Day 6 ~ Abounding in Hope!

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Day 5 ~ Song of Hope

 

Christian artist and songwriter Aaron Shust is no stranger to painful circumstances. While Shust was recording his last album, his son, Nicky, was diagnosed with a rare disease of the esophagus, and his grandmother was dying.

Shust says on his website: “Through all of the sickness and heartache and loss, my family has run to God and his promises. We’ve been forced to our knees, but this trial has made life exponentially more meaningful. And through it all, God has never left us. He brought strength to our weakness, peace to our uncertainty, and healing to our wounds. He’s given us the grace to handle what we didn’t believe we could. And ultimately, he’s let us experience the joy of seeing his miraculous grace at work. To witness your own child being healed of something that doctors told you was permanent, painful and incurable—well, if that doesn’t move your heart to worship, I don’t suppose there’s anything that will.”

On his latest album, This Is What We Believe, Shust performs the powerful ballad, "My Hope Is In You." The chorus epitomizes the kind of hope I've been discussing in this series:

My hope is in You, Lord
All the day long, I won't be shaken by drought or storm
A peace that passes understanding is my song
And I sing, my hope is in You, Lord

May this song be the cry of my heart and yours tonight as we put our hope and trust in the One who not only created us but knows us each by name! My hope is in you, Lord!

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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.

Five Minute Friday: Welcome

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:

Welcome...

You sense it immediately when you walk into a room. Often it’s a palpable feeling – warm and welcoming or cold and harsh. The temperature either goes up or down, quickly, and you know in an instant whether you are welcome or not.

I wonder how people welcomed Jesus in his day? Well, I know some welcomed him with open arms, eager to hear what he had to say, while others despised him and gave him nothing but cold stares and hatred. Eventually even some who had called him “friend” and welcomed him at first, turned on him and crucified him in the end.

But how did Jesus welcome strangers? Whether they were outcasts, like the woman at the well, or noblemen, like Nicodemus, Jesus always seemed to have time in his day to welcome anyone.

Lord, I want to be like You. To look past the outside and to live a life that says, “Welcome. You are loved. You are precious to God and therefore, you are precious to me.”

Day 4 ~ Hope: An Emotion or an Action?

A few days ago, I was talking with a friend about this series, and she said something I didn’t expect to hear.

"I think hope is an emotion, at least partly, and I can say I don't remember feeling it... just once in the past few years.”

My initial reaction was to feel sadness for my friend. Had she really only felt hope once in a few years? My heart hurt for her. But her statement really got me thinking. Is hope truly just an emotion? Or is it something more?

Consider the many uses of the word “hope” in the Psalms, undoubtedly one of the Bible’s most emotional books. Here are just a few references to hope as an action, something more than just a feeling:

“No one who ever hopes in you will be put to shame.” Psalm 25:4

“Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.” Psalm 31:24

“May your unfailing love be with us, LORD, even as we put our hope in you.” Psalm 33:22

“Hope in the LORD and keep his way.” Psalm 37:34

These passages seem to suggest action on our part rather than a passive feeling based on circumstances. Put your hope in God.

Sometimes it may be a hard choice. When things just don’t seem to make sense, we have to make a conscious decision to hope, to trust, to praise. The “feeling” of hope may come later: “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Psalm 42:5

Obviously, the psalmist was not feeling hopeful when he wrote this psalm, but his “self-talk” was correct. He knew that if he put his hope in God, he would once again praise Him – someday.

This hope is for all times in our lives. It’s a hope for the “good” days as well as the bad; it’s a daily walk, a dependence on God as our ONLY hope in this fallen world.

This hope changes everything.

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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 3 ~ Hide-and-Seek Hope

We’re told never to lose hope, but we’re rarely told where to find it. Why is it that hope seems to play a game of hide-and-seek when we need it most?

The answer is a bit complicated. Hope is never hiding; it isn’t ever “lost” – if it’s the right kind of hope.

The way I see it, there are two kinds of hope. There’s the “wish upon a star” kind of hope, the stuff dreams are made of. And then there’s the solid, unshakable hope, the kind you can be 100 percent certain of.

That’s the kind of hope I’m talking about in this series. This hope is not based on dreams or wishing, but on faith and trust in God and His plan.

It’s this hope that the Psalmist refers to when he says: “Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” Psalm 25:5 NIV

This, my friends, is the ONLY place true hope can be found. In God alone. Not in ourselves, our spouses, our savings accounts, our jobs, our health, our friendships, our college degrees, our social standing, our families, or our houses.

Because all those things can disappear in the blink of an eye.

So, if you lost absolutely everything tomorrow, what would you have to live for? What would give you hope to carry on for another day? Your answer to this question might just uncover the answer to where your hope lies.

Is it in God? Or something else?

Please join me tomorrow as we continue to dive deeper into the subject of hope!  

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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 2 ~ What is Hope?

Hope. It rolls off the tongue of every politician, preacher and poet. It’s in the heart of every parent, child and mentor. It rises and falls along with our expectations and dreams.

We all talk about hope. We use it as a verb: I hope we win the game. Or as a noun: He is our only hope.

But do we really know what hope is? Is it merely a dream? An aspiration? A longing in the soul?

What is true hope?

The best selling book of all time (which happens to be the Bible) has a lot to say about the subject of hope. In fact, the word hope appears over 150 times in the Scriptures.

One of my favorite Scripture verses includes the word. Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

So here’s the good news: God’s plan for His children is to give us hope! Doesn’t that sound like an awesome plan?

During this series, I’d like to explore this gift of hope and delve deeper into what it means for us in the here and now as we plod along in our everyday, ho-hum, sometimes not-so-hopeful lives.

I hope you’ll continue to join me on this journey!

 

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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.

 

31 Day Challenge!

I’m taking the plunge tonight into a 31 day blogging challenge during the month of October. Have I lost my mind? Maybe. I tend to be a bit of a procrastinator (translation: I am a MAJOR procrastinator), so I’m hoping this will give me the push I need to develop a daily writing habit.

My writing buddy, Christa, and I decided tonight at 9 p.m. to commit to this challenge. Talk about last minute! But we’re in good company, joining hundreds of other bloggers at The Nester. Check it out! There’s a topic to interest just about everyone.

My topic is (drum roll, please) hope. Couldn’t we all use a little hope and encouragement to get through our days? I know I could use some! And I’m betting you wouldn’t mind an extra bouquet of hope to fragrance your days as well.

So I hope (pun intended), you’ll join me all month as I explore this wonderful subject. I also hope I'll be able to write every day this month. I'm going to give it a shot! After all, as the great theologian Martin Luther once said, "Everything that is done in this world is done by hope."

 

I have to agree.