Tag: #thefightforhope

When God and Granny Clampett Agree on Vittles

“Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you.”   Psalm55:22

On the Beverly Hillbillies, Granny was always offering people vittles, and usually the description of said vittles made people turn up their noses. But Granny’s heart was in the right place. She knew people needed food to live, and she loved providing for them.

Did you know that God gives us vittles too? Ok, it’s actually spelled victuals, though still pronounced vittles. But in Psalm 55:22, when it says He will sustain you, the word for sustain carries the idea of nourishing us, giving us food or provision. You know, victuals.

When he sustains us, He doesn’t give us just enough to keep our head above the water, He gives what we need to walk boldly in this broken world. He knows the difficulty of navigating circumstances and relationships. He walked through this world, and He understands.

How does that hit you today? Are you feeling overwhelmed, lost, or unseen? When we give our burdens to the Lord, He will hold us, guide us, hear us, be present with us.

And the word for cast? It carries the idea of throwing, hurling, to throw out, down, or away. It’s a very active word. The Lord invites us to hurl our burdens on him. To throw them away from us. To stop trying to carry them.

Casting our burdens on the Lord means we are trading the heaviness in our soul for abundant nourishment for our soul. We are trading anxiety for peace. We are trading fear for trust.

Casting off and trusting in God takes courage. It takes believing that God is who He says He is, and that He will keep His promise to sustain.

When we fling our arms out wide to cast our burdens on the Lord, we are then free to wrap our arms around Him. We cast so that we can cling.

As we cling to Him, He wraps His strong arms around us, and sustains us in every sense of the word. He isn’t stingy, like we sometimes secretly believe he is. He gives like a loving parent. He gives the vittles our soul needs in the deepest places.

#livingboldlyinabrokenworld isn’t easy, but it is possible. When storms swirl all around us, it’s difficult to keep our eyes fixed on God’s truth. I’ve gathered the truths that help me through the storms of life into a pdf, Truths that Anchor in the Storm. These verses aren’t lifeboats, pulling me out of the storm, they are anchors to help me stand inside the storm. I hope they will help you as well. Click on the side bar to receive your copy today.

Not the Way It’s Supposed To Be

When it comes to dealing with grief, God doesn’t leave us to our own strength or resources. He walks through it with us. Jesus felt the same “This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be” feeling that we feel when He stood in front of Lazarus’ grave.

“This just feels wrong. This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be.”

I’ve said this many times in my life.

I said it in 8th grade when a friend committed suicide.

I said it when I watched Grandma sobbing beside the body of the man she’d loved her whole life, clutching his wedding band in her delicate hands.

I said it in 10th grade when I stood beside Pappaw’s grave, staring at the trees in the distance as the pastor spoke, clinching my fists to keep the tears from falling.

This time I was in my early 30’s sitting with my Daddy outside King Daughter’s Hospital in Yazoo City, MS where Grandma was losing her battle with Leukemia.

The familiar mixture of sorrow and anger welled up as I spit out the words.

Daddy put his arm around me while I sobbed. He waited until I was quiet, and in his deep gentle voice, he said, “Nothing about death is right. Death didn’t exist until sin entered the world. It doesn’t feel right because we weren’t made to experience death.”

Through the years I’ve often thought of Daddy’s statement. And now, as I am walking through another time of grief, the words come back to me. We weren’t made for this.

We weren’t made for this, yet we still experience it. What are we supposed to do since we don’t have the resources or strength within ourselves to walk through these shadows?

In His mercy, God doesn’t leave us to our own resources or strength. He walks through it with us. He put on our flesh, He put on our feelings, in order to be with us. And He felt this exact feeling as He stood in front of the grave of His friend Lazarus.

Jesus got mad, like we do when death strikes our loved ones. But He didn’t get angry at God, like we often do. He directed His anger at the source of the problem. He was angry at death and sin. And when He wept, He didn’t leak out a few tears or get a lump in His throat. He burst into tears.

He felt angry that the people He loved had to undergo such pain. He was indignant that sin dared to wreak such havoc. And He grieved. Rev. Wally Bumpus puts it this way. “Jesus was grieved at what death had done to the crown of God’s creation.”

