Day 23 ~ Hope for the Weary Mom

Just found out about a great FREE book available today and tomorrow (Oct. 23-24), and it just happens to go right along with my 31 Days of Hope series! How awesome is that?

Stacey Thacker of 29 Lincoln Avenue is offering her book, Hope for the Weary Mom: Where God Meets You in Your Mess, at no cost on Amazon. It's the Kindle version, but even if you don't have a Kindle, you can still download the free Kindle app onto your computer or smart phone and read the book there. I have an iPhone and download free Kindle books all the time to my phone!

I already downloaded my free copy today, and I'm looking forward to reading words of encouragement from Stacey and her co-author, Brooke McGlothlin. Hope you'll join me!

If you'd like to start at the beginning of this 31 Days of Hope series, click here. Thanks!

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I'm linking up all month at The Nesting Place for the 31 Days of Change blogging challenge. There are over 1,000 topics to choose from! Check it out by clicking the button below.

Day 22 ~ Hope for Hurting Souls

Has God ever sent you a word at just the right time, exactly when you needed it? That's what He did for me this weekend through this post by my good friend, Christa Sterken. Check out her wonderful blog here.

Christa's paraphrase of Psalm 18 offers hope for hurting souls. A healing balm washed over my soul as I read it. I trust it will do the same for you.

Based on portions of Psalm 18
I love you, O Lord, My strength.
The Lord is my rock, my safe place, and my deliverer.
The only place where I can take refuge.
I call to the Lord, who is worthy of my praise,
And I am saved from my enemies.
The cords of death and depression entangled me;
The torrents of self-destruction overwhelmed me.
The cords of the grave, fear, coiled around me;
The snares of confusion confronted me.
In my distress I called to the Lord!
I cried out desperately to my God for His help.
From His temple, a place unseen to me, he heard my voice;
My sorrowful cry came before him, into his ears.
His waiting ears.
He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
He drew me out of the deep waters of despair.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy. Rescued me from that which sought to destroy me that was too strong for me.
Those fears confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support! He was in my corner. In fact, he was my corner.
He brought me to a safe place,
He rescued me because He delighted in me. Delighted, in me!
The Lord has dealt with me not according to any righteousness of my own, but according to His son, who cleansed my stained hands, yet he still rewarded me.
For I have often kept the ways of the Lord. Many times I have failed.
But I have never turned permanently from my God.
All his laws are before me; and he shows me mercy when I turn away from his decrees. He softly and kindly turns me back to them.
I am now blameless before him, and try to keep myself from sin.
You teach me to be humble, and bring my eyes low when arrogant.
You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning;
My God turns my darkness into light!
As for my God, his way is perfect; his words are flawless.

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I'm linking up all month at The Nesting Place for the 31 Days of Change blogging challenge. There are over 1,000 topics to choose from! Check it out by clicking the button below.

Day 21 ~ Grounded Hope

Day 19: Five Minute Friday ~ Look

Time for 5 minute Friday! This is a great community writing exercise posted each week on Lisa-Jo Baker's blog, Tales from a Gypsy Mama.

Want to take on the challenge? Here are the rules:

1. Write for 5 minutes flat on the chosen word of the day – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link to Lisa-Jo Baker’s blog and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you and encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community...

If you have a blog (or even if you don't), you should give it a try! There's no better way to get the creative juices flowing than with a timed exercise - no over thinking, no picking apart.

So here's my stab at today's 5 minute Friday (it also conveniently fits as an entry in my 31 Days of Hope series, so yay for me!):

Look…

 

As a young girl in Sunday School, I was intrigued by a story about Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness. Poisonous snakes were killing the people, and Moses pleaded to God for help. God told him to make a bronze serpent and set it up on a pole. If the people looked at the serpent after being bitten, they would be healed.

 

One look and they were healed.

 

Was it really the look? Or was it their faith? Their hope wasn’t in the bronze serpent, but in God.

 

What do I do when I'm overwhelmed with the poison of this world? With the seemingly hopeless situations that bring me down?

 

Do I look to Jesus and hope?

 

Or do I cast my eyes downward and inward, looking to myself for solutions that I don’t possess?

 

Look to Jesus. He alone is hope for a dark, hurting world. He alone brings hope to your soul.

Look to Jesus and be healed.

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I'm linking up all month at The Nesting Place for the 31 Days of Change blogging challenge. There are over 1,000 topics to choose from! Check it out by clicking the button below.

Day 18 ~ Isaiah 40:31

Source: rebekahblocher.blogspot.com via Melanie on Pinterest

Isaiah 40:31 is one of my all time favorite Scriptures on the subject of hope. This image doesn't include the end of the verse, so I will add it here: "...they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint." What a wonderful promise!

Keep hoping in the Lord!

Day 17 ~ Hold On, Pain Ends (HOPE)

Source: Uploaded by user via Reciclothes on Pinterest

This acronym for HOPE (Hold On, Pain Ends) has been cropping up on different social media sites lately, and I really like it. It makes me long for the day when God will set things right in the world once again, redeeming His creation with a new heaven and a new earth.

Can you just imagine the scene as you read Revelation 21:3-4?

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

Someday, God himself will dry our tears and end our pain. Someday, we who love Christ will see and understand His plan, and we will no longer "see through a glass darkly." Until then, friends, live in HOPE. Hold on to Him with all you have... Hold On, Pain Ends.

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I'm linking up all month at The Nesting Place for the 31 Days of Change blogging challenge. There are over 1,000 topics to choose from! Check it out by clicking the button below.

 

Day 16 ~ C.S. Lewis on Hope

This quote by one of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, perfectly sums up what it means to possess Biblical hope:

"Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next."
 

Are you continually looking forward to the eternal world, yet still being useful for the cause of Christ in the present world? Definitely something to think about!

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I'm linking up all month at The Nesting Place for the 31 Days of Change blogging challenge. There are over 1,000 topics to choose from! Check it out by clicking the button below.