St Mark’s Coptic Church Scotland January 2015

 Introduction  Talk 1: The Story!  Workshop 1  Talk 2: Three Kinds of Relationships  Workshop 2  Talk 3: The Eternal Hope  Liturgy  Talk 4: Summary and Practical steps

 Martin Seligman 1960s  Helplessness  Hopelessness  I am STUCK  I feel STUCK

 “who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be.” Rom 4:18  Contrary to hope, he believed in hope  There’s a link between hope and faith  There’s a change in the end

 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.  Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

 It is a decision  Based on faith  Manifested in thoughts and feelings  Translated in behaviour  My story last night!  "Not man's willing or running but God's showing mercy,“...the whole process is credited to God, who both prepares the will to receive divine aid and aides the will which has been thus prepared”

 God is Good at all times, Unconditionally  To me!  “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession...Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” Heb 4:14  He is omnipotent  “before him whom he believed, even God, who replenishes life to the dead, and calls those things which be not as though they were” Rom 4  Through resurrection

 Stay in despair  Deny situation  Avoid thinking about it  Blame others, live in bitterness  Blame yourself  Blame God  Blame circumstances  Get busy to forget  Keep trying the same way

 Do not hope in a particular solution  “And Abraham said to God, "Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!" Then God said: "No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant” Gen 17  Do not hope in people  “Thus says the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusts in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is”

 Do not hope in tomorrow  Do not hope in yourself  Do not hope in circumstances  Hope in the Lord  Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God. Ps 42  I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety

 On me  O Israel, hope in the LORD; For with the LORD [there is] mercy, And with Him [is] abundant redemption. Ps 130  The hope of the righteous [will be] gladness, But the expectation of the wicked will perish. Pro 10  On my world  On the Body of Christ

 Turn you to the stonghold, all of you prisoners of hope. Even today do i declare that I will render double unto you