Jesus was saying “This is not the way it is supposed to be.” He acknowledged the pain-filled reality.

Then He called His friend out of the grave.

Jesus felt the anger, the soul-deep turbulence that we feel when death invades our space. He is qualified to walk through grief with us. As the One who destroyed death by rising from the dead, He has the power to comfort us like no other.

Knowing that my Jesus felt this same “this isn’t right” feeling changes the way I handle my grief. Instead of trying to push it aside and ignore it, I can follow His example and acknowledge this pain-filled reality. My grief can be mingled with hope because the way things are now is not the way things will always be.

Because of Jesus, one day death will be fully dead, we will be fully alive, and things will be the way they are supposed to be for all eternity.

The Unfolding of the Ultimate Story

There has been a great wrestling going on in my soul.

Truth vs. feelings, hope vs. grief.

Even after writing such a hope-filled post, Restored Before the Face of God, there are moments when the grief and loss drown out hope.

My brain is still trying to wrap around the tragedy while my heart feels the great loss. Last week I sat in my home in Mississippi and watched the procession and funeral taking place in India. It was dark here while India had already moved on to the next day.

I watched men place their caskets into ambulance-type vehicles while people around them sang in their language. The video showed huge banners with their pictures covering each vehicle. As I read the quote on each banner, the wrestling within me intensified.

“My purpose in life is to serve the Lord by serving among His people and taking care of their health needs (in India).” – Sharron Naik

“I want to be a minister back in my country (India), like my dad and serve my Nation.” – Aaron Naik

“I want to go back to India and be involved with the law/politics and I want to spend my time defending the truth of Christianity and the Bible.” – Joy Naik

The wrestling grows stronger because I desperately want this tragedy to make sense. But nothing about this adds up. These three loved the Lord and had plans to go back to India to serve Him. They were part of the Banjara people group, a group where less than 1% are Christians. If we are talking about progress in spreading the Gospel, doesn’t it make more sense to have them alive, telling others about Christ? Were their hopes and dreams just a waste?

I know that I’m not the only one who is wrestling deep within. We live in a broken world and we all have circumstances in our lives where things don’t makes sense. Where 1+1=3 no matter how much we try to figure it out. In all the tears, the heart-wrenching wails, the fists clenched in anger, our soul wrestling comes down to one question:

What kind of God are You?

There.

I said it.

This is a question we might whisper over a coffee conversation with our closest friend, but we’d never ask it out loud at church. People typically don’t like questions like this, because it feels wrong to question God.

But I think God loves it when we ask this question.

When we get down to the rock-bottom, nitty-gritty and finally ask this question it is because all the things we’ve been leaning on, all the ideas we’ve created about God, have FAILED. It means that the god we’ve created in our image, the god that we work to please in hopes that he will love us or at least answer our prayers is POWERLESS. It means that, maybe for the first time, we are actually seeking God for who He says He is.

As we seek Him we can ask ALL the questions we need to ask. I have found that God doesn’t really match my “whys” with reasons. Instead He shows me more of who He is. Through my grief He shows me that He is the God of all comfort, that He really is near to the brokenhearted and is gentle with those who are hurting. He meets my needs, showing me that He provides for His children.

How do we seek God? Where can we find a clear picture of who He is and what He is like? We can find Him in the Word, because it contains His words to us about Himself. And through the Word made flesh, because Jesus shows us what God is like.

At Sharron, Aaron, and Joy’s funeral, Ravi Zacharias described God’s compassion through Jesus when He raised Lazarus from the dead.

“Jesus knew He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, and yet He stood in front of that tomb and wept. Why? Why did the Lord of Glory and the Lord of hope shed those tears? Because He knew what you and I would feel at the loss of a loved one, having to wait over a period of time before we would see the ultimate story revealed. He knew the pain that you and I would endure.”

Because of His compassion, God can strengthen and sustain us in our grief. “We have a suffering Savior, a wounded Savior, and for the wounded heart, the wounded Savior is the best answer, the best source of sustenance” (Ravi Zacharias)

Dr. Zacharias goes on to describe Jesus feeling abandoned by God when He was on the cross. “At the very moment He thought He was abandoned and forsaken, He was actually in the center of His Father’s Will, providing for you and for me, so that the greater death – which is spiritual death – would not be that which we endure.”

The very depth of Christ’s sufferings was the way that the Ultimate Story could happen. His suffering opened the way for our redemption and our eternal life with God, instead of eternal death removed from God.

“His Word abides forever and pulls the whole story together and all of the threads that may look desperate- it brings them together to a perfect design that He had in mind. Your young, precious children, Sharron, Joy, and Aaron. The threads were in God’s Hand, every day designed for them was already written in the Book before it ever came to be. He gave you the joy of having them for those few years. Three precious gems. They are now in the Presence of the Lord laying their treasures at His feet.” (Ravi Zacharias)

Hearing the truth proclaimed at the funeral service didn’t answer all my questions, but it did calm some of the wrestling as it brought my eyes back to God’s character, His love, and His perspective. His Ultimate Story is written in love with one goal in mind – bringing people into relationship with Himself. This tragedy, this loss, will be redeemed into a powerful, beautiful chapter as His story unfolds.

Fighting For Hope Through Waves of Grief

Missing Robert

Grief is a tricky beast. It hides and makes you think you’ve “dealt”, you’ve “moved on”, and then it hits out of nowhere like a tsunami on a sunny day.

We don’t talk about him very much, but we miss him.

I miss the way he said “Well, hello there!” when he called around this time each year to get ideas for the kids’ Christmas presents.

Over the past 2 years, there have been plenty of What ifs, plenty of What could have been done conversations, but the bottom line is that while he didn’t  he make the choice to die from his drug use, he made the decision to use drugs.

He made the decision to refuse help. “No program is going to help me,” he said, and that is when I knew he had decided to stop fighting for hope.

It was a decision that defied logic. He had been clean for years, so many years that my children only knew the fun Uncle Robert.

The Uncle Robert who helped them catch fireflies in the summer and who shot a zillion fireworks with them on New Year’s Eve.

It was a decision that led down a dark path, a path filled with cover-ups, half truths, and out right lies.

It was a decision that robbed us of our brother, friend, uncle, and son.

It was also a decision borne out of a daily battle to stay on the right path, a million unseen, un-applauded decisions made over the years of being sober. A battle he fought on his own.

He didn’t have to fight alone. We, his family, would have loved to celebrate victories with him. We would have loved to applaud his successes.

But we didn’t see the burden he carried until it was too late.

By the time we saw, his mind had already been turned upside down. By then, he had bought the lie that our words of hope and encouragement hid ulterior motives and that his drug dealer friends were the only ones who could be trusted.

Isn’t that  the biggest twist of irony?

The people cooking the poison that killed him had convinced him that he was no longer alone because they had rescued him when no one else would.

The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. That is the game plan he followed with Robert, and the story he seeks to write for all of us through all kinds of addictions. If our enemy can keep our focus on numbing the pain in our life, he keeps our focus off of living the life we were meant to live.

Life that gives hope, that looks forward to the future, that believes that  change is  possible.

So many of Robert’s years were marked by his struggle, but that struggle was not who he  was. He was self-less to a fault, fun to be around, and he loved his kids. That’s the legacy I choose to remember.

At the same time, I can’t ignore his last months and days. They are filled with somber warning. They remind me that when I listen to the lies of the dark, when I give in to my own struggles and try to numb out,  I am one decision away from stepping on the same path that stole him from us.

 

 

 

 

 

Helping Others Fight for Hope

I am excited to have Stefani Carmichael as a guest today. Not only is Stefani is one of the Hope Warriors in  my life, she is also a Hope Warrior in the lives of the teen girls that live  in her dorm.

She is gifted at helping the girls see the lies that they are  believing, and encouraging  them to replace those lies with truth. For some of these girls, she is the first person in their lives to teach them how to fight for hope, especially when their  circumstances feel hopeless.

Stefani also blogs at  heartsoulstrengthandmind.com , so be sure to jump over to her site and check it out.

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Helping Others Fight for Hope 

What is harder than being in a black hole?

Harder than being in the middle of a fog in your life and not seeing your way out?

In my experience, the only thing harder than that is seeing those you love sink down into that pit and knowing you cannot pull them out.  

