STRONG DIVINE WEAPONS: Hope

A life without hope is a life filled with despair.  Hopelessness is the fruit of what I like to call Dark Faith.  Believe it or not, we all have faith.  We all believe in something.  When we choose to put our faith in chance or circumstances rather than in God, it tends to get dark very quickly.  When we put our trust in our own abilities that have proven to be insufficient, our future always looks grim to us.  This Dark Faith produces a hopelessness that leaves us in despair.  Despair begins to whittle away at our resolve and then we become quitters instead of overcomers.  When we begin to quit, we become failure oriented and we can even begin to forget what it was like to succeed.  In a very small amount of time, this puts us in a pattern of thought that completely locks us out of any positive outcomes or scenarios. 

A Computer virus can work in much the same way.  Computer programs are designed to respond to certain inputs and produce specific results based on those inputs.  For example, if I put in a, the program spits out b.  Some viruses are designed to come in a corrupt programs so that they either don't give any output or give an undesired one.  So if i put in a, I get back x or nothing at all.  Dark Faith (Consistently trusting in incapable sources) is basically the code for this type of spiritual virus.  It messes up the programming code so much that we don't even know how to have faith anymore. 

So here is how the "Faith Program"is supposed to work in us. 

God promises something > We hear that promise > The product is hope.

The "Dark Faith Virus" works like this.

Problem occurs >  We turn to lesser things > The product is despair.

When hope is present, we are told that we are not to be disappointed.  (Romans 5)
 

So when we take hope, we overcome and when we despair, we are constantly disappointed.  What is the huge difference between Hope and Despair.  Both take faith.  One is dark and the other is not.  Dark Faith is based on the promise of the powerless.  Real Faith that produces Hope is based on the promise of the All-Powerful One.  Need hope?  Stop listening to the wishful romances of the weak and begin to hear the Word of God. 

Bless You Evansville,

David