The Lord who made me hope

“Remember the word to Your servant, In which You have made me hope.  This is my comfort in my affliction, That Your word has revived me” (Psalms 119:49-50).

                Now we have a New Year.  Let us say “Happy New Year” to each other.  I sincerely hope and pray that all of you, Victory Presbyterian Church, have the New Year full of joy and happiness.  We already know what will continue in the world in this New Year.  So, for many people, the New Year may not be a very hopeful.  Rather, there will be many people who are worried and anxious about how to survive this year.  For them, the New Year may be the New Year of despair rather than of hope.  But in this New Year, we must hope in the Lord.  The reason is because the Lord will make us hope, even if the New Year's financial difficulties come in our lives.

                In Psalms 119:49, the psalmist confessed, “…  In which You have made me hope.”  Our Lord didn’t make only the psalmist to hope in Him.  The Lord has made us have clear and sure hope.  How did the Lord make us hope?  By giving us the word of promise, the Lord has made us hope.  There are countless words of God's promises in the Bible.  Among them, I am sure each of you are holding on to your own promises of God’s words.  The word of promise that I am holding onto regarding Victory Presbyterian Church is Matthew 16:18 “… I will build my church.”  Considering this promise, I can confess as the psalmist confessed in Psalms 119:50 – “This is my comfort in my affliction, That Your word has revived me.”  When I meditate on this promised word that the Lord will build the Victory Presbyterian Church, the body of the Lord, I am comforted no matter how hard my heart is.  In other words, when I look at the faithfulness of God who gave me the word of promise, His word of promise rekindles my discouraged and frustrated soul.

                In this New Year, I hope and pray that the Lord continues to build you up even more firmly.  Also, as the Lord promised, I pray that the Lord continues to build your home even stronger.  Also, I pray that the Lord continues to build our church up more and more solidly in this New Year.  Although the news says that this New Year is a year when the whole world is getting more and more difficult economically, we hope that our victorious members will hold on to the word of the Lord's promise with faith in the meantime.  No matter what difficulties and adversities come into our lives this New Year, I hope and pray that we will be comforted by remembering the promises of the Lord (v. 52).  I bless you that the word of the Lord's promise will restore and revive our souls more and more fully this year.

Hoping in the Lord,

James Kim

[As I remember His word “Be joyful in hope” (Rom. 12:12)]