Recognizing that you cannot pull someone out of the pit is really the first step of being able to help them. I learned this the hard way. If you will expend all your energy trying to pull them out, you might get pulled into it in the process.  

At the same time, you can help someone who needs hope. You cannot force them to have hope. You can’t manhandle them into feeling better.

You can inspire, encourage, and support them in their fight. You are not Rocky Balboa, you are one of those in his corner.  

I am approaching this topic with lessons I have learned through experience. In the process of gaining experience we often make mistakes along the way, and I certainly have. When I write about what not to do, it’s because I have probably done it at some point in my life. I hope anytime I have made mistakes in this area, that those battling with me will extend me grace and understand the heart I have had to help.   

It would be incredibly difficult to help someone fight for hope if you have never been in a situation in which you felt hopeless. I imagine we have all been to that place, but if such a time doesn’t come to mind, you might first want to take a step back and remember.

When you remember the weight of your own battle, you will be better equipped to support someone in their own time of need.  

This time of remembering prepares you to listen.   

This sounds easy, but Iistening well is often the hardest part. When someone you love is in a pit, you want so much for them to be out and back to normal. You may be tempted to think you know what is wrong and just jump to solutions. Don’t.  

You may even know what they need to do. You may even understand. But telling them is not going to get them where they need to be. Because someone who is hopeless is not going to automatically believe you know what you are talking about and can help them.

From their perspective, there is no way out.

From their perspective, things could probably not look any bleaker.

For them to listen to any suggestions or advice, they first have to know you understand the serious position they are in. You show them this by intently listening to them, rephrasing what they have said to make sure you really do understand.  

This process is also essential, because you may not understand as much as you think you do. You may have experienced a similar situation, but that doesn’t mean that your pain is the same as their pain.  

There is no timeline for how long you stay in this stage with someone. There may be a lot of listening involved with some people before they believe you understand.  

It may take one conversation or several before you get to the point to move forward. 

When you understand well, it is time to share. The point of sharing is not to say, “That’s nothing, look at all I have been through.” Its not to compare pain. If it comes off looking this way to the person who is struggling, it will do more harm than good.

The point of sharing is to let the other person know you also have suffered in your life, and while it may have been a very different situation, you found your way out of the suffering.  

This is the point where you can begin to offer hope. 

The hope comes in the message that if you walked through the blackness and found yourself back in the light, against all appearances, they also can find themselves in the light again.  

This doesn’t have to come from just your story. The Bible is full of stories of those who were in seemingly hopeless situations, sometimes for a very long time, before God’s deliverance.  

The stories of Abraham, Joseph, the Israelites in the wilderness, Ruth, Esther, Nehemiah, and countless others attest to incredibly bleak situations that did not remain bleak.

God’s word provides encouragement to those who are in the middle of dark places. These stories entailed long periods of difficulty and do not look anything like the band-aid fixes people often offer those in the middle of serious struggles.

People in the middle of difficulty don’t need to be led into a false hope that everything will change quickly. They need a surer hope that keeps them moving when they do not see the end of their struggle in sight.

They need the hope of a 75-year-old Abraham who still doesn’t have the child of promise and won’t for over 20 more years. They need the hope of Joseph whose troubles did not end with his promotion as a slave, or even when the chief cupbearer was restored to his position. They need the hope of Esther who saw a 360 degree change from complete despair to rejoicing overnight.  

Point them to the Hope-Giver 

All these stories offer hope because situations changed dramatically. Dark situations are so pivotal, because in the middle of them we can give ourselves over to despair if we let ourselves.

The stories above do not simply offer hope because they show that we might find our situation change if we just keep going. They offer hope because the people in these situations have a relationship with the Hope-Giver.

The God who we can trust, who has the power to change things for our good gives hope, because he is the only one who can really change our darkest situations.  

At the beginning, I wrote how understanding that you can’t pull someone out of their dark pit is essential in offering hope. But, it is also essential to understand that God can.

God is fully able to change things. And he gives promises to do just that. When a fellow brother or sister in Christ is in the pit, you can offer hope-giving promises to them.  

