Daily Dose of Hope

September 11, 2024

Day 4 of Week 24

Scripture: Proverbs 24-25; Psalm 41; 1 Thessalonians 2

Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional/podcast that complements New Hope Church’s daily Bible reading. It’s Wednesday already so that means that tonight is Recharge. If you are local, come join us for a time of worship, prayer, and small community. We start at 6:30pm in the Garage, on the Moon Ave. side of campus.

Our first Old Testament reading is from Proverbs. In chapter 24, Solomon continues his wise sayings. He mentions several times about not being jealous of sinful people, as success is found in wisdom. How do you define success? Do you think of being wise as being successful?

A word about Proverbs 25. Chapters 25-29 contain material collected by later scribes. These men, working under King Hezekiah, collected and copied these from one set of scrolls that recorded Solomon's other wise teachings. Thus, they are connected to Solomon but not directly. There is a lot in this chapter about personal relationships and the idea that too much of a good thing isn’t a good thing. There are warnings against lying and losing control. There is also emphasis on being kind, even when others aren’t. If you were to write some proverbs about how to have healthy personal relationships, what would you include?

In Psalm 41, we have another psalm of David. He mentions being ill in this passage. He is being hunted by his enemies and his name is being slandered. He has been stabbed in the back by a friend. Things aren’t going well at all! This may have been written when David was being pursued by Absalom. He prays for God’s healing and victory over his enemies. He thanks God for being his forever friend. Wow. I love that – how often do we think of God as our forever friend?

Let’s move on to our New Testament reading, I Thessalonians 2. The authors start out chapter two by discussing their motives for preaching the Gospel message. They have pure motives and have no desire to trick people into becoming converts, which must have been an issue in the day. Gaining converts at any cost suggests manipulation and the desire to look successful before others. But their main concern was pleasing God, not people. That does not mean that the Gospel message isn't pleasing to people, because it certainly is, but that wasn't their main reason for sharing it. God had called them to this and they were being obedient.

Unfortunately, throughout the course of history, Christians haven't always had such pure motives in sharing the Gospel. Evangelism has often occurred with a Bible in one hand and a sword in the other. I think Paul, Timothy, and Silas, would be appalled at how far people representing the Christian faith have gone to simply gain converts, without concern for the hearts of people. As twenty-first century believers, we get to stand on the shoulders of those who witnessed well and those who made a terrible mess of it. And yet, we are still called to share the Gospel with others with pure motives. Guided by the Holy Spirit rather than our own prideful motivations, we are called to share the source of our hope. Just as Paul and friends write in this chapter, our core motivation must be to please God. It's great if other people are pleased as well with the message, but that isn't our primary purpose. It's simply all about Jesus.

Blessings,

Pastor Vicki