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Need Hope Today?

Where can we find hope when we are confused, depressed, or looking for the meaning of life? Is hope found in success? A relationship? A movie or magazine? Perhaps a bottle or drug?

Some people spend a life-time looking for inner peace and assurance only to have it slip from their grasp. Perhaps you are on this search for hope. For lasting joy, peace, and contentment.

The Hope Channel wants to assist you in discovering what millions have already found-real abiding hope is found in the Word of God. In four steps the Bible will lead you to feel the hope that comes from a God who loves you immensely.

Steps to Hope

Step One
Recognize that God loves you and created you to know peace, happiness, and hope. You were created for a purpose. You are not here by chance. Your existence has meaning. The God who created the world knows you and wants you to have true happiness. No matter our situation in life there is reason to hope when we recognize the eternal God not only knows us, but also has planned for us to experience peace, joy, and hope.

"For I know the purposes which I am purposing for you, says Jehovah; purposes of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11 (MKJV).

Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10 (KJV)

If this is true, then why don't we experience the abundant life of inner peace and happiness Jesus promised? Step two answers this question.

Step Two
Our selfish and sinful natures have separated us from God and the abundant life. When humanity's first parents chose to distrust God's plan for them, they disobeyed Him and immediately became selfish in nature. Down through the centuries this selfish nature has been genetically passed to everyone born into this world. (Romans 5: 12; 3:10).

The Bible tells us "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Since we all have sinned (Romans 3:23) we will die and not have the hope of living again in a perfect world. Because of sin we are in a hopeless condition in this life and for the life to come. This is why we cannot enjoy the peace of God without being forgiven for our sins and without God's power to change our natures. The way to forgiveness and power is revealed in the third step to hope.

"Therefore, even as through one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed on all men inasmuch as all sinned." Romans 5:12 MKJV.

Step Three
We can find our way out of hopelessness by believing that God's Son, Jesus Christ, came and lived as a man to break the power of sin and selfishness. By revealing God's love, He brings us to Him to experience His love and forgiveness. He is the only one who can break the power of sin and who can forgive our past sins and selfishness that have harmed others.

"The Dayspring from on high (Jesus) has visited us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." Luke 1:78-79 MKJV.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16 MKJV.

Jesus invites, "Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke on you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest to your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30 MKJV.

Simply knowing these three steps to hope is not sufficient. We must take the fourth step if we are to experience hope, peace and eternal life

Step Four
When we recognize we are sinful by nature and can't change ourselves, we will ask God to forgive our sins and come into our lives. The Bible calls this repentance and conversion.

Conversion includes the following features:
We sorrow over our sinful condition and for the pain it has caused God, others, and ourselves.
We confess to God that sin and selfishness is something we want to be free from and we ask Him to deliver us.
We believe that God loves us and sent His Son to pay the penalty for our sins.
We accept Jesus death in our behalf and ask Him to come into our lives to empower and lead us.

It is by personally taking this fourth step of confessing our sins and asking God to come into our lives that we find hope and peace.

"I confessed my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgression to Jehovah; and You forgave the iniquity of my sin." Psalm 32:5 MKJV.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 MKJV.

"What must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." Acts 16:30, 31 MKJV.

"Whoever shall call on the name of the Lord will be saved." Romans 10:13 MKJV.

These are the four steps to eternal hope revealed in the Bible.

Do you have the hope of abundant life that God gives? Which of the following two descriptions best describes your life right now?
a. You are living by your own wisdom and thoughts and you're experiencing discord, lack of peace, and do not have hope for an abundant eternal life.
b. Jesus is directing your life, giving you wisdom to make right choices, and has filled you with joy and hope.

If you chose option "a" as a current description of your life, which of the above descriptions would you like for your life to be?

If you chose option "b" as your desire, you can have Jesus forgive your past sins, come into your life, and give you eternal life. All you need to do is ask Him.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16 MKJV.

"Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you." Matthew 7:7 MKJV.

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." Ephesians 2:8 MKJV.

You can have hope and the assurance of eternal life by praying the following prayer and asking Jesus to be your Savior and Lord.

A Prayer of Hope
"God, I confess that I am a sinner and cannot change my nature. My selfishness and sin has caused pain to You, others, and myself. Please forgive my sins. I believe that Jesus lived a perfect life and died to pay the penalty for my sins. I now accept His sacrifice in my behalf and ask you to come into my life. Thank you for the free gift of salvation that is now mine by faith in Jesus' death and life. I give my life completely to you and ask you to daily lead me into your joy and hope. Amen."

If you prayed this prayer, you can know that God has heard and answered it. You do not need to depend upon your feelings to know that God has forgiven you and come into your life. Your faith is based on the sure promise of God's Word.

"And this is the record that God has given to us everlasting life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I have written these things to you who believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have everlasting life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." 1 John 5:11-15 MKJV.

I have made a decision to find hope in Jesus through the ministry of the Hope Channel.

I would like more information on how to grow as a person of hope.

I would like to learn how to meet others in my area who have given their lives to Jesus.

You can further your study by visiting the Online Bible Studies: Storacles of Prophecy