Encouragement

by Mikah

I actually wrote this devotional myself. God loves you and wants you to accept Him. Here is the message!

Hope
Today, I am talking about the hope we have in Jesus. The hope we have in him is not controlled by circumstances. It is never ending just like His love for us. The main verse for this lesson is Zechariah 9:12. Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you. So what this verse says to me is that no matter what circumstances you may be going through or the battles you may be facing, God wants you to have a confident hope that He will work everything out for your good. Even when everything seems hopeless, you still need to have faith and have hope because God will work it out. He will never leave you to fight the devil on your own. I don’t know your situations but I do know the devil wants us down and discouraged. But God wants us to be encouraged. When we are prisoners of hope then we are ruining the devil’s plan and showing our faith in Christ. We also send the devil a message that we are not going to give up or back down. In Zechariah 9:12 it says to return too our fortress. Psalms 18:2 says that God is our fortress. If you have been straying from God go back to Him. He will take you back and He is not mad at you. An example from the Bible of a prisoner of hope is Paul and Silas. Acts 16:24-33. They had been imprisoned and were in a dungeon. But instead of complaining they sang praises to God then an earthquake hit and their chains fell off! When we praise God in all circumstances then we release his power to free us from any bondage in our life. The only thing God wants you to be captive too besides hope is His love for you. He wants us to live a life of freedom. Galatians 5:1 says it best. Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. Then they talked to the guard and his family and they were all baptized. By being prisoners of hope they helped save a whole family. In hard times whining doesn’t change a thing, but praise and hope does. So my main point is that no matter how hard your situation is there is always hope. Don’t give up. Fight the devil with God’s power. Run to God and He will take care of you.