You Gotta Have Hope

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character, and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." Romans 5: 1-5

A couple of years ago during the holidays, one of my dear friends gave me a little ornament that said "hope" on it. Last Christmas I hung it in the living room and haven't had the heart to remove it. When she gave it to me, she said, "Everyone's got to have a little hope, you know?"

I concur. I have been reduced to finding hope in just one place: the promises of God's Word. The other day I was reading and came across a verse that mentioned hope. In the book Nelson's Cross Reference Guide to the Bible by Jerome Smith, led me to Romans 15: 4 which cross referenced dozens of more verses on hope. I started writing these verses in my journal. Some of them just seemed to jump off the page, even though I am sure I have read them many times before.


"Now may the God hope fill you all with joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Rom. 15: 13

The hope isn't in circumstances but in believing God's Word. Whenever I argue with God's Word, I am the one who suffers for it. But what tranquility comes when I just believe the promises.

Romans 8: 24 "For in hope we are saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one hope for what he sees?"


Psalm 71:14 "But I will hope continually, And will yet praise Thee more and more."

Psalm 119:74 "They that fear Thee will be glad when they see me; because I have hoped in Thy Word."

Psalm 119:81 "My soul fainteth for Thy salvation, But I hope in Thy Word."

Psalm 119:114 "Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in Thy Word."

Psalm 130:5 "I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, And in His Word do I hope."

Galatians 5:5 "For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith."

Eph. 1:18 "...the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of your calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints..."

Col. 1:27 "To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of the mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

These are some of the verses I wrote in my journal and I have not finished writing them all yet! If we look around us, it doesn't look too hopeful, but when we look in God's Word and know that God is true to His Word, we can have strength to get out of bed in the morning, to plug on in God's plan for one more day.

One day soon, our Hope will appear in the sky, so let us all continue to hold on to the Promises of God's Word!

David's Secret

"Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God." I Samuel 30:6

I read these words of encouragement this morning and how they ministered to my soul. David and his men had been with the Philistines, because David was running from Saul the King of Israel, who wanted to kill David. Seeking refuge there, all went well until the Philistines were going to attack Israel.

At that point, the princes of the Philistines decided to get rid of David and his men. So David and his men went back to their camp at Ziklag, only to find that it was burned with fire and all the wives and children had been carried away captive. That is why his men spoke of stoning David.

Could you imagine being in David's shoes. Your whole camp of men are against you, so David goes to the only place he knows that he will find help: to God.

I looked up the word for strengthened in the Hebrew. I wanted to know what it meant to strengthen my heart like David did. Here is the meaning of strengthen: I.to strengthen, prevail, harden, be strong, become strong, be courageous, be firm, grow firm, be resolute, be sore
It comes from the Hebrew word #2388 chazaq.

David and his men ended up recovering all that was lost because God was with David. David passed the test beforehand when everyone was ready to kill him by putting his trust solely in God.

What does it mean to strengthen my own heart in God? Well, today it means for me to believe what He says about me instead of what I believe about myself. When I look at myself, I feel hopeless. But He does not see me that way, praise Him!

I keep thinking He sees me the way I see myself. But God is not like us! He does not know us after our sins, but after the finished work of Christ. This was one of the things David understood, even before the Messiah came. For David understood that God did not see him the way he saw himself. After his great sin of premeditated murder and adultery, David knew that his sins were atoned for and that God did not see him in his sins, for he wrote in Psalm 32:1-2:

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit.

The word for covered is kacah (H3680) and it means: I.to cover, conceal, hide

A.(Qal) conceal, covered (participle)


B.(Niphal) to be covered

Wasn't God's very first act after man fell in the Garden of Eden to cover them with the clothes of skin?

We are brand new creatures in His sight, and every day is a new beginning. (II Cor. 5:17)
Indeed, every moment is a new beginning. We can start over anytime that we need to, and He will never reproach us when we come to Him. I write these things to encourage you, but not only to encourage you, but to encourage myself, for I need to stir myself up by way of reminder.

What encouragement we get from the "weeping prophet" Jeremiah 3: 21-24:

This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”

I don't know about you, but I surely need new mercies every morning. To know that I am forgiven by God, so I can forgive myself and then forgive others. Oh, how I need His mercies.

Joy in Working with My Hands

"Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for your serve the Lord Christ." Colossians 3:23-24

I admit I am no Martha Stewart, or expert seamstress by any means, but have rekindled my passion for sewing, something I loved when my kids were little. I sewed them clothes, curtains, bedcovers and pillow cases, but then as life got too busy and I worked outside the home, the machines were put away for a long time. Not long ago, I finally made a quilt for my first grandbaby. My desire to create for my grandsons is strong. It makes me feel good to work again with my hands. I also like to write, do calligraphy, and if I had the time, I would start painting again.

