Hope Needed for Minstry

Pray for your local church and the local churches in Slavic countries. Ask the Lord to increase the spiritual life of each member of the church. Ask Him to assist your church in the area where you live to seek souls with salvation from sin. And may this assistance extend throughout the whole world. Pray for your pastor and leadership, as well as the pastors and leadership in the Slavic world. Pray for peace in the world. Ask God to restrain evil through the Holy Spirit in order that His Word may have free course in every country.

The true church of God is a company of redeemed Christians who enjoy a unique hope! “You are called in one hope of your calling” (Ephesians 4:4). Hope for the Christian is not wishful thinking but absolute certainty. When the believer leaves this earth, instantly he will be with the Lord Jesus. This truth comforts the Christian unspeakably.

It is a “rejoicing hope” (Romans 12:12), for it provides believers a future with God in this world and the world to come. “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we rejoice in hope for the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2). Because Jesus rose again from the dead and is seated at the right hand of the Father, the believer can live his life with assurance knowing that he, too, will be resurrected to dwell with God forever. “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:4). Every believer is encouraged to “rejoice in hope” (Romans 12:12).

It is a “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13), for it is anchored in the certainty that Jesus will return again. Eternal life begins when a person places his complete trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. It continues during life on this earth and will continue forever in heaven, for the believer will “always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). When the Lord Jesus Christ returns, He shall come from heaven for His church. Believers are “looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

It is a “living hope” (1 Peter 1:3), for Jesus has conquered death and the grave. He lives to intercede on the believer’s behalf. Christians can count on Him to transform them into His likeness, to help them endure any trial or testing and take them to heaven when He returns for His church. “Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the Lord” (Psalm 31:24). The Lord Jesus will catch away His competed church from this chaotic world before the wrath of God consumes it.

It is a “purifying hope” (1 John 3:3), for it helps the believer to practice habits of righteousness. Watchfulness for the Lord is a Christian virtue that purifies the soul. With the power of the Holy Spirit who resides within the repentant believer, life changes for the better. “Old things passed away; behold new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Struggles against sin become easier to conquer, as new life in Christ instills new desires and new directions. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

The Christian’s hope helps each believer to “encourage one another, and build up one another” (1 Thessalonians 5:11). With this hope, the believer watches, works and waits for the Lord Jesus Christ to come in the clouds for His church. “For in hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one also hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it” (Romans 8:24-25).

Pray that the national workers of Slavic Missionary Service will rest and rely upon the hope that God hasgiven them to know that their rewards are in heaven and that their labors here on earth are not in vain. “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word” (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17). May the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirt break the hardness of heart in those people who have no hope.

"But what about you?" Jesus asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ."

Mark 8:29

God’s strategy for world evangelism calls for two equally important elements: Co-missionaries and Go-missionaries, the senders and the sent, the supporters and the workers. A Christian church without missionary enthusiasm is a contradiction. God depends upon the faithful testimony of His people for the evangelization of the world. The Savior expects those who have tasted the sweetness of salvation to spread the news far and wide. He has commissioned His children to share His Word to the lost in every country.