a collection of encouraging thoughtsfor your faith journey

with a

Especially for:

From:

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40 Days with a Hopeful HeartCopyright © 2012 by Hopeful Heart

Writers:Irene Soon • Elizabeth Tan • Caleb Allen • Jo Voon • John W. • Susanna Tan • Sandra Iliev

Cover design & Layout:Felly Meilinda • Irene Soon

Proof Readers:Chin Lee • Felix Wong

In collaboration with:PT. VISI ANUGERAH INDONESIAJalan Karasak Lama No.2 - Bandung 40235Telp : 022-522 5739 - Fax : 022-521 1854Email : visipress@visi-bookstore.com

1st edition, September 2012

All rights reserved.No part of this edition may be reproduced without the prior permission of the publisher.

Member of CBA IndonesiaNo : 05/PBL-BS/1108/CBA-Ina

Member of IKAPINo : 185/JBA/2010

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God has HIS own ways to bring miracles and blessings unto our lives. Sometimes HE wraps it within the trials we need to go

through; to purify our motives. Sometimes HE brings others to impart wisdom and guidance in our faith journey. At other times, HE answers our prayers instantaneously at that very moment of need.

Whichever situations you are in right now, eventually we all have to go through trials where we need to keep hope and faith alive in our daily walk with God.

Through this book, we hope to instil hope and faith in a simple and practical form to encourage believers to be steadfast in their faith and hope.

We serve an extraordinary God who is able to make the impossible possible. HE knows very well what we need and everything HE does are for our own good thus we could put our hopes in HIM. Just like Abraham, we could hope against hope.

Lastly, being the human we are, we may seek and love God in an-ticipation for greater blessings but let’s not dismiss the purpose of a Christian faith and that is to know the very character of our

Foreword

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Heavenly Father and draw ourselves to the knowledge of HIS love through a childlike faith – “Yes, Jesus loves me.”

Once we are immersed in the knowledge of HIS love for us, doubt and fear will appear miniscule. HIS perfect love will cast out all fear of life’s uncertainties. Let it be known to all, Jesus loves you and me.

Be hopeful, be blessed.

Irene

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We all go through different times in our lives. Some of us may be

in a really trying and difficult season; others may be reaping blessings that have come their way. The only constant that I have is the word of God.

With every season that we go through in life, let us go through with confi-dence and boldness in the word of God.

Smith Wigglesworth puts it really well; he says “It is a blessed thing to learn that God’s word can never fail.” When the Bible was put together, it was put together with an intention to be used. Thousands of years later, even through bloodshed and persecution, we have it now to wield and practice what the word of God says.

The Only Constant

Hebrew 4:12“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart”

Make it a habit to turn to the word and find truth for you and declare it even with the smallest of faith. Learn for yourself that God’s word never fails.

Sandra Iliev

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Have you ever fallen asleep while reading the Bible and then felt

guilty about it after? Let me inspire you to read as never before…

The Bible is like a great big book of se-crets. Secrets that if we gloss over on surface level reveals nothing. But the more you study and meditate, the more you realise how much depth there is. It is like one of those mines that the more you dig, the more you find and the deeper you delve the rarer the trea-sure will be. You would not display your precious treasures where someone else would easily find it, would you?

And He said to them, “Be careful what you are hearing. The measure you give will be the measure that comes back to

Secrets You Were Meant To Discover

Mark 4:24Be careful what you are hearing. The measure you give will be the measure that comes back to you – and more will be given to you who hear

Susanna Tan

you – and more will be given to you who hear” (Mark 4:24)

Hearing does not just mean physically hearing, but it can also mean tuning our internal ears towards God’s voice (through the Word). The more we ‘hear’, the more secrets will be entrusted to us. God wants us to hunger and thirst after Him and to search for Him so that He can show us His deepest secrets.

What secret is God wanting to share with you today?

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Lately, the local TV has introduced a few new digital channels on air.

Amongst them is a 24 hour commercial TV channel that airs a live psychic pro-gram frequently.

Viewers are encouraged to call the ho-tline numbers to have their questions answered and futures predicted. Al-though the psychic is not well known, the number of calls multiplied within minutes.

In search for hope, truth and guidance, these callers are willing to put their faith on a stranger whom they have not

In Search For Hopelines

roMans 8:25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Irene Soon

met or encountered before. Some viewers are even willing to pay the premium price for vague unproven words, just to have hope again in their life.

Are you in search for hope? Don’t look anywhere else. The hope we read in the Bible is not a vague optimism. Instead, biblical hope is a firm and confident expectation that what God has promised in His words will be accomplished. Even in the midst of suffering, confusion and trials, there is hope and this hope is spoken by the living God who is the Alpha and Omega of everything we see and everything else we do not.

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About one and a half years ago I was coming down a mountain late

at night. It was 2 hours walk from the nearest person and all I could hear was the odd bird call and the wind, which was lacing mountain tops with snow. I was totally alone with my head torch and backpack.

It occurred to me that if my head torch died, I would be in trouble. One little light was my guide. Though it only showed me my next few steps that were all I needed to keep away from the huge cliffs. It was my lifeline.

When I read the Sermon on the Mount

Our Life Lines

1 JoHn 4:4Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Caleb Allen

it reminds me of this light. It’s a hard ethic for our world, but God is in it and He’s prepared to get His hands dirty by guiding our hands as our lifeline every step of the way.

There is much darkness, but, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4).

Feel like a child in the dark near a cliff? Never forget who is helping you navigate your next steps with the light of His word and Spirit!