Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 01 10 2024 From Despair to Hope

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01 10 2024 From Despair to Hope · Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris

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  Most of us eat every day, some of us too much, because yesterday's
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  food is not enough to supply energy for today's needs. Why then, do
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  some of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to
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  keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going to change
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  all of that. Let's experience God's words today and receive the power we need
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  to live healthy, vibrant lives. Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host,
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  author speaker, Elle David Harris. Good morning, Good morning, Good
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  morning. It is Wednesday, January tenh twenty twenty four. Hello, my
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  name is El David Harris. I am your host, and this is your
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  Daily Portion where we give you Gun's word every single day, and today is
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  no exception. We are continuing in our New Lessons study series through the Book
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  of Psalms, and our caption for today is from Despair to Hope, From
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  Despair to Hope. We'll get into that in just a moment, but first
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  I like to say welcome to you and ask you please please. If you
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  are on social media or on YouTube, go ahead and click that share button.
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  You're watching on television, you are listening on the radio or listening on
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  a podcast. Please find a way to be creative and sharing this with your
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  friends, your colleagues, people with whom you exercise, and maybe even travel
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  on the road in taxis and buses, because we are looking to spread this
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  great news of the Gospel into all the world for a witness, so that
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  Jesus Christ soon will come. We're looking forward to that day. Uh yeah,
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  let's go ahead and pray, and then we will get underwagh Father and
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  Heaven. Thank you for giving us this new morning and for the privilege we
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  have to still be alive in this new year. Father, I'm asking you
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  to give us new lives, new mind sets, teach us hope in Jesus's
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  name, I pray, Amen and Amen again. Okay, there is a
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  harsh let me say reality. There are times that we humans despair, yes,
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  and they are even There are even songs that talk about God hearing our
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  despairing cries. And so what we need really and truly is hope. It's
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  hope. We need hope. How do we receive hope? Yes, if
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  you have an opportunity, please, or I should say make an opportunity,
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  like make the time to go back to the Book of Psalms. You've heard
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  me make allusion to this chapter often Psalms chapter forty two, where the Psalmist
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  is talking about his hopelessness and how he should transition from this despair to hope
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  fullness. Right, yeah, when you have an opportunity, please go there
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  and then share it your Daily Portion dot com once you join the online community,
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  share what you would have gathered there. But we want to we want
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  to transition our mindsets to hope full nests. And as usual, we're going
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  to use a passage of scripture as our backdrop. And today we're using chapter
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  thirteen of the Book of Psalms, and I will begin at verse one.
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  Okay, we won't read all of the verses. I hope you do in
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  your spare time, but let's see what we can glean in these few moments
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  that we have here the Book of Psalms, Chapter thirteen and verse one,
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  How long wilt thou forget me? Oh Lord? Forever? How long wilt
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  thou hide thy face from me? And so now we are sitting squarely in
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  a space of maybe despair or feeling of hopelessness, or just like when we
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  read when we were reading from chapter twenty two, maybe the psalmist is feeling
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  forsaken. Now what should this individual do? What should I do? What
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  should you do? If this is your reality? The first thing is to
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  acknowledge your feelings. Acknowledge your feelings. Don't behave as if or act as
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  if this is not true, because maybe you've assigned some moral value or something
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  to it and said, well, this is displeasing to God because I am
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  feeling forgotten. I am feeling like he's hiding his face from me, and
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  I shouldn't be feeling this way, and therefore I'm going to act like that's
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  not my reality. No, the first thing that we need to do is
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  to acknowledge our feelings and then begin by expressing your deepest worries and fears to
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  God. Notice I said to God, there are a lot of individuals who
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  have a complaining spirit. Or if not, whatever you're going through, you
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  have a habit of going to humans first. I know, I know there
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  are people out here who can be of service to you. Hopefully I am
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  in some ways of service to you. Hopefully you have friends and some relatives
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  or other acquaintances that in moments of despair, they are of service to you.
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  But you absolutely. I must absolutely not come to a human being first.
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  I need to go to God first and say, God, this is
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  what I'm feeling, this is what i'm facing, these are my experiences.
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  And then continue that honest discussion and then listen for his voice so that you
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  will know what to do next. And I say listen for his voice.
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  He may not speak to you audibly, but listen and pay keen attention to
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  how he will direct your path because he promised that if in all of our
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  ways we acknowledge him, we bring him into all of our thought processes,
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  all of our decisions, all of our feelings, then he will make our
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  paths straight. He will direct our paths. So that's the first thing.
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  The second comes from the Book of Psalms, chapter thirteen and verse five,
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  where it reads, but I have trusted in thy mercy. You see the
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  transition here. Remember our caption was from despair to hope. Right, so
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  you have forgotten me? How long will you hide your face? Now let's
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  see. But I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in
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  thy salvation. And so now the Bible writer is saying that, yes,
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  I have felt this way, this is my reality. But you know what.
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  I trust in your mercy, that unmerited favor, that which I do
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  not deserve, the many times I have sinned against you, the many times
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  I have just been a human Like every day, I'm a human being,
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  and human beings are naturally just not on the same page with God. And
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  yet I am still here. Yet I can still have the privilege of entering
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  into the family of God and then one day coming into the heavenly kingdom for
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  a thousand years. And then after those years are finished, Yes, I'm
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  fast forwarding. Then the meek will inherit the earth. You know what,
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  God, I trust you. I trust you, and therefore my heart shall
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  rejoice in thy salvation. Notice the Psalmist did not say I trust you,
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  and once you have resolved my issue, then I will rejoice. This individual,
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  you and me, we have the privilege to in the moment that we
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  recognize God's mercy, in the moment that we have chosen to trust him,
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  we can rejoice. Even though sometimes things are going to be difficult and sad.
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  Sometimes we will feel dejected, rejected, and be despondent. We can
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  begin to be glad in our spirit. Why because we know that God has
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  our best interest at heart at all times, and so we want to shift
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  our focus to God's faithfulness. That is the action item. Shift your focus
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  to God's faithfulness. It's not about what you're going through. It's not about
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  what is happening based on some outside influence, no or stimuli or trigger.
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  It is about can God? Is your God able? Huh? Is your
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  God able to fill in the blank positive thing deliver you? Is your God
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  able to continue in this trial with you? So that you can know that
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  you are not alone like those three young men who were thrown into the fiery
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  furnaced furnace under Nebuchadnezzar, or Daniel who was thrown into the lions den,
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  or Stephen who was stoned only because he did what God said. You see,
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  so shift your God, your focus to God's faithfulness. Right, move
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  from focusing on yours to reaffirming your trust in God's love and power to redeem.
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  Now we're going to verse six really quickly of chapter thirteen the Book of
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  Psalms. I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with
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  me. We thank God that now we can transform our despair into praise.
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  Let your prayer journey. Mirror this transition in verse six and say God,
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  I praise you because you have been good to me. And then, of
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  course we continue to seek the Holy Spirit's guidance through the entire process from despair
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  to hope. God is for you of a wonderful day us. Thanks for
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  joining us listening. Friends. Always remember we cannot live by bread alone,
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  but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. This has been
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  your daily portion with El David Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah,