Wishing and Hoping and Thinking and Praying. . .


Psalm 130:5,7     I wait for the Lord: I wait and put my hope  in his word. . . Israel, put your hope in the Lord.  for there is faithful love with the Lord and with his is redemption in abundance.

Psalm 147:11     The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his  unfailing love.

Proverbs 13:12     Hope delayed makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

Proverbs 23:18     There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

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.”

Romans 5:6-9    For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

Romans 12:12    Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer

Romans 15:4     For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.    

Romans 15:13     May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit

1 Timothy 4:10     That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.

 

I believe we have a hole, a need to feel there is something out there that is “beyond” our ability to see, feel in tangible ways, but we mostly have a sense there is something more we are missing in our lives.   I am not sure all feel this void.  It seems that many feel they are totally in charge of their life, and don’t feel they are missing anything.   Many people do not seem to feel a need for anything other than what they can purchase, or spend time working toward,  perhaps fill their time after work taking children to one sports event or dance class, or theater class or something else to fill the child’s time.  Many parents tend to run to all these errands which helps fill their time as well as their children’s time.    Sometimes I wonder if folks sense the hole, the missing something, and just try to run and fill it with something.                                          creative, vital, alive, and just out of reach–until He is not.  We hurry along in our lives, with our intentions, and by all means our successes–good grades, school achievements, diplomas, then out working for a living and progressing in our fields of employment and believing our success (or failure) is all on us.  Many just feel they have always received what they wanted and that is the way it should be.  They justify that they have worked hard and excelled — they do not feel there was anything else that contributed to their success.

But those who feel and recognize “something” is missing, they try to fill it; yet so many do not know how to fill this.  they are not even sure what is missing from their lives.  I know several people who feel like this, and when I suggest coming to church or an event with me, it is ‘Thanks for the invite, but that is not for me.’  Without giving the community a chance, how do you know it is not for you.  So many think ‘I just don’t have the time.’  And yet we all have the same amount of time.  But when you need Him, what if He says, “I just don’t have the time.”   

I grew up saying prayers before bed, usually more rote than heartfelt, and then carried on with my day.  I did work hard, tried to get assignments done earlier than needed, and certainly read them through a few times, ensuring myself it was the best I could do.  Generally my grades were more A’s than B’s and I was mostly satisfied with my success.  I never gave any thought to the fact God had placed me in a hard-working loving home where I got accolades for jobs well done, where I was taught to strive for goal achievement, and it never crossed my mind that there was something more.  Always, I appreciated nature.  We grew up close to a farm so would spend hours running in the fields and woods, I even was able to watch a cow birth her calf in the field one day and felt the wonder and miracle that was.  But mostly, I took things for granted.

How different that is for so many.  They may live in poverty and do not have enough, and may have to check dumpsters for clothing or food.   But there are other countries who still live in the bush, receive little to not healthcare, and food can be very difficult to get to feed the entire family.  Many watch some of their children die from malnutrition. some walk great distances to carry back water that the family needs for the day, and they wear donated clothing that some mission has collected, and they struggle to learn techniques to better their farming methods, or hope to be able to get a goat for milk and cheese, and try to better the situation for the family and the community.  

There are others who live in abusive and deplorable conditions.  The abuse may be verbal, physical, sexual–all of it is mental and emotional.  Many of those persons are unable to have much in the way of hope.  it is difficult to have hope when one day is the same or worse than the previous, and it feels as though there is no help, no one to turn to.   There are families which are not that overtly abusive.  Instead, there may be no time for the children, no interaction between the adults–they are busy doing whatever they want to do, and seem more like roommates that people who are supposed to love one another, yet never share time with one another, and treat the children the same.  

Sometimes infants don’t receive the care, interaction, and attention they need.  These children can then not interact and grow and develop normally.  They don’t interact, they don’t always eat well, their little minds have already learned there is little for them to hope.  They exist, no eye contact, they don’t usually follow mobiles, or look at toys, no response to stimuli, and frequently they only eat just enough to satisfy, and these children are without hope.  I am not sure if they are able to engage and learn hope and positive feelings if they are placed in a family where they get interaction, enticement, love, and positive stimulation.  I would love to know how the infant I cared for in nursing school for three days with failure to thrive–and seemingly no hope–how did this baby grow?

I would not want to be a person who did not know the Lord.  Times can be very frightening for those who do not know Him–facing illness, violence, kidnapping, murders, abuse, the horrors we hear about daily in the news feeds between wars, mass shootings, and the list seems endless.   Certainly hopeless and overwhelming IF you don’t believe in a Savior and know His plan.     Only some people are led to learn about God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and begin to have hope.  I think many don’t realize they are missing something.  There is a persistent, insistent need to be doing something; working, reading books or research, getting children involved with after school activities–sports, dance, theater, taking to library for reading sessions,  filling time to escape the vague hole we live without hope–without knowing God.  Things change a lot when we learn there is hope–and learn that God forgives sin; that His son Jesus died in our place to take our sins to Himself, so that we could be forgiven and have everlasting life.

There are many reasons for people to be afraid and losing hope in this day and age.  There are wars, abuse, fires burning much of North America, there are many natural disasters–earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, and volcanoes.   Many are in abusive relationships–spouses fighting, ignoring or abusing children, child pornography, sexual slavery, drugs, alcohol abuse, mass shootings, and general worldly unrest.  So many people have no hope; and some refuse to listen or hear about God and the everlasting hope he gives to all who believe in Him and the His Son, Jesus Christ.  God’s plan is simple, but needs to be heartfelt.  One must believe in His Son, Jesus who came to earth, died for OUR sins, the defeated death, rose and is alive sitting on the throne beside His Father.  One must believe and repent.  The simple act of believing–and if you don’t, read the bible, get someone to help you understand anything you do not.  You can’t read and see the true words and not believe.  You can choose to not follow the Words, and try to refute the truth, but over 40 authors writing God given and inspired words written over 1500 years–you can deny all you want.  That does NOT make you right. 

God had a plan many centuries before the time was right to send His Son, Jesus.  And Jesus fulfilled every bit of His job, and the prophecies which had been written–told to the prophets by GOD.  And He did all this to save us so we could have the hope–the assurance of eternal life.

I am so blessed to know I have the assurance that although I still sin, I am saved by my knowledge that Jesus waled this earth, died for my sins, defeated death and sits at the right hand of His Father, and because I have repented of my sins, and because I still sin, do so daily, but I know He waits for me to spend eternity with Him in heaven.  thank You for issuing the most important invitation to me and ‘mybellaviews.’

 

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