HOPE Revived for 2015

“You will feel safe because there is hope;

you will look around and rest in safety.” Job 11:18 ncv

Happy New Year!!!

In 2014, God gave me the word “steadfast” to lead me…and boy, did I need His steadfast love to endure it?! For 2015, I’ve had a strong sense of His giving me the word “hope” to take me through the upcoming year…and I am so excited to receive it!

Normally, I take a look back before moving forward into the New Year, but this year, the memories are too vivid and the wounds too fresh.

2014 is the first year that my husband and I would like to erase from our lives. Its trials and tribulations wore us down—body, spirit, and soul. Without Him holding our hand, directing our steps, and carrying us through the roughest patches, you would have found us in a puddle of tears lost in the wilderness. Without God’s strength, I’m not sure we would have made it to this New Year.

Nevertheless, we do give thanks and praises to the good times—the motorcycle we bought and rode across the beautiful highways and scenic byways of Montana. For fabulous times with our sons, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren when they came to celebrate our grandson’s 4^th birthday with a vacation in Yellowstone, the Little Big Horn, and Chief Plenty Coups parks; and then our Christmas and granddaughter’s 2^nd birthday celebration together.

Recollecting the good times along with laying aside the not-so-good times keeps my HOPE intact. It brings my eyes back to the goal of the “upward call of Jesus” on my life. And it holds the bitterness brewing in my heart at bay.

Yes…bitterness. The root of grudge holding. Resentment. Anger. Cynicism.

The Lord says, “Forget what happened before,
and do not think about the past.
Look at the new thing I am going to do.
It is already happening. Don’t you see it?..."

Isaiah 43:18-19a ncv

Let it go…forget it…release it into God’s hands.

 

“…Forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead,

I keep trying to reach the goal

and get the prize

 for which God called me

through Christ to the life above.”

Philippians 3:13b-14 ncv

Surrender my will for His will and reach forward…strain, when necessary, to grasp the Prize

“Having hope will give you courage.

You will be protected and will rest in safety.

Job 11:18 nlt

HOPE - Having Optimistic Positive Expectations!!!!

A new year…for new beginnings…for new hopes…for new adventures