The other day I was reading in Exodus about how the Israelites gathered together to design the tabernacle according to the pattern God had shown them. God included the women in these preparations, and in Exodus 35: 25-26 it says:

"All the women who were gifted artisans spun yarn with their hands, and brought what they had spun, of blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine linen. And all the women whose hearts stirred with wisdom spun yarn of goats’ hair."
I bet those women were delighted to do their very best work to produce the finest quality yarns. God had no prejudice in the women contributing to the beauty of the tabernacle, which was to represent to the Jews a picture of Christ.

Though I do not claim to be the Proverbs 31 woman, I hope to be more and more like her, with God's enablement. I like how she is said to work with her hands as well in Proverbs 31: 13:

"She seeks wool and flax, And willingly works with her hands."

I think of women just a few generations ago, how different it was for them! We have the opportunity now to be couch potatoes if we want to, or remain glued to the computer or smartphones because of the increase of technology. My mother in law never had a dishwasher to add to her convenience in cleaning up the family meals. My grandmothers had wringer washers where they needed to feed each item of clothing into the wringer for cleaning. Who would have time now for that? If I went back to my great grandmother's time it is likely they never had any car to take them on trips, but rode carriages drawn by horses to get to town.

Yes, the advancement of technology can be good, but it also can feel good to make things from scratch: bread, soups, and cakes, for example. Hanging the laundry outside to dry naturally gives the clothes such a nice smell. It was something everyone used to do. And at the end of the day, it feels good to know you worked hard, and have something to show for it. One of my daughter in laws creates beautiful crafty gifts for the family, and the other one makes wonderful homemade soaps. I am glad they get to create, too!

Think back to when we were little, before our teachers told us the "right" way to create a piece of artwork. Didn't it bring us joy just to create it? In some small way, we get to share in the joy of creating just like God did when He created us. I feel that same sense of joy today when I sit down and hear my sewing machine buzzing away, or the clack of my fingers typing a poem, or creating a meal that my husband will rave over.

God is so great to give us each talents and let us discover ways of blessing others (and ourselves) through using them.

Deuteronomy 16:15

"... because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice."

What brings your heart and your hands delight? I would love to hear about it!

The Things that Remain

"And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." I Corinthians 13: 13

I am struck by these words this morning. These elements, and these elements only, are the things that will remain. Everything else, I mean everything, comes to pass. Faith, hope and love are the only constants in this universe. But what kind of faith, what kind of hope, what kind of love?

Are these things we try to conjure up within ourselves and do the best we can as humans to perform? Or, is it a work of God within us? Is it something we can proudly state that we have achieved, or is it something God reduces us to, stripping away all the things we once grasped onto so dearly?

What is faith? Is it blind faith in the goodness of mankind, that somehow we will overcome all the problems that plague our planet and the ushering in of a new harmony on this earth? Or is it faith that realizes that all we as men can do is mess things up and therefore we need a Creator who solves our every problem? Is it realizing that in our natural person, there exists "no good thing?" As Romans 7:18 states:

"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find."

Yes, we humans want to do what is right. No normal parent ever sets out to harm his child, no normal person goes to the altar with the intention of getting a divorce, but something gets in the way of these beautiful plans.

It's called sin. It's called the fall of man, which every single person on this planet is affected by. No matter how good our intentions are, we just can't perform the right things that we want to do.

That is where faith comes in. The faith is not in ourselves, but in the Person who came and basically, pitched his tent among us according to the Greek in John 1:14. The word for "dwelt" is skēnoō (#4637 in Strong's Lexicon). This is what it means:

I.to fix one's tabernacle, have one's tabernacle, abide (or live) in a tabernacle (or tent), tabernacle


II.to dwell

http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G4637&t=NKJV

Think of it, the only human without this sin problem came to dwell among us because He loved us so much.Jesus Christ lowered Himself to pitch a tent among us and live the perfect life for us and then sacrificed Himself perfectly on the cross so that we could live forever with Him. This perfect Person was willing to share His righteousness with us (II Corinthians 5:17), so that we could live forever, in spite of the weaknesses and failures of our humanity.

So faith isn't in our own goodness. No, it is only and completely in Him. That is rightly directed faith, and it is the only way to please God, for Hebrews 11:6 tells us:

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

What about hope then? What is it we are hoping for? Are we hoping that we will realize all our material dreams and finally have "the good life?" Or is it a hope beyond what this world could ever offer? Is it the hope of a new and eternal life that will never perish away, that will not grow old, that will never be corrupted?

Peter tells us of this hope:

1 Peter 1:3-5

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."

This is where our hope lies. Not in things getting better in this world, and that we will have a comfortable life with no problems.

