Redeemable In the Eyes of God.

 Faith is Hope. Heb 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

Faith is the substance- this means faith is made up of, composed of--  things, but not just any old things. Faith is made up of things we hope for. Faith and hope, you cannot have one without the other it's an impossibility. It's through this hope comprised faith we hold fast to it as evidence for things we haven't experienced yet. 

When we talk about losing our faith, what exactly have we lost? We've lost our hope in the things we haven't yet seen, we no longer have faith as the evidence of that hope. 

We no longer hope. 

Hope is a precious gift, so incredibly precious. To have hope inspires so much in our lives. If I ask you if you have faith in someone, I'm basically asking you if you have hope in that person to be the person you believe them to be. How many people have had faith in others only to have that faith misplaced? People disappoint each other on a constant basis. How hard it is to give up hope in someone you love. You continue to hold on to having faith in them beyond the disappointments and setbacks. Even when all seems lost you a still have faith in someone- in the potential of someone. One of the most incredibly hard things to do is give up all faith in another person. It's hard to give up that faith and it's hard to be the one who has been given up on. 

Have you ever been given up on? Has anyone ever washed their hands of you? The knowledge that a person no longer has any hope for you can be devastating. I have firsthand knowledge of this situation. I've been in the shoes of being one who others have given up on, the one who others have lost all hope in. I've had people turn their backs on me as they've considered me a lost cause, irredeemable beyond any hope. If you're someone who knows me and you're reading this (truly, I don’t know if anyone reads these things I write and that's not the point), if you know me and you just read what I wrote you may or may not know of the circumstances involved in others losing all hope in me. The circumstances are irrelevant beyond a need to satisfy a curiosity, which I'm not going to satisfy. Suffice it to say it's an awful thing to be given up on, to be deemed unworthy, to be thrust out of a person's life so completely and permanently all based on their loss of all hope in you as a person worthy of their continuing to know. To know you've been a part of something that made you hopeless in another's eyes is, for me at least, heartbreaking. We don't want to believe we can be lost beyond any hope- we just don't. 

People will tell you that God will never give up on you, but the truth of the matter is, when we choose to give up on Him, He has no choice but to ultimately give up on us. 

Faith gives us hope. We can hold on to our hope even when things seem to be their very darkest, in fact, it's imperative that we do hold on to our hope especially in the darkest nights of our lives. 

People can give up on each other. We can be the ones giving up on others, or they on us for whatever reasons (usually they are reasons of worth.) People can give up on each other, but no one is irredeemable in the eyes of our LORD. We may be irredeemable in the eyes of one another, but that just goes to show us that our God is so much greater than any other, God first, then our fellow man.  And when another deems us unworthy and does not extend their forgiveness towards us seventy-times seven time (perfectly countless), then that is something they have to live with, and it's my prayer they are forgiven for not forgiving. They aren't God, none of us are. We are so unable to love with a perfect love, it gets so clouded with our self pursuits. 

Faith is hope. Hope in all the promises our God will never fail to fulfil. Our God gives us hope that we can CLING to tightly. Let the naysayers tell us our hope is silly, and without foundation, I know my hope in God has the greatest foundation in existence. 

May God bless us all with His everlasting love, may we choose to accept that love! May our hope remain firm in Him, and may we NEVER give up and lose hope in GOD, He will not lose hope in us first… never. When we give up on Him, He still hopes-- but only to a certain point. 

Mat 23:37  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 

Mat 23:38  Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. 

Jesus said those words-  your house is left unto you desolate. As a corporate body the Israelites, inhabitants, rulers of Jerusalem, rejected all that Jesus offered and He told them… Behold your house is left unto you desolate.  He wanted them to know Him, to know love, but they refused. 

There are many accounts where the people of God were given opportunities to repent and return to Him, but they often neglected those opportunities and were destroyed.

We destroy ourselves when we have no hope, no faith in our Lord and Savior to save us. It's a salvation that is beyond us, a salvation only He can give to us. His love is everlasting and eternal, but there are right now and until Christ returns-  wheat and tares living together. If we doubt there can even be tares that will be cast in to the fire and burned to nothingness like ash blown to the wind, then we doubt God's word, God's truth. We must pray to be among the wheat gathered to Him, and not the tares to be burned. WE CHOOSE. He doesn't FORCE. We choose faith the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. WE CHOOSE.

Choosing to hope, to believe is an amazing gift of God, faith. May our faith ever grow stronger and stronger even when we may be put into situations that scream at us to give up on God and all hope. Satan will stop at nothing to get us away from God, to make us give up all hope, to believe that our belief in God is a hopeless belief. We can't forget that this is a battle we are in, a fierce battle. We can't believe that life's rug won't be pulled out from under our feet over and over again, it will be. Sometimes that rug is yanked so hard we do backwards somersaults and end up with cracked skulls, all in an attempt by Satan to get us to denounce God. Satan will stop at NOTHING.  God has already given us EVERYTHING, we just need to believe- to have faith, to continue to hope to the end!

All by the grace and mercy, the love, the everlasting kindness of our God, of our LORD and SAVIOR, and through the great COMFORTER now and forever and ever. Thank you for NEVER giving up all hope on me LORD, all praise and thanksgiving to YOU. Thank you for my not being beyond hope, beyond redemption in YOUR eyes, the ONLY EYES the MATTER, for YOU come first GOD, you are MY GOD! And while I'd love nothing more to be considered redeemable in the eyes of mankind as well, I know my HOPE has to be in YOU first! I love you, God! I love you. Thank you, Jesus.   Amen!!!!!!!