{"id":7323,"date":"2021-10-31T16:47:31","date_gmt":"2021-10-31T06:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=7323"},"modified":"2021-10-31T16:47:33","modified_gmt":"2021-10-31T06:47:33","slug":"never-lose-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/never-lose-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Never Lose Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Never Lose Hope<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated from a sermon by HH Pope Shenouda III<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

What is hope? Hope is wishing for the best, no matter how\ndifficult or complicated the situation is before them. No matter how long it\ntakes, the person with hope never gives up. They do not fall into despair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opposite of hope is despair. Hope is accepting\ntribulation with an open heart. Joy in all tribulation. Wishing for the best at\nall times. We remember the key phrases from John;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.<\/p>Revelation 3:8<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Behold, a door standing open in heaven<\/p>Revelation 4:1<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Hope is have an optimistic view, to put off all pessimistic\nthoughts. In this way, nothing can harm; not anxiety, not sadness, not\ndepression or despair. Always looking toward a brighter future and a happier\nday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You constantly reiterate that all is repairable, all the bad\nof today can be healed tomorrow. Every problem will come to an end. When you\nhave hope, any lost opportunity is preparation for the next. A lack of hope\ndiminishes our mood and motivation to keep going. It makes us feel sadness and\ndespair. A loss of hope in its final stages, leads to even suicide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we speak about hope, we don\u2019t speak about hope alone,\nbut hope in God. God who is the hope of the hopeless and the helper of the\nhelpless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hope of those who have no hope and the help of those who have no helper<\/p>the Litany of the Sick<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Hope is waiting on the Lord. We wait for God to solve our problems. Not waiting anxiously, but waiting in hope, with confidence and joy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart<\/p>Psalm 27:14<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Know that God will come, even if it is the final watch. <\/p>

But those who wait on the Lord<\/p>

Shall renew their strength;<\/p>

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,<\/p>

They shall run and not be weary,<\/p>

They shall walk and not faint.<\/p>Isaiah 40:31<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

To also have hope in your prayers answered. The first\nexample of hope was Eve\u2019s hope in God\u2019s promise that her seed will bruise the\nhead of the serpent;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel. <\/p>Genesis 3:15.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

After that, there was the hope of Noah. After the waters\ncovered all the land, and all the mountains, he found himself in an ark filled\nwith animals. There was no sign of land. He had hope that the waters would be\ndispersed and he would see the land once more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abraham had hope that Isaac would return alive even if he\nhad been sacrificed. God told him that through Isaac he would have more\ndescendants than the stars in the sky. And more than the grains of sand in the\nsea. Yet he would be sacrificed. Abraham had hope in God\u2019s promise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moses the prophet had hope when he was standing before the Red Sea with Pharaoh and his armies were behind him. All the people lost hope but Moses said to them; \u201cDo not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your pea<\/em>ce\u201d – Exodus 14:13-14. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

David the prophet had hope when he fought Goliath. He had a giant before him that was bigger and stronger than him. David came to him with a few stones and his hope in God. With those few stones and his slingshot, he would defeat the giant before him. He said to him, \u201cthis day the Lord will deliver you into my hand.<\/em>\u201d – 1 Samuel 17:46. He had hope that the Lord would help him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph had hope that his dreams would come true. Maybe he\nforgot about it for a while, but there was no doubt that he thought about it\nfrom time to time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esther had hope that God would accept her fasting. Her hope\nwas that the king would hear her petition and save her people. This was all in\nthe Old Testament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope continues in the New Testament. The right hand thief had hope that Jesus could save him even while he hung on the Cross. He was a sinner, deserving of death but he had hope in eternity and forgiveness. As he pleaded, \u201cremember me O Lord when come into Your Kingdom.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zacharias erred when he had lost hope, thinking it was too\nlate for his prayers for a child to be answered. God chastised him for his loss\nof faith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is another type of hope- hope in healing. Many people have hope of being healed. One was the man that had spent 38 years by the Poolgate waiting for someone to take him into the waters. He hoped throughout this time until Christ came to heal him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hope of the man born blind. This was the first time that\nsomeone was born without eyes and received new sight. There is hope in the\nResurrection. On this hope all will die knowing that after death there is\nanother life. We pray for this second life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. <\/p>1 Thessalonians 4:13<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

There is also hope in forgiveness. No matter the sins that\nwe have committed, we remain hopeful in God\u2019s forgiveness. St Peter who denied\nJesus three times, and Judas that betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.\nThe outcome was different because one had hope and the other did not. His lack\nof hope led to despair and his ultimate demise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Monica spent years praying for her son St Augustine in\nhope that he could change his life around. She wept for his salvation for\ntwenty years until St Ambrose told her that the son of those tears could not be\nunmoved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter how many times they fall, there is always hope\nthat they will rise again. Even if you fall in sin, have hope that God will\nsave you. He will save you from sin, from thoughts of sin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One might say that God will save them from a difficult\nhabit. One might be smoking for years and years, and if they lose hope then\nthey can never stop. If they have hope, then they know that the long years mean\nnothing compared to hope in the Lord. Even if they fall into addiction, they\nhave hope that they will rise again. They have hope that God will save them. If\none loses hope that they will continue to fall into sin and become lost in it\nas the Bible says about the fig tree that was filled with leaves and had no\nfruit. There was a suggestion that it should be cut down. The saying was said\nto leave it another year that it might bring forth fruit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Never Lose Hope Translated from a sermon by HH Pope Shenouda III What is hope? Hope is wishing for the best, no matter how difficult or complicated the situation is before them. No matter how long it takes, the person with hope never gives up. They do not fall into despair. The opposite of hope … Continue reading “Never Lose Hope”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7324,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7323\/revisions\/7324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}