  Too often we do this and we end up leaving ourselves open to the attacks of Satan.  Not only do we leave ourselves open to the attack of the devil, we leave ourselves open to defeat.  Without hope, you are powerless to withstand the trials and tribulations of life nor the cunning tactics of Satan.

In Hebrews 10:23, we are encouraged to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.  The reason we should hold fast our hope, the writer said, is because He who promised is faithful.  So, let’s close out on this two part study on this note: hold fast to the hope of greatness that the Lord has in you. Never waver on this hope no matter what you face and go through.