Hope, Day 8 Hope lived out. Read Ezra chapter 8. Many of us have heard the statement, you better put your money where your mouth is. That is exactly the situation that Ezra is facing in this chapter. He has told the king about how awesome and powerful God is, and the king believes him. Now Ezra is having to make a dangerous journey with a lot of money. He needs to rely solely on God for his protection because if he asks the king for protection, it will look like he doesn’t trust God. When it comes down to it, do we really believe and live what we say?…

Hope, Day 7 Hope lived out. Read Ezra chapter 10. Here we learn a little bit more about the prophet Ezra. We see his relationship with the king of Persia, and we understand more about how the king determined to allow the Israelites to follow through on what God had committed them to do. Interestingly we also see that Ezra was the embodiment of the hope that he had. Ezra studied what he need to do. He lived it out. He taught others to do the same. Our hope must be more than just something inside us. Our hope in Christ must be something that we are always wanting to…

Hope, Day 6 Joyful hope. Read Ezra chapter 6. You know that point in the movie where you see the hero or heroine, who has been knocked down the entire show, rise up in victory and conquer their enemies? That’s the feeling I get when I read this chapter. The people of Israel have been vindicated for everything they were saying. As a bonus, all of their enemies ended up having to help them accomplish God’s will. Here at the end of the construction project, we see the people celebrating by offering sacrifices to the Lord and observing the holidays that God had instituted before. The people have joy. When…

Hope, Day 5 Hope restored. Read Ezra chapter 5. Time has passed and God has renewed and restored the hope of people to continue to obey him and follow through on the plans. The Prophets have come and shared God’s word and God’s will with the people. They have started working again. The enemies didn’t go away. In fact, the enemies came back and tried to stop the work again but this time the people are prepared. They are going to obey regardless of any enemies standing in their way. Their hope has been renewed and restored. We can know that God is going to do something. We can have…

Hope, Day 4 Hope, frustrated. Read Ezra chapter 4. No matter what we do, we are always going to encounter enemies. There will always be people who do not want God’s work to move forward. The people here experienced the same and these enemies were able to impact the work. They were able to get the king to order the work to stop. It can be tremendously frustrating to know what God’s will is and to be moving in the direction of God’s will, and then to an experience a roadblock. Hope can be frustrated by outside forces. But just because hope is frustrated doesn’t mean the hope is gone.…

Hope, Day 3 Hope in the face of fear. Read Ezra chapter 3. The people were being obedient. They were following through on all that God had commanded them to do, and yet they still experienced fear. Even when we follow the commands of God and we have complete hope and confidence in all that God is going to do, we can still experience fear. Fear is not a lack of faith. Fear is a response to our perception of our circumstances. Only when fear keeps us from acting on the commands of God does it become a lack of faith. Are we acting on the commamds that we have…

Hope, Day 2 Hope delayed. Read Ezra chapter 2. As we read through all the names that represent the individuals who obeyed God, we see a specific set of names of specific people who had been born into the priesthood. However, they were not able to prove their lineage. God had set apart a specific family to be the ones who were to minister to him in the temple. These people were born from that lineage but they were not able to prove it. Somehow the records had been lost. But, God even made a way for them to still have hope. God had made a provision long ago for…

Hope, Day 1 Deja vu. Read Ezra chapter 1. After spending the last several weeks reading through the books of Kings, it seemed only fitting to continue the story. But this time, instead of discussing all of the transition and difficulties, we see the hope that God brings to the people of Israel. In French, there is the concept of deja vu, or having seen something already. This chapter reads a lot like the chapters in Exodus when the people are getting ready to leave Egypt. This verse in particular from Ezra chapter one reminded me of Exodus 12:35-36, as all of the people gave them their gold and silver.…