Power of Hope and Gratitude

 Hope opens the door to God's help. Gratitude releases God's spirit.

God is sovereign, isn't he? But in the Bible, I see that our attitude can influence God's actions.

God saved the Hebrews from brutal slavery in Egypt. He also rescued them from Pharaoh's army and led them across the Red Sea.

God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and caused supernatural food to appear in the wilderness.
Despite all this, many Hebrews were ungrateful.

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.

“They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshipped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’ ” Ex 32:7–8 NASB95

But Moses stood up in the gap. He begged God not to kill all the Hebrews, not to condemn them. And God answered.

At the end of the war, there was a miraculous revival in Germany. God also worked miraculous healings. There were huge crowds at the church services. But who remembers that today?

In Nuremberg, the Allies organised trials for Nazi war criminals. The Nazis had acted like devils, but many were still nominal Christians.

The Americans sent a Catholic priest and a Protestant pastor to help the prominent prisoners with pastoral care.

Some of the worst criminals in the Nazi leadership genuinely repented. When Hitler's arrogant ex-foreign minister went to the gallows, he begged his wife to raise their daughters as Christians.

But how many remember that? We humans tend to think negatively and ungratefully.

Since the war, God has blessed Germany amazingly. The Americans and British helped a lot in the beginning and the Germans themselves worked very diligently with wise leaders.

The economic miracle was a real miracle, but the basis of the miracle was the grace of God, the God of the Jews, the God who forgives.

God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. Rom 5:20 NLT

God spared the Hebrews when Moses pleaded for their lives. Who prayed for Germany during the war? Who prayed for mercy before and after the war?

We know a few names, some British intercessors and also some faithful German Christians. We think of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, of course. God answers our prayers when we pray for our nation, for our world and for our enemies.

Hope opens the door to God's help. Gratitude releases God's spirit.

‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ Jer 33:3 NIV

Blessings Break Curses

 Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch woman who loved Jesus. During the Nazi occupation of Holland, her family provided a refuge for Jews.

Her family was betrayed and she and her sister were deported by the Nazis. She was in Ravensbrück concentration camp in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. A very hard fate.

She began to encourage the other prisoners with her biblical faith. She held fast to St Paul's admonition to be thankful for everything.

In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Th 5:18 NASB95

What, really? For the disgusting food? For the cold?

She began to speak aloud an unthinkable thanksgiving. ‘Thank you for the bedbugs.’

But after saying this nonsensical prayer, she had a revelation.

Because of the bedbugs, they were not bothered by the cruel guards in their unsavoury dormitory. The guards wanted to avoid these disgusting vermin at all costs.

She also had to pass another tough test.

She had to overcome her hatred. Jesus taught that we must love and bless our enemies.
Her beloved sister became seriously ill and died in the concentration camp.

Then Corrie was allowed to leave the concentration camp. That was a miracle. Someone in an office in Germany had made a mistake, and she was released from the concentration camp early because of it. That was a miracle from God.

But she had suffered terribly and lost her family.

After the war, Corrie became a travelling preacher.
God also sent her to minister in Germany, which was also a hard test for her.

After a sermon in Germany, a guard from the concentration camp approached her and asked for forgiveness.

Corrie was frozen with shock. Traumatised.

But she forced herself to shake hands.

Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Lk 6:28 NIV

Corrie was a victim of the Nazis, but she refused to take upon herself the identity of a victim.

Are you perhaps a target for cruel attacks in your family or at work?

God forbid, but it may also be happening in your church. In the Bible, the Pharisees were not nice people, but not all Pharisees are Jews. Unfortunately, there are also Christian Pharisees.

You can get used to expecting bullying. You can be despised and then start to disrespect yourself.

That's a false identity. You are not that person, no matter how many times you have failed.
God is your creator and he made you good.

It could be that your family were Nazi criminals, or persecuted Jews. I met a wonderful preacher who had been a gangster and a pimp. I know a lovely Christian woman who was a prostitute.

No matter where you come from, God has made you good. God has a good plan for your life, and He wants to fulfil His plan.

But you must recognise yourself as God's good creation.

Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Lk 6:28 NIV

You know, those who are used to being despised and cursed often learn to despise and curse themselves.

You must learn to bless your tormentors, but also to bless yourself.
Start saying blessings over yourself.

“The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.” Num 6:24–26 NIV

The Future will be Different

 We are in a kind of no man's land, a waiting time.

We are waiting, but we don't know what lies ahead. The future will be different from the past, but we don't know what will come and when it will come. We have promises from God. We may expect revival, but what will revival look like in the unknown future?

The revivals of the past often appeared unexpectedly. We read history, but we know the world of yesterday is never coming back.

We are like Abraham in the Bible who set out on a pilgrimage not knowing where God would lead him. Abraham went from his homeland to a completely different destination. We stay where we are, but the world is changing around us.

Abraham and Sarah had to trust God for their unknown future, just like we do today. 

Abraham really had to trust God because he was 75 years old when God promised to give him a son. He had to wait about 25 more years until Isaac was born.

He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. Rom 4:19 NRSV

We often get tired of waiting and with many trials. I am sure that Abraham and Sarah were sometimes tired and discouraged.

But God wants to encourage us. He gives us his word and his loving promises.

He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.
 
Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;

but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Isa 40:29–31 NRSV

We are in an unprecedented global crisis. In such times can expect God's miraculous intervention. Millions are sick and yet millions are cowed in the shadow of death. So many are dying.

The Second World War was also a terrible crisis. Millions died and but millions were sick, injured and traumatised.

Shortly after the war, God was at work with great mercy. Great revivals appeared in different countries. Evangelists appeared in America and thousands of seriously ill people experienced miraculous healings.

In Solingen in Germany, a German evangelist emerged who exercised amazing healing gifts. 

Hermann Zaiss was a very gifted German evangelist at the end of the war. Already in 1945 thousands and thousands from all regions of Germany and also from other countries came to his meetings. Many seriously ill people were miraculously healed, but these were not the greatest miracles.  

There was a young soldier in the British occupation force. He burned with a terrible hatred against the German people. His commander was a Canadian officer who regarded this young man with Christian compassion because his uncontrollable bitterness was poisoning his own soul.

This young man was not a monster. As a Jewish child from Germany, he had found refuge in England, but his entire family was murdered by the Nazis.

The Canadian officer brought the traumatised young soldier to the meeting to hear the German evangelist.

Also in the audience was another badly injured man. He was a hard-core Nazi from the Waffen-SS, a devoted disciple of the Führer.

In the last days of the war, he was hit by the explosion of an artillery shell. When he awoke from a coma, he saw a black American nurse smiling at him with Christian Mercy. He no longer understood the world. One of his legs had been torn apart and he was permanently crippled.

The bewildered SS officer and the bitter young Jew listened to the sermon, saw the healings and felt the presence of God with His love and mercy. Then their hearts became warm and soft. They converted to Jesus and testified of their experience.

Then the most amazing miracle of all occurred. They became firm friends.

In dark times we can expect amazing miracles.

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
God's love never changes. God is love. 1 Cor 13:7 NLT