Looking Up – Taking Hold of Christ’s Hand
Dear Hope Family and Friends,
We don’t talk much about New Year’s Resolutions in the church, mainly because they aren’t prescribed for us in Scripture. However, it’s natural when you come to a new year to take stock of your life and set goals for how you might want to change, improving some aspect(s) of your life.
The 18th century American pastor and philosopher Jonathan Edwards once wrote a list of 70 resolutions over the course of about a year, which addressed various areas of his life with God and with others. It was his goal to read over those resolutions once each week, not as a method of self-help but as a way to humbly rely on God’s grace to pursue holiness.
Nearly 20 years later, a young woman who had become a believer in Jesus during the Great Awakening wrote to Edwards to ask him for instructions on how to live the Christian life. His advice for her was a much shorter list of resolutions, but what stood out to me wasn’t his “to-do list” for the Christian life but his encouragement toward the end of the letter, which reads:
“In all your course, walk with God and follow Christ as a little, poor, helpless child, taking hold of Christ’s hand, keeping your eye on the mark of the wounds on his hand and side….”
The entirety of the Christian life could be summed up in this one simple sentence. This isn’t the “victorious Christian life” but a cross-centered life, where we learn more and more to trust God’s love for us like little children, even as tragedy and suffering and sin continue to come our way. The cross is our assurance that God himself has resolved to never leave or forsake us, even when we fail at our resolutions.
No matter where you are coming from in your walk with God, there are several avenues at Hope for you to rediscover—or discover for the first time—his great love for you. We would be honored for you to join us in one or more of these offerings (listed below). And if you’d like to sit down to talk with me or one of our other leaders about your life with God, please let me know so we can set up a time for coffee or a meal.
This Sunday we are back on for 8:30 and 11am worship services, with Sunday School at 10am (weather allowing). Below you can find our discipleship opportunities for all ages!
Peace,
Ethan