Where is your hope, who is your hope in?
This time of year when people make their plans and goals for the year I like to think on what the last year brought me.
This year it was hard, we had a rough year; some good, some bad, but we pulled through it and are ready for a bit of a better year in 2012. I believe in setting Goals, and I try to achieve them, but if not then its okay because I have another year to work on them.
My goal to complete two books is almost there, I got one finished and am in the editing process now. Look for it in the coming year.
My goals with home teaching are plugging right along.
I am okay with my goals from last year where they are at because I do not like to set them beyond an achievable level. I try to be reasonable when I make a goal.
Do you know what my goal is for the coming year?
It is to have hope!
I will have hope for this year to be better than the last.
I will have hope for tomorrow to bring me joy, but more than that to bring someone around me joy too!
Of course, I will have hope that things go better for me financially; we can all use a break there right?
I will have hope that my family is healthy, and happy, and whole.
I will have hope that my friends will know Jesus and follow His direction in their lives, as I too hope for myself to do!
None of this will be attainable with out one thing; my hope is in the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth to help me to achieve all that I desire to achieve this year.
For without His guidance I will go no where, without His love I cannot know what real love is; and with out Him in my life, there is no hope.
I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Sheol. Psalm 16:8-10
Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints! For the Lord preserves the faithful and fully repays the proud person. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord. Psalm 31:23-24
For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name. Let your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, just as we hope in You. Psalm 33:21-22
Thus I am like a man who does not hear, and in whose mouth is no response. For in You, O Lord, I hope; You will hear, O Lord my God. For I said “Hear me, lest they rejoice over me, lest when my foot slips, they exalt themselves against me.”
Psalm 38 14-16
I hope that I will follow my Lord to the place He would have me in at the end of this year; because wherever I am, there I will be, and I can only hope it will be in a good place.
We all need to set our hearts to hope in Him, because nothing is possible without the trust that comes with hoping in Him.
When we trust God to be there when we call then we can hope for tomorrow to be a better day knowing He is there with us.
Sometimes life deals us a lot of rotten eggs, or freezes our lemons. Though they taste nasty or bitter our days can be fruitful still if we think to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus for help in these situations.
Rotten eggs can still sharpen the garbage disposal and make things move smoother through the process. In life that means the stinky things we have to deal with can help us in some way by sharpening our instincts to avoid such things, while the bitter things can still make juice if we add a little sweetener to it. A kind thought, a joyful word… equals sweetener for the soul.
So if we look at lemons of the world as words that come to us as bitterness we just have to add the sweetener! God is good! Jesus loves you.
This morning I was dealing with some unkind words and instead of being a jerk about it like I could have I walked away and sang “Jesus loves me” quietly and thanked Him for helping me remain calm. People do not always treat us the way we would like, they are not God after all. We all grumble at times and spit out bitter words; the key is to accept that we have failed and ask forgiveness of God and man. Then go on to find the sweetener! I happen to know there is a lot of sweet delicious words in the Word of God just for today!
Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for your Words in the Bible. Help us to relish the sweetness of it each day and we dig in and enjoy your Word. In Jesus name, amen.
Suggested readings: Psalm 31: 1-24, Psalm 32:1-11, Psalm 331-22, Psalm 38:1-22.
In His love,
Teresa M. Wilson
www.teresawilson.com
Copyright © 2011
by Teresa M. Wilson.
by Teresa M. Wilson.
No portion of this book study may be reproduced without explicit permission from the Author.
