"For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."
Romans 8:24-26
We are saved by hope. :) I like that, and how true does that feel? Whenever we lose hope, we feel lost. But with God there is *always* hope.
While I was reading this morning I came across two other scripture statements that are interesting in relation to this one: From Moroni 7:40: "How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?" And from Moroni 7:42: "Without faith there cannot be any hope." The first one basically says that you can't get faith without hope, and the second one that you can't have hope without faith. This, on the surface, seems kind of contradictory, but I think that it just means that faith and hope are interdependent... we have to learn both of them together. We can't learn one without the other. The next verse in Moroni even takes it further, explaining that we can't have either one without some humility. All all of these, mixed together, are the beginning of our recipe for being saved.
We return to the scripture above for the rest of the recipe. We take all of these ingredients and we look for salvation, but it's not something that we can see. You can't pour it in a cake pan or take it out of the oven to add icing. We pour these things into ourselves, and we are the oven, and we are the icing. We add patience to the mix, knowing that being saved doesn't happen in an instant, but over the process of our lives. And we have to have the spirit there as well, to supply the rest of the requirements, because we sometimes don't even know what those are. So, as we do everything we *can* do, God steps in and makes up the difference for the missing ingredients and the things that we just don't have yet. The recipe continues a little bit in Romans, but basically when we have all of those things in us, then "all things work together for good" (Romans 8:28).
Today, let's remember that hope saves us, and that it is mixed in with all the rest of the recipe. Let's not leave it out, or think that we can get along without it. There is hope for us all, through God's love and infinite mercy. Let's follow his recipe for salvation.
But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."
Romans 8:24-26
We are saved by hope. :) I like that, and how true does that feel? Whenever we lose hope, we feel lost. But with God there is *always* hope.
While I was reading this morning I came across two other scripture statements that are interesting in relation to this one: From Moroni 7:40: "How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?" And from Moroni 7:42: "Without faith there cannot be any hope." The first one basically says that you can't get faith without hope, and the second one that you can't have hope without faith. This, on the surface, seems kind of contradictory, but I think that it just means that faith and hope are interdependent... we have to learn both of them together. We can't learn one without the other. The next verse in Moroni even takes it further, explaining that we can't have either one without some humility. All all of these, mixed together, are the beginning of our recipe for being saved.
We return to the scripture above for the rest of the recipe. We take all of these ingredients and we look for salvation, but it's not something that we can see. You can't pour it in a cake pan or take it out of the oven to add icing. We pour these things into ourselves, and we are the oven, and we are the icing. We add patience to the mix, knowing that being saved doesn't happen in an instant, but over the process of our lives. And we have to have the spirit there as well, to supply the rest of the requirements, because we sometimes don't even know what those are. So, as we do everything we *can* do, God steps in and makes up the difference for the missing ingredients and the things that we just don't have yet. The recipe continues a little bit in Romans, but basically when we have all of those things in us, then "all things work together for good" (Romans 8:28).
Today, let's remember that hope saves us, and that it is mixed in with all the rest of the recipe. Let's not leave it out, or think that we can get along without it. There is hope for us all, through God's love and infinite mercy. Let's follow his recipe for salvation.
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