My Hope Is In You by Aaron Shust

One surprise treat at the Relevant Conference came when Aaron Shust and his wife joined us for lunch one day.  Aaron sang this song following the moving testimony of his wife on how they almost lost their small son to illness.



God is our hope!
Our only true, abiding, constant care.

He promises good!
I'm looking for the good promised me today.
It is here!  
Past all I see with the natural eye—

within the hard, 

the sad, 

the struggle, 

the insecurity,

the confusion,

the doubt, 

the regret . . .

I find His good in the thumbprint of Jesus's image on my soul.

What's the good He's working in your life today?
How is the image of Christ being pressed into your clay?

Affirming Truth vs. Positive Thinking

“What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will understand later.”  John 13:7

I speak these words today not to convince myself all will work out fine or to look on some “bright” side.  This is not me hugging myself while saying over and over again—

"Jesus loves me."

“I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says the Lord, “thoughts of peace and not evil.”  Jeremiah 29:11

“I love those who love Me; and those who diligently seek Me will find Me.”  Proverbs 8:17

I affirm truth!

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.  “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”  Isaiah 55:8-9
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding."  Proverbs 3:5

This is not positive thinking. 

This is truth proclamation! 

“How precious . . . are Your thoughts to me, O God!  How great is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You.”  Psalm 139:17-18

“Thou hast taken account of my wanderings; put my tears in Thy bottle . . . This I know, that God is for me.”  Psalm 56:8, 9

There is a HUGE difference—

“For the Lord your God has arrived to live among you.  He is a mighty Savior.  He will rejoice over you with great gladness.  With His love, He will calm all your fears.  He will exult over you with singing {shouts of joy}.”  Zephaniah 3:17

Positive thinking only temporarily changes my thought process or perspective until something else happens to stir the pot.

Truth is bound to God’s Covenant! 

“For great is Your love toward me.”  Psalm 86:13

“Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done, and your thoughts toward us; there is none to compare with You.”  Psalm 40:5

Jesus is always victorious!

Jesus is never defeated!

“Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands.”  Isaiah 49:16

I truly am rejoicing in the days to come!

“We have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.”  1 John 4:16

When We Have No Control

My Sister’s son is severely autistic.  Through the years, she has had to learn to surrender her desire to plan, to understand and to control her situation. 

And trust me, this girl likes a plan. 

She LIVES by a plan. 

She lives TO plan! J 

But she cannot plan autism. 

She cannot control how autism controls her day.

But she can trust the Blessed Controller of all things—Abba!

And for 16 years I have witnessed her grow in that trust!

“Tremble {with fear, anxiety or anger} and do not sin;

Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still {be silent and wait}.

Offer the sacrifices of righteousness {have your heart right with God},

And trust in the Lord.” {Securely attach yourself in solid confidence to Yahweh—the God who not only made an unbreakable Covenant with you, but Who is incapable of breaking any of its promises!}

Psalm 4:4, 5

As we waited for the Neurologist in Exam Room 2, my insides trembled a bit.  I was bracing for one of the three scenarios we were previously given and, hopeful still, that she would walk into the room declaring hubby’s brain healed.  But that didn’t happen.

She did declare the problem was not Multiple Sclerosis!  Thank you, Jesus!

But MRI’s do not like metals and there was enough blood on his brain (containing iron) that they could not tell with clarity whether or not this was caused by a Cavernoma.  Her opinion is that he suffered a stroke at a certain time and it then hemorrhaged on the day he showed symptoms.


Her opinion???

Have the MRI images she pointed out resembling Cavernoma’s simply disappeared?  Or are they now covered in blood?

How can he have a stroke caused by hypertension when his blood pressure, outside of her office, is normal?

How can there have been so many tests taken, so much blood work and still there be a guess—an opinion—for the diagnosis?

No control!

No control of what’s going on in his cute, little brain! 

No control over a definite diagnosis!

No control on where this takes us!

No control over his recovery!

No control over its costs!

I have no control! 

Yesterday was my nephew’s first day of his senior year of high school.
It was rough.  And trust me when I say, a rough day in his world is much rougher than that for most of us. 

He had no control.

From my big sister, I learn—

to tremble . . . but not sin!

to depend on God . . . alone!

to be still in Him—relax and wait . . . knowing He is in control!

to trust Him . . . with the process as well as the outcome!

to hope in Him . . . with confident expectation!

God IS in control! 

I thought I had learned to let that be enough
     —to let Him being in control be enough for me. 

