INSPIRATIONAL FILES

“ For in hope we have been saved, but the hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it .” [ Romans 8: 24-25 ]. “Hope Again” is a continuation of my reflection on the text as it applies to the circumstances of people and nations as they wait on the promises of God at one point or another. I stated this point in the last issue that the hope that anchored the lives of people in the Bible speaks of assurance and certainties rather than probabilities and uncertainties and it is rooted in the certainty of the fulfillment of God’s promises in the lives of people. One word that Bible hope does not have is the word “hopefully.” Hopefully is a word that communicates probability and uncertainty and a mere wish or desire rather than the assurance of hope as God intends. Hope sometimes involves complex generational dynamics. This simply means that the fulfillment of God’s promises sometimes spa

Discontentment is an emotional disease that takes away one’s joy and peace. Paul told Timothy, “But Godliness with contentment is great gain” [1 Timothy 6: 6]. The Hebrew writer instructs, “…be content with such things as you have” [Hebrews 13: 5]. Contentment has little to do with not getting what you want, but everything to do with wanting what you already have. It has been said that, “contentment makes a poor man rich, yet discontentment makes a rich man poor.” The poor man said to the rich man, “I am richer than you are.” And “Why is that,” asked the rich man? “Because I have everything I want and you don’t.” It just might be that the poorest person in the world is the one who has plenty of money and material goods without contentment. Sometimes we want things we do not need, yet need things we do not want. Two tear drops met along the river of life. One tear drop said to the other, “Where did you come from?” “I am the tear drop of a girl who loved a man and lost him,” replied the