For Thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: Thou art my trust from my youth—Psalm 71:5. I came to know the Lord in my youth, as a teenager. As I stand back and consider the years of my greatest vigor—my middle years—I see they were perhaps some of the most important years of my life. In them, the Lord took His time to teach me how to be a “son of man.” This was something I needed to learn. I was often too busy and missed out on what it meant to be a loving, kind, considerate human being.

Now that I am blessed with an abundance of maturity, I am learning that hope is a present certainty in one’s life: But I will hope continually, and will yet praise Thee more and more—Psalm 71:14. I am not only looking for what may come, but am learning to receive each day along with the hope born of God’s Spirit for that day. There is a Spirit-born hope in me that each morning ushers in a day that will be filled with the certainty of God’s saving presence.

See verse 18 of the same Psalm. Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have showed Thy strength (till I have made the power of Your right arm known) unto this generation, and Thy power (Your bravery and valor) to every one that is to come. This is the kind of strength and bravery that alone will suffice for God’s people in the evil day (Ephesians 6:13) when forces of anti-Christ make it their goal to wear out the saints (Daniel 7:25). My goal is to see as many of you as possible armed with a strong HOPE that will not falter or fail in the time of trouble (Psalm 27:5), nor in your old age.

DEAR LORD, make this new generation that is now approaching adulthood, into men and women who will stand in hope. Help them know the power of Your strong right arm. Help them walk upright in Your Kingdom.

How a young man can cleanse his way—Psalm 119:9-16