Today, the learning goes a little deeper.

Test Reults Day

The anxiety I awoke to in the pit of my stomach was an unwelcomed, familiar surprise.  There were days when that gripping, nauseous feeling lasted all day.  Days where I was consumed with fear!  And that wasn’t all that long ago.

What a difference Abba makes!

Do you remember that old game show, Let’s Make a Deal?  My “rememberer” isn’t all that great, but I believe a contestant won a certain amount of money and they were given the choice to either keep the money or choose one of 3 curtains, winning whatever was behind that curtain.  Sometimes the exchange was in the contestant’s favor—even winning a brand new car.  Other times, they traded hundreds of dollars for a broken down jalopy.  I don’t now why, but I was thinking of that show while trying to sleep last night.

Right now we have three Neurologists opinions of what is wrong with my husband’s brain.

Behind curtain #1—stroke

Behind curtain #2—multiple sclerosis

Behind curtain #3—cavernoma (a type of brain aneurysm)

Today is the day we find out the results of the CT scan, MRI, MRA, Spinal Tap and exhaustive blood tests.  We have been anxious to get answers, but now I want to flee from the day.  I want to escape hearing any words of diagnosis, treatment and expectations the Dr. is ready to share with us. 

And I am reminded of what God reminds me of so often in our quiet time together:

“Let what I want be more important than what you want.”

I want to go to sleep and wake up with this nightmare over.

I want my husband to return from his trip to Oregon the way he left.

I want homeschooling plans to be my focus for the day.

I want the questions of what our future is going to look like, look more like what I thought!

I don’t want a doctor’s answers...I want God’s miraculous, Divine touch!

We know God heals.

We have prayed for healing.

We believe for healing.

We trust Him with our lives.

And our lives are not a game.  

Monty Hall had no control over which choice the contestants made.
No control over what was behind the curtains.

God does! 

Sometimes we get to choose.  Other times, the choice is made for us.  And while today I am wishing, hoping and praying for a curtain #4 to be revealed at our appointment . . . I am at peace.  A deep peace only possible with Yahweh—our covenant making AND keeping God.

I have learned to trust Him with outcomes.

Now He is teaching me to trust Him more deeply 

in the process He takes to get me there.

What answers are you waiting for today?

Are you at deep peace?

Or is fear consuming you, like it consumes so many of us at times?

“If God is for us, who {what} can {will} ever be against us?” Romans 8:31

“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things.” (v. 32)

“Who {what} will separate us from the love of Christ?  Will tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword?”  (v.35)

“But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.  (v. 37)

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (v. 38-39)

My Pastor reminded us at prayer last night—it’s about praying expectantly!  Not with expectations, but expectantly trusting His Kingdom to come and looking for the good He brings with Him.

I don’t know what to expect at the Neurologist office today.  But I do know what to expect of God—for He can only, always be good!  His Covenant promises assure us of that!

Seeing Surgery Through His Eyes

I wait at home frying donuts while snow flies and falls outside my kitchen window.

Two women I love more than anything are in different hospitals.  Each 30 minutes from where I wait and rest my mind that has ached since I awoke this morning.

One has loved me as her own since I knew her.

The other has loved me as her own because I am.

Neither needing me this day in the place where they are,

I stay in my place and pray. 

I rest my thoughts on the words set to worship music coming from the other room.  And I ask my Jesus who is always, only good to be patient with me as I look for Him in this day.  So willing He is to give spiritual eyes when I ask to see what I seek in the hard places of hard times—glimpses of Him.

Even I am amazed of the absence of fear.  The one who’s walked deep and dark the caves of depression, despair and doubt.  The one who has known Him long, but not as Protector.  A peace my understanding does not understand, rests on me.  If only this ache and twitchy eye would also.  

I am reminded that not all of me trusts all of Him . . . yet!

Procedures on one body to repair and on the other to explore.

I think of my own soul these past couple years. 

Procedures to repair.  

Procedures to explore.

Restoring my thinking, my reacting, my default response in living abused, wounded and unjustly treated in an unjust world. Researching my heart, my mind, my flesh of all things contrary to Christ that stand in the way of drawing closer to Him, resembling Him.

My life has been full of my own necessary operations.  Specifically cared for by the Great Physician who not only created this clay with my name—but daily presses His image into it. 

Each process painful.  Every one necessary.

Like those for the ones I love today.  Painful, but necessary.

