Tag Archives: hope

Life Worth Living

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Black recliner (arm chair)

Image via Wikipedia

In my wickedness I am lost.  Even my breathing is labored with the weight of a guilty conscience.  Sighing consumes my days.  And there is never any rest.  Even my joints complain with stiffness because of my evil ways.  I seek release but find none.

But in the days when the Spirit of God thrives among the fibers of my body, I am found and strong.  It can be said that when we are weak, we are pitifully weak.  When we are strong there is no longer any comparison to man.  For the Spirit of God is not weak in any measure.  So the measure of filling we allow becomes a strength that has no end.  My body rests in peace.  My mind thinks clearly.  My speech is slowed and calculated, no longer frantic to explain what I believe.  Sleep is sound and joyful.  And a silent revelry reigns in my soul.

By the Spirit of God we become a union of God and man.  We no longer desire the things of the flesh.  This is why it was written, “Live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”

Though you already know this, isn’t it wise and good to remind each other of these things?  Iron sharpens iron.  What good is a dull axe?

Almost Home!

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...Hope...

God has granted you a soul within a body.  With this granting comes restrictions and expectations.  But also with this granting comes a wonderful promise. 

We are created to do the will of He who made us.  We are not created to seek our own pleasure.  And there is an accounting at the end of this place of testing for every soul created.  “How did you do with what you were given”?  This will be the question.  Did you seek the Lord of Life who made you?  Or did you vent your strength on everything selfish and evil?

Now, during our testing in this body of flesh, we are tempted to count our days as too much for our ability to handle.  Not one of us has gone without that thought.  But what should be our response to such a thought?  Shall we say we are too weak?  Shall we say we don’t know what to do?  Shall we say there are no answers to our deepest request for strength, wisdom, and dedication toward God’s demands?

Though we often resort to such foolishness, it is not God’s desire that we lose our hope like that.  We are born, just a few years ago.  We now live somewhere in between that initial place and our death.  Ah!  Our death.  The end of the test!  For those who commit themselves to the task of serving the Glorious God of Eternity, death is a friend and a release into a magnificent reward for service well accomplished. 

So take hope!  Lift up your eyes!  Strengthen your walk!  You are almost HOME!  Keep the faith and do not fail to give Him the Glory He deserves.

 

By His Grace.

The Carpet of Potential.

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White

Image by Tolka Rover via Flickr

Before me lay the day.  It is rolled out in front of me as a clean white carpet.  I have never stepped one foot on this new “place of possibilities”.  And as I look about me I perceive the carpet to extend in every direction for the distance of a day. 

Where shall I set my first step?  How shall I know which direction to begin?  And haven’t I been here before?  I remember the days like this from years and years past.  How they settle against me now.  They are like an army of days of darkness.  I walked about on their carpets as a blind man.  And now they have amassed against me as an army.  They hold in their hands weapons of regret.  They hold my potential hostage, and wait like lions in the bushes to grasp this day’s hope.

I know what I will do.  I will call upon the Lord of Life.  He has in His hand the days of eternity.  He knows the way of each day.  And has seen the end of things from ancient days before.  I will beg His Glory to guide my first step.  I will set my face in the direction of His Holy whisper.  And I will allow the wind of His Pure Flame to direct my strength upon that foot. 

From the beginning, His Son was slain.  He set the foundations of the world with the intent of sacrificing His Son for a people blind, naked, hopeless, and purposeless.  This is the God who now directs the steps I make on this pure carpet about me.  I will walk in the strength of my God.  And I will not be ashamed. 

Rail against me, you days of regret! 

Speak of my failings, go ahead! 

I walk these days without your help. 

For I rest on the Lord of Glory!

By His Grace.

Non Regret

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dramatic dream

Image by unNickrMe via Flickr

I lay to sleep and dreamt a dream.

Neither long or short ago

Twas a dream of vague import indeed.

I can’t go back or do a deed

No tools of non-regret.

Those days of past are not for me.

To straighten, untie, or uncoil.

What’s done is done, the sage will say.

Yet why then are they real?

I lay upon my bed of sweat, my confidence they steal.

vengeance will not touch those dreams.

They plague a man like gnats.

All hope that’s gained is softly muted.

Regret comes back too often.

I can’t take back what hurt I’ve caused.

I’m broken in the midst.

But isn’t this what He has said?

“I come to heal what’s broken”.

I lay it out and beg for help.

What can I do alone?

They lost, and this because of me.

My portion, now divided.

Will they know their piece?

Will it even appear?

Will my giving help them now?

What’s done is gone for tools to pry.

Only “now” will bend to hands.

What’s to come is promise.

To this I hold, so bold.

For He who cannot lie.

He’s said, “You’re Mine”.

 

By His Grace.

 

Walls Too High

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The High Wall of Jid Ali

How many times have we reached a “wall too high”?
Then found ourselves, without explanation, “on the other side”.

And how many times, of those unexplainable moments,
Do we remember how high that wall was?

A plain stretches out before us, after a place we can’t remember.
The grass of opportunity now waving in the breeze.

We’re free to reconsider what plainly lies before us.
And we’re headed to the next “wall too high.

By His Grace.

Black to White, Hopeless to Hope Filled.

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White&black

Image via Wikipedia

I read a post by someone who was in the process of taking away their life.  Hopelessness had done its gruesome work.  I left a note in response.  But I don’t know if it’s too late.

What about you?  Are you on the edge?  I have been there a number of times.  I remember waking up in a pool of vomit and marveling at my failure.  I didn’t want to be here.  And the sight only depressed me more.  I was not dead.  WHY?  More hopeless lay ahead.  For at least another year I floundered alone.  No one cared.  No one could care.  I was on the way out.  Nothing I did was good.  Nothing I could think found the strength to live.  I was absolutely lost.

Then came the Lord.  Jesus came back to get me.  He found me driving and spoke to me to lift me from hopelessness.  I don’t know why.  I wouldn’t have bothered to save me.  But Jesus has.  I am no longer tossed to the wind of cruel hopelessness.  I have vastly more than I ever thought possible.  I have hope for today, forgiveness of yesterday, presence of mind to cope, and the promise of eternity with Him!

I don’t have religion.  I have the Living God!  He cannot lie.  And He has promised me eternal life.  It’s due to Him that I am here.  And it’s to Him that I live now.  I will die.  But it won’t be at my own hand.  This hope is real and it’s available to anyone who calls out to Him for help.

By His Grace.