And now, dear brothers and sisters, one
final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and
pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and
worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received
from me--everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace
will be with you. -- Philippians 4: 8-9 (NLT)
Let's face it -- hopelessness stems
from a total and complete lack of peace in our lives. When you are truly at
peace, not as the world sells, but the peace of the Lord which transcends all
human understanding -- then there is simply no room for being hopeless. Because
your hope will no longer be in the things of this world and God never
disappoints. Similarly however, these Philippians verses indicate that we must
fix our eyes upon the eternal and not the temporary. The Message Bible says
that we must "fill our minds and meditate" on these things. What things? What
is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and worthy of praise.
The only things that fit those criteria are the things of God. That is what it
means to fix our eyes on the eternal.
When we pray we are fixing our eyes
on the eternal. When you have someone who is edging towards hopelessness there
often is a prayer problem. Either there is not enough prayer or they simply no
longer believe:
I tell you the truth, you can say to this
mountain, "May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and it will happen.
But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for
anything, and if you believe that you've received it, it will be yours. -- Mark
11: 23-24 (NLT)
Faithless prayer will not work. Hope is based upon a belief; faith. When there is a lack of hope there is often a problem with reading and trusting the Word of God. Hope is not an exercise in intellectualism either. You can read the Word all day long and even remember it but without believing in it they just become words. Background noise to our hopeless state. The Bible is the reason we have hope to begin with:
I hate those with divided loyalties, but I
love your instructions. You are my refuge and my shield; your word
is my source of hope. -- Psalm 119: 113-114 (NLT)
The Word of God is our source of
hope. Whatever lie the temporary world is trying to sell us, the Word has an
eternal promise that assures us it is indeed a lie. We cannot divide our
loyalties between the truth of God and the lies of this world. Prayer and His
Word are the most obvious examples of what we are to fix our eyes and thoughts
upon if we are to enjoy the peace of God and avoid the despair that seeks to
entrap us in this life. We also praise and worship God because the Bible says
that God inhabits the praises of His people. Did you get that? He lives within
our praises! His presence becomes manifest in our lives when we lift our hands
up to Him in worship. And where His presence is"there is always fullness of
joy! Why do we have this joy? Why do we have this peace? Why do we have this
hope?
I have told you all this so that you may
have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take
heart, because I have overcome the world." -- John 16: 33 (NLT)