But I Corinthians 13 tells us that greater than even faith and hope is love. What is love? Is it a warm, fuzzy feeling we have towards other people? Something we must produce in and of ourselves?

The Bible tells us of differing categories of love, romantic love (eros), friendship love(phileo), but in the most supreme category, the kind only God produces, is agape love. This is a love we cannot muster in ourselves. When I find myself getting annoyed with other people, I now stop and pray to the Lord: "OK, Lord, I cannot love this person, but I know that You live inside me through faith and I can trust You to love through me."

Because I know He lives inside me, and that His will is to love, I can trust that He can and will produce that love in me, without my feeble human attempts to do it. But how do I know of this love? The key is in the Word of God.

I John 2: 2 says:
"But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him."

The Greek word for keep is tēreō. (Strong's #5083). Here is what it means:

I.to attend to carefully, take care of
A.to guard
B.metaph. to keep, one in the state in which he is
C.to observe
D.to reserve: to undergo something

http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G5083&t=NKJV

If we take heed to God's Word, He can work His love into us. Just as the Psalmist told us in Psalm 119:9:
"How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word."

If we treasure up His Word inside us, it gives the Holy Spirit a basis from which to work. So, it is not us doing, but the Word of God inside us. Paul told us that the Word does the work in I Thess. 2:13:

"For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe."

So, we can all take heart today. If we have faith in Jesus only to be our righteousness and sanctification, it will give us hope in the storms of life and eventually produce His own agape love inside us. This love will outlast the material universe. Praise His Name!

"But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.” (I Cor. 1: 30-31)

Rejoicing at the End of Day

Psalm 65:8 "... thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice."

The other day I was struck by this small verse tucked away in Psalm 65. He makes the coming and going of mornings and evenings to be happy? This verse gave me great comfort, for I don't naturally "like" the "outgoings of the evening."
When I look at dusk approaching, naturally a sense of gloom comes over me, for some reason, I don't know why.

I am getting near to my next birthday and it seems that one day goes faster than the day before. They all seem to get lost in a giant blur. And getting through the winter months is toughest of all. I look at current events and see nothing but one disaster upon the heels of another.

But God is not affected by these gloomy thoughts. He is perpetually happy, because He is satisfied with what His Son did to satisfy His righteous judgment on the sins of this world. (Romans 5: 6-8) Oh, He knows it is getting worse down here by the day. But He is not fretting, like I tend to do.

He is rejoicing, according to this verse, with the comings and goings of our days and nights in our brief stay here upon this planet. In fact, He already sees us with Him in eternity. It is like we are already there. But I take comfort that as I see the darkness each night start to encroach the planet with its blanket of darkness, God is still there. He is still with me. He is with me at night just as much as He is in the midst of a sunny day.

I cannot say I do not get affected by the darkness of the winter days. I do. I remember fondly one of my dear children always imploring the Lord, "Make it a sunny day today." They had a hard time with the dreariness too.

But to the Lord, one day is as another. Psalm 74:16 tells us: "The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun."

I can go on, face another day, when I know that it ultimately belongs to Him.

In Psalm 104: 20-23 it tells us more about why God created the days and the nights:

"Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.

The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.

The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens.

Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening."

It is all part of God's established pattern for us while we dwell here in time.

Psalm 136: 8-9 tell us that mercy is available both day at night, at all times, for God, in His provision, has given us:

"The sun to rule by day: for his mercy endureth for ever:

The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth for ever."

There is grace for each day and just enough for that day, not for tomorrow.

There is comfort in this established pattern God has set for us. He promised us it would be this way until the end of time, for He said in Genesis 8:22 "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

Is the earth remaining? Yes, it appears to be. Then I can rely upon the fact that when I see the darkness creep up after another day has passed away forever, that God will make the outgoing of that day rejoice.

I can trust He will be with me for the next day, for my life. In fact, all my days are numbered and I am held securely in His nail scarred hands.

Like Newborn Babes...

"Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious." I Peter 2:1-3

I recently became a grandmother, and came home from my trip to see my beloved grandson. The first time I held him, I felt this overwhelming sense of love and the reminder of how helpless a newborn baby is. It is interesting that Peter asks us to be like newborn babies. I am reminded of how much we are like them by watching my grandson.

He could not hold his little head up, but had to be supported when we transferred him from one lap to another. Isn't that like how we must depend on God to lift our head? In Psalm 3, we find David's lament when he had to flee from his own son who wanted to steal the kingdom from him. He, like my grandson, needed help from outside of himself. He says:

"But You, O LORD, are a shield for me, My glory and the One who lifts my head." Psalm 3:3

The next verse says, "I cried to the LORD with my voice, And He heard me from His holy hill." This also reminds me of how we are like babies. My little grandson makes a lot of cute baby noises: squeaking and what I call "rooching" as he fusses a bit and squirms to settle and calm himself. And when his little tummy starts to rumble, he cries. Just like God the Father, his needs are met with his feeding, which is promptly made ready for him.

