Jesus Turns Your ‘Hopeless End’ Into ‘Endless Hope’
By Rick Warren
“This happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us . . . and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us.” 2 Corinthians 1:9-10 (NIV)
God works in your life according to your expectation. The apostle Paul knew this. He said in 2 Corinthians 1:9-10, “This happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us . . . and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us” (NIV).
At some point in life, you’ll reach a dead end—when you see no hope from a human perspective. But your dead end has a purpose: to teach you to trust in God. Sometimes life seems so bad and out of control. Why does God let that happen? So you can learn to trust in him instead of trusting in your own ingenuity and cleverness.
Here’s what’s true: God has delivered you in the past, he’s likely delivering you from circumstances now, and he will deliver you in the future. God uses three different kinds of deliverance:
1. God uses circumstantial deliverance. Sometimes God miraculously alters the circumstance, and the Red Sea splits. That will happen many times in your life, but it’s not going to happen all the time.
2. God uses personal deliverance. Instead of changing the circumstance, God changes you from the inside. You get a new dream, a new vision, a new attitude, and a new perspective.
3. God’s ultimate deliverance is heaven. God has not promised to remove all your pain in this world or solve every one of your problems. On Earth, there is pain, sorrow, and suffering. The ultimate deliverance will be one day in heaven, where there will be no pain, no sorrow, no suffering, and no heartache.
There is only one way to get to Heaven. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 NIV). When you’re at a dead end, Jesus can take that hopeless end and turn it into an endless hope.
Are you at a dead end? I invite you to take that dead-end situation and your own life and give them to Jesus Christ. Jesus always looks out for your best interests.
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This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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