Day 6
When we truly begin to seek God our priorities begin to shift as we realize all that really matters in life. I am believing God to help us through this project as we all begin to shift our thinking away from the temporal and earthly goods, towards eternal and heavenly treasures!
“I eagerly expect and hope…”
Philippians 1:20
In his classic novel, Great Expectations, Charles Dickens tells the tale of Pip, a young man raised in the dreary English countryside. Pip becomes enamored of a stunningly beautiful young woman and eventually receives a large inheritance from an anonymous donor. He is quickly deceived by empty hopes of romance and earthly prosperity. When he moves to London to be trained as a gentleman, he discovers that wealth offers little happiness and can even make life more miserable at times. All his hopes are dashed violently to pieces by folly, chance, and cruelty. Heartbroken and disenchanted, he begins to learn lessons about the things that matter most in life.
Fate finally seems to take a turn for the better at the very end of the novel, after Pip has learned the lessons of character, loyalty, hard work and true friendship. Though the entire novel seems shrouded in a dismal and hopeless melancholy, it closes in a “broad expanse of tranquil light.” The reader is left, at last, with a glimmer of true hope—a hope not founded on shadows and falsehoods, but on truth and love.
Life without hope is oppressive and bitter. Equally dangerous is life lived by the deceiving allure of false hope. Jesus taught that “the cares, riches, and pleasures of the world” can function like a cancer, choking spiritual vitality and strangling the soul. But true hope is like an anchor—it can hold firm through any storm. The believer whose hope is in the right things will be free from the enticements of this world—liberated to do great things for God, and their expectations can soar beyond their wildest dreams.
God is setting before us a great expectation. As we set our hope in things eternal, we can know that this “hope does not disappoint us.” (Rom. 5:5). Let us enter this season with great hopes and heavenly expectations. Let us set our desires and hopes on things that will make a difference for eternity—great things, vast things, glorious things. We may take it as a fact that we will NOT be disappointed!
Prayer focus: Ask God to turn your heart from any hopes that might prove empty or temporal, and prayerfully determine to place your hope in things eternal. Pray that as a congregation we would embrace this project with boundless hope. Pray for faith and expectation to soar among us into the endless realms of God-sized possibilities!
“Low expectations are a curse to greatness.” T.D. Jakes
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