This Week at Hope – Experiencing Joy in the Midst of Our Trials
Dear brothers and sisters,
This Sunday we will be gathering together to consider how true faith deals with the ups and downs of this life (James 1:1-12). If you are anything like this old sinner, you, like me, know how easy it is to succumb to the volatile nature of the trials of this life. In the midst of the circumstances we find ourselves in, we may seek to raise the bar to the ‘grin-and-bear-it’ or ‘ride-the-storm-out’ level and then feel good about ourselves if we can come anywhere close to achieving that. But James holds out a different vision for us. He says that the faith that God has granted unto us should enable us to find joy in the midst of our trials. How do we get to that point? Well James holds out not simply a vision of what our faith ought to be, but also hope as to how we can actually get there. I really can get there; so can you.
Prayer tomorrow night will be at the Burke’s home. As we gather, consider the following quote from C.H. Surgeon:
‘If God be near a church, it must pray! And if He be not there, one of the tokens of His absence will be slothfulness in prayer!’
Jim Savsatio recently tweeted: ‘The mid-week prayer meeting is the church’s Declaration of Dependence.’
Please be in prayer for Scott as he goes into surgery tomorrow morning at 9:40.
Our songs for Sunday morning are:
- Holy, Holy, Holy
- Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus
- What God Ordains Is Always Good
- Nearer My God to Thee
- It Is Well with My Soul