God's Hope

Romans 15:13 "My 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."
I will never forget when I read this scripture a few months ago.  With tears running down my face I made it my personal prayer.  I realized I needed God to fill me with His hope, because I had none of my own.  Yes, I trusted in Him, and yes, I know He will do what He said He would, but...and I made my list.
Are you at a place in your life where you feel like there is no hope to see changes?  Or in a situation where you are being backed into a hopeless corner? God is a God of hope.  He fills us with His joy and His peace.  He does this as we trust in Him.  And, when He does this, as we trust in Him, His hope overflows in us by the power of His Holy Spirit.
I made this my prayer because I needed God's hope to overflow in me.  In the moments when I saw no hope, and wondered if me choosing to trust in Him will do anything.
I made this my prayer because I needed to keep focus on what God says He will do and to hope in that and not hope in those around me or myself.
I made this my prayer because I needed God's hope to keep me sane as I trust in Him even though nothing seems to be happening.
I needed God's hope.  You need God's hope.  We all need God's hope always.
Make this scripture your prayer.  Praying scripture verses is even more powerful.
My prayer went like this: "My God of hope, please fill me with Your joy and peace as I trust in You.  May Your hope overflow inside me by the power of Your Holy Spirit"
Have a awesome weekend.  Pray for Belize!

Realizations

This past week has been an interesting one.  It started out usual only to be interrupted by the tunneling of hurricane Earl right through the middle of our country Belize.  It was my first hurricane without all of my family with me.  Where I live was where the southern part of the storm cross over.  The winds sounded terrifying and I din't sleep at all that night.  It was pitch dark with no electricity and water.  I was cut off from the world.  That was one night I wanted the morning to come quick.  To make matters worse, hurricane Earl slowed down even more when it made landfall. The heavy winds blew for three to four hours.  I didn't even hear the rain much because it was blown away.  But, morning did come, and my house and family was intact, and I finally fell asleep.
Sadly, as I write this, there are people in our country that are still in hurricane shelters because of flooding rivers.  Our National Emergency arm of the government seems to be doing a good job of providing for these people and helping them to get back to normalcy.
To date there has been no reported deaths due to the hurricane.  I don't know why we were speared.  I don't know why or little town was speared again.  I heard reports of deaths in Mexico.  I thank God for His faithfulness while realizing that there are many others who feel differently.  They have lost their home, or work shop, or are stuck in a hurricane shelter....and the list goes on.  I pray for God's wisdom on our NEMO personnel as they help these people recover from the damage done to their property and lives.  I also pray for wisdom as the church raise up and help in the communities where we are.
In fact, I am not only realizing that, but that other people's journey with God might play out differently than my journey, especially in the specifics.  Like for instance; I respond differently to God's truth revealed to me than another person.  Even response times can be vastly different. I have to admit that I used to get so annoyed that someone that I work with or live with takes so long to embrace God's truth.  I mean the difference between me and them is days, sometimes even weeks and years.  The self righteousness that would rise up in me was quickly cut down as I allowed the Holy Spirit to open my heart and eyes to how God viewed things.  I also realized that those same people felt I was constantly judgmental and not understanding.  Plus the Holy Spirit straight up told me that that is between them and God.  I must ficus on God's truth for me and how He is leading me.  I objected greatly to this initially as it seems to be counterproductive at times, but as I let go, God was able to fully take control without my interference and everything fell into place.  Ok! Ok! It DID NOT always go as smoothly as I wrote it.  But each situation I am equally amazed at how God can so awesomely orchestrate things in my life and those around me, all to His glory and agenda.  He is not God for nothing.  The less I try to take control, the better things play out.
This is how our journey with God should be.  It is called varying words, but it really is a relationship, a journey, a lifestyle all in one.  That's what the disciples in the Bible experienced with Christ.  I look forward to the days to come, because God is in control.
Have a blessed week.