In the days, months, years to come—I have no doubt the surgeries planned for me are many.  I will not fear them.  I rest.  I let go.  Knowing the One in control is the One crafting my snowflakes today—each carefully designed and precisely timed to fall.

Nothing slips through His hands. 

Nothing can reach me that He has not caused or allowed. 

Nothing goes unfiltered. 

Nothing escapes His attention. 

All surgeries of exploration and repair 

have been carefully crafted 

and perfectly timed. 

I rest unburdened. 

I see Him beckon me down the path and believe the difficult worthy. 

I thank Him in advance for Faithful Love that results in my victory. 

I proclaim His glory.

Grace is dependable like that.  He is dependable like that!

I sip my tea, eat a donut, say another prayer & wait for 2 phone calls. 

Already seeing with His eyes what I believe to be . . . 

victory in Jesus for all of us!

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Linked up with . . . A Steady Rain

What Is Your “Ugly”?

Mine is beautiful—the word, that is.

As far back as my minds memory chooses to go . . . the word beautiful has been ugly to me.  Not in reference to things so much, but in reference to me.  For years I hated to hear that word as my stomach churned in knots while another’s voice echoed from my past—the voice of selfish, abusive, betrayal. 

A beautiful word, created by Beautiful Himself, to invoke beautiful thoughts and feelings means any thing but to me. 

Do you have an ugly word?  An ugly color?  An ugly song?  An ugly smell?  An ugly something that summons ugly memories?

Many of us do. 

Many of us have “uglies” of the past that affect the beautiful of our marriage today.  It steals our joy—kills our desired response—and at times . . . it destroys the relationship altogether.

Did you notice three key words there?  Steal—kill—destroy!  The arsenal of the evil one—our enemy (John 10:10).  He is behind your “ugly”.  He is behind my ugly.  Ugly is how he works!

I believe Satan's lies so readily, so easily—

yet hesitate and contemplate 

whether I will believe God’s truth.  

Amazing!

When my husband says to me, “you are so beautiful,” I shrink back—I balk—I reject his words and, in that instance, reject him.  He had nothing to do with the twisting of its meaning and yet he’s held as captive by the ugly as I.  Satan binds us both.  And every time I cater to the enemy’s wishes he wins.  That makes me mad!  To think that I am agreeing with him in anything makes. me. mad! 

From the moment we are born, Satan watches us.  He studies our reactions and responses.  He sees our woundings and injustices.  He catches the cause of our pain, fear and anger . . . monopolizing it—he builds upon it.  He gains access to our hearts when we respond to our hurt in sin and gradually, slowly, over time—because he knows it’s on his side—he structures a wall between us and God.  Brick by brick . . . layer by layer . . . he builds a fortress within our heart to keep others at a distance, including a Savior.  We don’t even know he’s done it.  We can pinpoint the trauma, the abuse, the deep cutting into our soul—but we don’t recognize the materials of the brick layer until the fortress—the stronghold—is created.

Do you have an “ugly” separating you in your relationship with your spouse?  With others?  An ugly that recalls memories so strong that they usher from past to present so quickly they seem almost touchable, audible—so vivid you almost reel and wretch, swallowed in its depths once more?

It is escapable!  I promise!

Claim the Name!  Plead the Blood!  Take the power and authority given to you by God through Christ Jesus and rebuke Satan (Col. 2:9-10; John 14:12; Luke 10:17, 19-20; Eph. 1;19-22, 2:6; James 4:7)—out loud!—in this area he holds over you.  Bind him from holding you any further!

Take all thoughts captive when your “ugly” shows its ugly head (2 Co. 10:3-5)!  Don’t entertain any lies concerning it.  Cast them out immediately and replace the lie with the truth!

I am still working on this—but it’s better! 

One day the word beautiful will once again be, completely beautiful!


So, too, can your ugly!

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Time-Warp Wife
Women Living Well
What Works For Me
Far Above Rubies

Never! No! Nor! Not ever! No!

"I will never desert you; nor will I ever forsake you." 

Hebrews 13:5

In the original Greek there are 5 negatives so the passage reads as...

"I will never, no, desert you; 

nor will I not ever, no, forsake you."

Many of us have experienced abandonment.  Myself included.  Not by my parents or spouse—no, but other crucial relationships.  Some of us have been abandoned by health, dreams and promises.  And in being abandoned, we abandon hope in others...including God.

Why is God trustworthy above all else?

