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A Prayer about Being Subpoenaed to Hope

     I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you. Eph. 1:18

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Rom. 15:13

Merciful Father, if a sheriff knocked at my door this morning to present me with a subpoena, I’d be a bit unsettled. But today, like every day, the gospel is knocking at my door to subpoena me to hope. Nothing is more settling and centering.

Father, thank you for making hope a calling. You haven’t merely extended a general notification or given me a polite invitation. I’m called to hope in Jesus just as surely as you called me to a saving knowledge of his grace, and just as surely as you will call me to leave this life for the next, one day. I wouldn’t think of ignoring a summons from the sheriff; I’d be a madman to ignore a summons from you.

This morning I gladly make myself an object of Paul’s petition. Open the eyes of my heart, Father, and help me see Jesus clearly today. I’d be thrilled to see more of heaven, and all the amazing stuff you’re got planned for us in the new heaven and new earth; but just show me more of Jesus as my perfect righteousness, my constant intercessor, my loving bridegroom, my reigning King; and that will be enough—more than enough.

Free me from fixing my gaze on circumstances and people; on things I have no control over and things which, ultimately, really don’t matter squat. Paul wrote these words of encouragement from a Roman imprisonment, not from a Mediterranean condo. Honestly, what do I have to complain about—what’s really whine-worthy in my life? I have real needs, but you give an even greater hope. So very Amen I pray, in Jesus’ tender and triumphant name.

 

 

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