Hope to the Hopless
Scripture: Mark 5:2-4, 25-26,
"a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from a cemetery to meet him. 3 This man lived among the burial caves and could no longer be restrained, even with a chain. 4 Whenever he was put into chains and shackles—as he often was—he snapped the chains from his wrists and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him...A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. 26 She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse...While he was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. They told him, “Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.”
Observations:
In this short passage Mark tells about how Jesus encountered three seemingly hopeless individuals whom literally no one would or ever could help. The first guy was demon possessed and couldn't even be contained let alone cured. Another woman had gone bankrupt trying to find a doctor that could prescribe anything to help her perpetual sickness. The last girl in the story died before Jesus even had a chance to save her from her terminal illness. All three of these people had one thing in common: hopelessness, in light of the fact that there was no single person on the planet that could help them. They were completely and totally desperate and in need of something extraordinary.
Application:
There comes a point in our lives when certain needs or circumstances start to spin out of our control and discourage our faith. Like most people our first reaction to such situations are to simply hope for the best or in some cases try and find someone that can fix it. But what do we do when we come up short and there seems to be no way out, no one to help, and no hope. It's in those very times that we can trust and remember that Jesus came to offer hope to the hopeless and do what we cannot do for ourselves. When we turn to Him in faith believing that He has the power to make the impossible possible and work in ways that no human mind can fathom. The moment we reach our most desperate state and have no where else to turn, we are never without hope no matter what we face when we are in relationship with Christ.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the hope that only You can give and the peace that comes from knowing that no situation is beyond Your reach. We put our hope in You today and ask you to be the source of our joy and that your joy would give us the strength to trust in You to sustain us and walk with us through every difficulty we may face. Amen.
"a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from a cemetery to meet him. 3 This man lived among the burial caves and could no longer be restrained, even with a chain. 4 Whenever he was put into chains and shackles—as he often was—he snapped the chains from his wrists and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him...A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. 26 She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse...While he was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. They told him, “Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.”
Observations:
In this short passage Mark tells about how Jesus encountered three seemingly hopeless individuals whom literally no one would or ever could help. The first guy was demon possessed and couldn't even be contained let alone cured. Another woman had gone bankrupt trying to find a doctor that could prescribe anything to help her perpetual sickness. The last girl in the story died before Jesus even had a chance to save her from her terminal illness. All three of these people had one thing in common: hopelessness, in light of the fact that there was no single person on the planet that could help them. They were completely and totally desperate and in need of something extraordinary.
Application:
There comes a point in our lives when certain needs or circumstances start to spin out of our control and discourage our faith. Like most people our first reaction to such situations are to simply hope for the best or in some cases try and find someone that can fix it. But what do we do when we come up short and there seems to be no way out, no one to help, and no hope. It's in those very times that we can trust and remember that Jesus came to offer hope to the hopeless and do what we cannot do for ourselves. When we turn to Him in faith believing that He has the power to make the impossible possible and work in ways that no human mind can fathom. The moment we reach our most desperate state and have no where else to turn, we are never without hope no matter what we face when we are in relationship with Christ.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the hope that only You can give and the peace that comes from knowing that no situation is beyond Your reach. We put our hope in You today and ask you to be the source of our joy and that your joy would give us the strength to trust in You to sustain us and walk with us through every difficulty we may face. Amen.
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