He cannot fail.  That cannot be said of anyone else.  God cannot go against His own character.  Our character is chosen by what we feed our minds, how we discipline our bodies and changes as we change what we choose.  God can only be faithful.  Faithfulness was not only created by Him.  Faithfulness is sustained in Him.

In a world where we cannot fully trust anyone, how can we trust God fully?

Seek His face.  Know His heart.  See yourself as He sees you—Holy, Chosen and Dearly Loved!  Spend time in His presence absorbing Him.  Trust Him with little things, trust Him with big.  Talk to Him—open up, ask questions—then wait...listen for Him.  See with your own experience what blooms from faith in what you cannot see.

How do we unguard our hearts before God?

Be real with Him.  Even if you are unable to offer the real you comfortably to others.  You have much to offer!  He wouldn’t have made you as you are if that were not so.  To let down your guard with God—your Creator—is to allow Him to continue to define the original design that. Is. You!!! 

Even if you feel you can trust no one else completely...

                                                                 Jesus is completely different!

He knows all your ways, your past, your thoughts, your grumbles, your heart aches already.  And He hasn’t left yet...

Because He won’t...

He can’t...

And He never will!

Never!  No!  Nor!  Not ever!  No!





...practicing as habit trusting Him fully!

Be Still And Know That I Am God!

A few days back I shared with a friend how I awoke that morning to God speaking sweet words over me. I didn’t even realize it was Him at first.  But once the grogginess began to wear off I knew the words in thought were His and took in all He was saying.  I smiled, saying "thank you God", and although soon after I couldn't remember one thing He had said—I knew it was loving and sweet and I carried the warmth of that moment with me into the rest of the day.

My friend likened it to a mother waking her children in a loving manner. The children may not remember what she said, but they knew it was time to get up and Mama was loving them awake.

This morning was different. I awoke to chaotic conversations vying for my attention. Some were urgent. I couldn't tell you now what they were saying or asking, but I do remember the confusion, the urgency, and the noise.

All of a sudden I heard the words, "Be still and know that I Am God."

And that was that!

No more words, no more chaos, no more...anything!

Usually when I think of that phrase it's because I am frazzled or in a place of the unknown or unexpected and I am worried...scared even. But this was different. I wasn't feeling any of those feelings (I was just trying to wake up :). So when the words came, along with some awakeness, I asked for more:

BE STILL—stay at rest, in a quiet-hearted place...like this wake up time...

AND KNOW—know what you believe in, have faith in... "IS!" Don't fret over what is confusing or what hasn’t been made clear to you yet.  Be confident in what you do "know". Keep "knowing" it firmly, passionately, resolutely...

THAT I—not the world, not the United Nations, not the US economy or failing dollar, not the wars going on, not the candidates for political office, not the validated concerns you have for the future concerning your family, the church, etc. "I" the "I AM"…your Abba Father—the only True Sovereign—yep, that "I"...

AM GOD—Elohim "the Creator"; El Roi "the God Who Sees"; El Shaddai "the All-Sufficient One"; El Elyon "the God Most High"; Jehovah-jireh "The LORD Will Provide"; Jehovah-rapha "The LORD that Healeth"; Jehovah-shalom "The LORD is peace"; Jehovah-sabaoth "The LORD of Hosts"; Jehovah-raah "The LORD My Shepherd"; Jehovah-tsidkenu "The LORD Our Righteousness"; Jehovah-shammah "The LORD Is There"; El Olam "The Everlasting God"            ...well, you get the picture! :)

There is a lot that I want to accomplish in my home today. Several things needing to get done. But my heart and my mind feel like resting—to simply "be still".   

By keeping these thoughts in my immediate thoughts, I am resisting all the "hype" outside my doors and "tyranny of the urgent" from within.

That we can confidently rest knowing we are well cared for—watched over! What joy!

Rest with me, will you?

BE STILL AND KNOW THAT HE IS GOD!

Hopeful Surrender

I was reading from Psalm 33 this morning and was struck by how a few of the verses closely related to my post yesterday on Want & Worry.

“The eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him.  On those who hope for His lovingkindness.” (v. 18)

“Let Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us, according as we have hoped in Thee.” (v. 22)

God’s eye is on the carrier of every heart that carries His Son!

As I hope—as I confidently expect God—the more I receive of Him.  Not out of my goodness, but out of my surrender.

God completely completes me!

He waits.  My choice is my act of faith.  Grace takes me to the door of choice, but cannot usher me through.

