SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone, it's Nancy with your Wednesday edition of our daily walk.
SPEAKER_00: This past Sunday we shared a glorious celebration of our risen Savior whose death and resurrection paved the way for us to have a relationship with God for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: We sang, we prayed, we read God's word, we reflected on the hope that we have because of the power of the cross and Jesus' resurrection and the promise of his return.
SPEAKER_00: We were challenged to share that gospel message with others.
SPEAKER_00: There was another challenge that stirred in my mind and heart as Pastor Aaron spoke.
SPEAKER_00: He read about the women who went to the tomb to anoint Jesus' body and found the stone rolled away and him gone.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture says they were bewildered.
SPEAKER_00: They went back and told the disciples, but those men were so blinded by their grief they didn't know what to believe.
SPEAKER_00: Luke writes about the sadness that those women and the disciples felt, their hopelessness.
SPEAKER_00: It seemed to them that the future they believed was coming was not to be.
SPEAKER_00: To them all was lost, and they were afraid of what might be coming next.
SPEAKER_00: As the pastor read the first few verses in chapter 24 of Luke, he made this statement.
SPEAKER_00: Failure to remember leads to subtle doubt.
SPEAKER_00: Now, subtle doubt might not sound like a big deal, but we know that when doubts go unchecked, they can rob us of joy and they can throw us off course.
SPEAKER_00: It's as if a cloud of uncertainty hangs over us and it colors what we see, what we hear, and what we do.
SPEAKER_00: And doubt may even blind us to truth and lead us to despair.
SPEAKER_00: It's difficult to hold on to hope at times like that, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: The disciples and those women who went to the tomb were so caught up in their grief at what was right in front of them that they lost sight of what the scripture said about the Messiah, his coming, his death, his power over sin.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're not mindful, we can do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: We can get caught up in what's happening around us problems, fears, anxieties, injustice, pain, and loss, and we forget the promises God has for us.
SPEAKER_00: The promise to provide for us, to protect us, to care for us, to heal us, to walk through the waters and through the fire with us, to make a way when we don't see a way.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew his followers' struggles and he knew their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: He met them where they were in the whirlwind of their doubts and their grief.
SPEAKER_00: He met them with his glory, with his grace, with his love and his peace that surpasses all understanding.
SPEAKER_00: And he renewed in them a hope of an eternal kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And what he did for them, he promises to do for us.
SPEAKER_00: I'll close with this word of encouragement from Hebrews 10 23.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.