SIMPLY BLESSED

Seeking answers,

seeing none,

I look to the left

and look to the right.

My feet are still leaden.

I hear a bird call

and glancing up,

I understand.

By Martha L Shaw – © 2017

 

Martha’s Saturday Thought of the Day

This world is so full of destructive forces.  There is no challenge at all in finding words of hopelessness and negativity.  As Christians it is our duty, our commission to be the voice of hope.  We are failing.  Let’s try harder, shall we?

So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.

Job 5:15-17

Are You the Dog Poop or the Shoe?

 So, you know how it is when you have a day when you feel like the dog poop and all the world is a shoe?  Okay, you may giggle but I know you know what I’m saying. 

Okay, so I am feeling so much love for the Lord and drawn to serve Him in so many ways, but then there’s the need to pay my bills, keep a roof over my head and my family’s, eat occasionally.  At this point I don’t see how to do the things I’m called for and be paid for them, so as Paul made and sold tents to enable Him to do the work He was called to do, I’ve been somewhat half-heartedly doing some searching for tent making opportunities of my own.  I find that perhaps my attitude needs to change because it took very little time to check the updated job listings and determine the results were bleak.  I would love to say that I smiled and thought “onto something else, and more of that tomorrow” but no, that didn’t happen.  Why?  Well, i was feeling hope slipping away.  I tried quiet time.  I was interrupted by foolish demands, wrong number phone calls and other trivial things.  I can’t count how many times I’ve listened to “come down here and look at this” and so forth.  Finding my mood darkening and the INTERRUPTIONS GROWING CONSTANT and even as I type this, they CONTINUE . . . . so I turned to the Bible. 

An online search for the word “hopeless” in the NIV Bible revealed that there is just one reference to it.  I am wondering if I am the only one in thousands of years who can honestly admit to fighting that feeling?  I know I’m not the only one.  However, I read the verse and if I can just complete a sentence without another “are you going to look at this?” I will share it. 

Isaiah 57:10
You were wearied by all your ways, but you would not say, ‘It is hopeless.’ You found renewal of your strength, and so you did not faint.

True,  I may feel the emotion robbing me of my proper attitude just now, but as Isaiah states, I will not declare that it is hopeless, for I know where my hope lies.  I just need to feel His hand, the Lord God of my salvation, upon me.  I know He’s here with me and holding tight.  Even when I don’t feel it, I know!  Deep breath . . . in . . . out . . . the rain of last evening has been replaced by sunshine.  Hope is returning.

 

Giving Up Hope Is In Our Best Interest

 What is hope?  I’m thinking we use the word constantly but do not always have a proper definition for it.  “I hope you have a good day.”  “I hope traffic is light.”  Then we read Psalm 25:5 that “Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.”  Hmmm . . . there’s that word again,  but can it mean the same thing?  Let’s consider this.  Hope is associated with expectation.  The dictionary defines it as “a person or thing in which expectations are centered.”  That being said, where do you wish to center your hope? 

If you build your life on that which is hoped for, do you really think placing that hope in yourself or any human is such a great idea?  Sure, you might get what you want, but I remember the often repeated words of caution “watch out what you hope for!”  This brings to mind a quote from Psalm 33, ”We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.”  I believe that when our hope is in any but the Lord, giving up hope is a good thing.  He is perfect and knows what we truly need and what is best for us.  We do not.  As the Psalmist said, “He is our . . . shield.”  We need to be shielded from our own imperfect desires. 

 I can think of so many hoped for situations in my life that didn’t happen and which saddened me at the time.  Examples include the home I didn’t get to buy, the relationships that failed, the job I didn’t get . . . and when I reflect on what I did receive versus what I’d hoped for, I am so blessed.  What the Lord provided was and always is so much better than anything I could have imagined or hoped for on my own.  There are things I hope for just now and am still waiting for, but my panic or “oh, but what if” has faded.  Psalm 31:24 says it best.  “Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.”