I don’t doubt that I hear God’s voice because I hope—I confidently expect Him to talk with me and I confidently expect that I will hear from Him.  I expect Him to be faithful to show up and He does—

                            
                           Glory—Hallelujah—Praise the Lord—Amen!!!

Where has He shown His faithfulness to you? 

In grief?

In provision?

By breaking strongholds?

By lifting yokes?

Expect—have hope—this same hope in every other area of your life!

Confidently expect God!

Expect His lovingkindness and you will see it!

Yes—Dear One—His eye is. on. you!

Watching, caring, directing, hearing, responding—pouring out grace in abundance so that you remain free to continually choose Him in every aspect of your life.

I have not always sought God...or wanted to seek Him.  I received less of Him in those times.  The more I have wanted, the more I have received.

The more I “hope” the more lovingkindness—whatever it may be—is mine!

Waiting for Him is hoping in Him.

How many testimonies have I heard (including my own!) of people receiving from God at their most desperate, most surrendered hour?  This is the fulfillment of verse 22!

How many others I know, passively—almost angrily—waiting (demanding) for God to come through for them.  Like He owes them something?!  When they in no way with their life acknowledge Him.  Only in words do they profess His name—but in their actions, in their heart—they profess self.

It is the sincerity of the heart of the crier that moves God to respond.  God knows the heart!  He moves according to the willingness—the choice of the heart!

His Word says so.

Surrendering may cost me everything, but I can not fathom what He has in store for me!

Want & Worry

They can follow us right into a new year full of hope and promise...(and determination to not go there, or stay there)...if we are not resolved to be free.

Simple words disguising uglier ones—

                                      discontent & fear!

I’m finding the path to freedom from their pursuit is...simply put—His face!

When I want God and in that wanting actively pursue Him—I get the other stuff of importance.  I may not get a car that doesn’t make rattling sounds, or my debt miraculously paid off by a stranger, or even a new pair of shoes.  But I am guaranteed the important stuff! (Matthew 6:33)

So the “extra” stuff???

Do my desires line up with Him?

Do they reap benefit for the Kingdom?

Do they help me or others draw closer to Him?

Do I want closeness with Him above all else?

Do I want Him enough to willingly let all else drop away?

What stirs my heart?  Deep within—what motivates me to move, to excitement, to joy?

Is it aligned with God?

Is it aligned with scripture?

Does it edify the body?

Or do they mimic those of the world around me?

Do they bring peace or disrupt it?

Peace is in my heart.  It’s already there.  A gift previously given!

How do I access it?

“Be still, and know that I am God.”  Psalm 46:10

If I form the habit of trusting Him when the path is easy, I will find it the natural thing to lean upon Him when the way becomes difficult!

He is my God...your God!  From us, He withholds no good thing. (Psalm 84:11)

Paul shares that we learn to be content. (Phil. 4:11) I have a lot to learn!

David rallies trust in His goodness.(Psalm 31:19) It’s not so far away as I think!

Access to both sides is given.  Either can be a habitual walk in practice.  

I choose!

What Can I Do?

The end of the year is usually a time of reflection for us.  Today I am reflecting on loved ones in my life who are either making bad choices, different choices from what I would make (gasp!)...and those deliberately choosing to ignore God.

This is one area in particular that I lack faithfulness—believing and praying for salvation, as well as continuing salvation, for all who are dear to me!  And for others I do not even know!

All are precious to God.

All are desired by Him.

All are wanted in His Kingdom.

I should be more willing to give of my time to pray for the salvation of the lost and the dying...the sick and the hungry—physically, yes!—but even more so, spiritually. 

Give myself away like Jesus did! 

Live like Jesus did!

So I ask Him, “What can I do?”

Love them—unconditionally...no strings attached!

Pray for them—regularly, unceasingly, deliberately!

Support them—even if I can’t support their decisions!

Encourage them—speak words of blessing (not spiritual platitudes) over them!

Never give up on them—regardless of what I see!

                                               ...all the while, believing!

Don’t give in to discouragement and fear.  Satan’s tactics against us are not new, but they are debilitating.  Believe God is for you and for them!  He has great purposes in store for each of us.  Pray hard and fervently that they may be realized!

Prayer instigates action!  God has designed it that way.  Prayer causes movement—in both the physical and spiritual realms! 

Pray!  Never cease!

And never cease to believe!

God’s Plan Trumps Ours

Is there something that just hasn’t turned out as you expected?  Planned?  Dreamed?  Desperately wanted and prayed for???