For us, that milk that we hunger for is God's Word. At first, we may not recognize that it is the substance we are truly longing for. But when we become new creations in Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit and this spirit is not satisfied with the things of this world. Sure, there are so many distractions, but none of them will fill us like the Word of God will.

But Peter gives us a clue as to when we will want the milk of the Word of God, and that is if we have tasted that the Lord is gracious. It is easy to avoid the Word of God if we are fearful of being condemned, but Peter says we must know the Lord's grace to desire the Word. I believe the more we look into the Word, the more gracious we will know Him to be.

But we must approach Him like that newborn baby. The baby doesn't have any pretenses.Their little belly is growling;that's all. So we must approach God's word as needing it as desperately as the baby does its milk.
I have a habit of reading the Word in the morning and sometimes I feel as if the enemy whispers that I am just going through a daily ritual. But not if I ask the Lord to reveal Himself to me in a fresh new way, that I might know more of His gracious kindness.

"Open my eyes, that I may see
Wondrous things from your law." Psalm 119:18

Is the Bible wondrous to us? It is if we know it speaks of grace from Genesis through Revelation. God's very first action after Adam and Eve sinned was to clothe them with skins, which tells us how our sins were covered when Christ bore them on the cross for us. David, who did not have the completed canon of Scripture, understood this when he said:

"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered." Psalm 32: 1

If the Word seems stale,we can read through Psalm 119, where the Psalmist continually is asking for more revelation of the Word. We can ask of God the petitions just like the Psalmist did. If we see that God Himself has provided everything we need, then we can be just like little babies who cry out for our daily feeding of God's Word. God will answer, and provide that milk, in which we find our heart's deepest longings have been met through the Person of Jesus Christ.

"Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in HIM." Psalm 34:8

We admit that we can do nothing without Him. Just like my grandson, who slept peacefully in my arms after his feeding, we too can rest in His complete provision, which we learn of daily through the gracious milk of the Word of God. Corrie ten Boom once wrote a book called: Don't Wrestle, Just Nestle. That title seems to sum up the privilege we have as God's helpless little children.

Now we too can rest: "Return to your rest, O my soul, For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. For You have delivered my soul from death, My eyes from tears, And my feet from falling. I will walk before the LORD In the land of the living." Psalm 116: 7-9

and finally, Psalm 23:1, 2 "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures...

Finding the Lord in spite of myself

"Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said,
'Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious." Acts 17:22

That could describe me. Very religious, trying in my own efforts to find the Lord and His acceptance. Trying to be good, when I already have Christ's goodness in me. Trying to feel the Lord's presence, when I have the assurance in the Word that He is always with me.(Hebrews 13:5)

Do you ever get sick and tired of yourself, of doing the same dumb thing over and over? I think God must get tired of me, too. But He is not like me (Psalm 50:21).

He is not in a hurry. He sees me sitting with Him in heavenly places, right now, in the midst of my own imperfections. Praise God, it says in Ephesians 2:6 that HE is the one who causes me to sit with Him in those wonderful heavenly places.

Do I see them? Do I feel them? Not yet, but since He said it, it must be a fact.David says in Psalm 23 that He is the one who:
1) makes me lie down in green pastures
2) leads me beside still waters
3) restores my soul
4) and will lead me in His path of righteousness for His name's sake

Be still, the Word says in Psalm 46. "and know that I am God." That is, He is God, and I am not. But I do have the assurance that this God lives within me, and will perfect that which concerns me.

In II Corinthians 13:11 today, the Apostle Paul said goodbye to the Corinthians, saying to them..."Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you." The word for be perfect is katartizo, which means:

"to make fit, to equip, prepare"

In this verse, the word is in the passive voice, which means the subject receives the action of the verb.

http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G2675&t=NKJV

It is up to God to work His attributes in me, I cannot produce them. The more I try, the more I fail. But if I patiently wait, He will work in me. Psalm 138:8 says:

"The LORD will perfect that which concerns me;
Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever;
Do not forsake the works of Your hands."

In this case, the Hebrew word for perfect is gamar. It is translated as "God who will complete for me"

http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H1584&t=NKJV

I can rest today. He will do in me what He needs to do. I just thank Him and believe Him. I do not see how He will do it, but He will, because He promises to in His Word, which He puts above His own name.

Heb. 2:8-9 "...But now we do not yet see all things put under him.

(That would include how I see things in the present, but with the eyes of faith:)*

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone."

He tasted death for me, so I can be at peace with myself today. Thank you Lord!

(*denotes my comment)