I confess I have one in particular.  And as much as I pray over it and let it go, releasing it to Him, every now and then it pops up its controlling head.  Usually when I am weak.

I say “controlling head” because isn’t that what the “thing” in your life does?!  It can control thoughts, emotions, attitudes and reactions.  

Sometimes it can so fully consume our thinking 

that it begins to take over our living!  

We may lose an entire day...a week...a month....even longer—lost in frustrating thought of what is not!  All the while missing out on what is!

God got my attention the other day with these words...

“Do you think if I had those plans for you that I could be stopped in seeing them fulfilled?  My grace could have taken you there had I desired it.”

He not only “got” my attention—He stopped me at attention.

God’s plan trumps ours.  And to be quite honest—I’m so very grateful that is so! 

Rahab

Thank you, God, for Rahab!

This former prostitute and foreigner had faith in a God she had never seen, didn’t know anything about, nor personally experienced—and yet she believed!

Not only does she show up in Hebrews Hall of Faith (Heb. 11:31), BUT...she becomes a princess after marrying a prince from the tribe of Judah and gives birth to a son who shares his family line with Jesus!  She herself is King David’s Great, Great Grandmother! 

From her I learn that all impossibilities are possible to and for the one who believes God and in God.  She believed the stories—the accounts of His greatness.  She believed from afar.

How much more is possible for the one who knows more, has seen more and experienced more!

Rahab had unbelievable faith when it could have cost her everything (Joshua 2:1-21)!  The King of Jericho himself contacted her about turning in the men who had come to visit her.  Instead, she hid them.  Her freedom, safety, that of her family...her very life was on the line.  Her choice could have turned tragic had her deception been found out.

But she believed in this God!  Not in what she saw or could understand.  She believed what she heard about Him and all He was capable of.

Seek to know what is possible when you believe He is capable of all things!

Rahab believed God would keep her safe—her and her family—in the midst of any attack against Jericho.  In fact, the entire city crumbled!   All was utterly destroyed, except the home of Rahab! 

She believed the scarlet cord hanging from her window would save her!  And it did!

"Lord, I believe in the scarlet blood that saves me!  I have seen!  I have heard!  I have known!  I have experienced!  By your grace, help me believe in all impossibilities—to believe big and in big—for you are capable of all things!  Amen"

Still Thinkin' On Joy & Hope

Because my hope—my confident expectation of good—is in God, I can (and should) live joyfully no matter life’s circumstances around me.  Regardless of the “stuff” I. am. His!

I am saved and being saved!  (Luke 19:10)

I am free and being freed!  (Galatians 5:1)

The hope that lives within me (1 Peter 1:3; Col. 1:27) initiates my joy!  Joy unspeakable and full of glory—His glory!  

When my hope is truly vested in Him, I should have no concerns.  All my concerns are in His care and if they are in His care and I have faith in His unwavering, unchanged character (and I do!) than joy should be the result!  Not worry or fear. (Heb. 10:23)

If God is for me—who can be against me?  What could possibly happen that He has not allowed for His glory and for my good?  In any and every situation—I. will. be. fine!

There is my joy.  My joy stems from the truth that I believe without doubt God is for me and not against me.  My faithfulness is the foundation of my joy. 

Joy is—can be—because He never fails.  He never forgets. He never walks away—even for a moment.  He never lets me down.

Joy is God’s faithfulness manifested in my life.

The one without God, without His safety, without His faithfulness is the one without hope of the assurance of a good end result.  My hope is assured!  Therefore...joy!

The more I hope, the more joy I walk in, the more solid my faith.  My faith solidifies and grows down deep as I trust in the hope that is to come. (1 Peter 1:13)

Hope grows my faith.

Hope grows my joy.

When my hope falters—weakens upon a difficult or unforeseen circumstance—my faith gets shaky.  Doubt and despair will creep in and I will lose my joy.

“Blessed is the man who trust in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord.”  Jeremiah 17:7

My hope is in the Lord.  The flesh, the world and the evil one work to stop its flow.

Our hope stays vibrant and strong by...

Knowing the Truth

Walking in the Truth

Speaking the Truth

Renouncing any lies the evil one feeds our mind

Rebuking any of our own thoughts (those fed by the world of untruth) that goes against God’s character. 

“Through perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.”  Romans 15:4b

Holy Spirit—fan the flame of hope that lives within me!

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  Romans 15:13