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 

This verse is used so much for a very good reason. It has inspired people in their darkest hours for centuries. If you love God, this verse is a message of hope for you. Its not a band-aid to stick on a problem. It shouldn’t be thrown to someone before you have sat with them in their grief. All of Romans 8 is an encouragement to those who suffer deeply. If you read it through in entirety you see in verse 38 that this promise meant for the most difficult of situations: 

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38 

We are hearing this from a man who is currently under house arrest, has faced beatings and being pelted with stones. He has survived a shipwreck and has a perpetual “thorn in the flesh.” Paul knows suffering when he writes this.  

Do something Tangible 

God’s sovereignty is a huge comfort, but it is not an excuse for inaction. You know you can’t lift someone from their pit, but you can help.

The good Samaritan did not pass by, and if our heart is aligned with God’s heart, neither will we.  

Pray and ask God to show you what you can do in the person’s situation. It may be as small as flowers, or as big as getting church leaders involved to help someone financially beyond what you are capable. Sometimes there are actions we can do to help another significantly in their distress. While you don’t want to enable destructive patterns, there is a time and place for significant help. 

Tangible assistance can also be things that help with their mental battle—these things need not be physical. Perhaps they are believing lies that are destructive. Have them write them out on paper, and then work with them to change each lie to a true statement that offers hope.  

Walk with them  

Finally, stay in the picture. Hope warriors are in a battle.  Don’t just show up for the first round of the fight, stick around to see the victory.

They may need help planning steps in the right direction. Have them write out their goals and see if there are proactive steps they can take now to move in that direction. Help them plan those steps in, and cheer for them when they get past an obstacle or do something that leads them in the right direction.  

There will be days when they will struggle again. They will need fresh encouragement along the way. We are all works in progress, but thankfully God’s work in us will one day be complete.  

Pray 

Throughout the entire process, pray. God is the one who can change things. He is the one who can give hope. He is the one who can give wisdom both to you and to the one struggling. Cry out to him, and rely on the promises he gives to his children.  

 “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 

 

Stefani Carmichael is an author, counselor, wife, daughter, mom and houseparent of teenage girls. She blogs at heartsoulstrengthandmind.com 

 

Fighting for Hope When Things Don’t Make Sense

When the kids were little they would often say, “Mama, tell me a story!”

I would begin, “Once upon a time there were three little pigs. One built his house out of LEGOs, one built his house out of candy…”

“That’s not the way the story goes!” The kids would giggle. Or, if they weren’t in silly moods, they would cross their arms and grouch. “No! Tell it right.”

It was fun to mix up the stories. But these day I feel like I am in a story that isn’t going the way I think it should.

As I look through the Bible, I see that I’m not alone. God has always had a way of doing unexpected things. He often chose the smallest, the weakest, the most unusual way.

He promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation when Abraham and Sarah were too old to even have children. And then had them wait for years before Isaac was born.

He put David, the young shepherd boy, against the giant Goliath holding only a sling and a few stones.

I love reading these accounts in the Bible.  I love the way God shows His power through these situations. But living out these types of stories in the year 2017 is another matter altogether. When the events are happening In real time it’s harder to trace the hand of God through the shadowy twists and turns.

In the midst of these shadows my heart whispers, “This isn’t the way the story goes, is it, God?”

And in the midst of my confusion, even as I’m questioning God, I am looking in the right direction.

When I don’t understand what God is doing,  I can lean toward Him and ask. And I have. In the dark of night, in the light of day, I have asked question after question.

I’m sure you have, too.

I fully believe God can handle our asking, our ranting, our anger. I’ve found that when I seek Him, He answers gently, not through direct answers to my questions, but in revealing more about Himself.

These times make me ask Do I really know  God? Do I know Him for who He says He is or do I know the version I’ve made up?

Because in these confusing times, the version we make up isn’t going to stand. These confusing times cause us to question God, to really look at Him, maybe for the first time.

He knows we don’t really need “because” statements to match our “whys”. We need Him.

Knowing God leads to trust. The more we know Him, and the more we know His tender love for us, the more we can trust His Hand in our lives.

And as I fix my gaze on who He is and who I am to Him, I find that I can trust Him with the unknown.  I find that I can say, “I don’t know why this is happening, but I do know You. And I will trust what You are doing.” I can cling to his promise of His steadfast love and plentiful redemption.

Because at the heart of God, is this:

For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:19-20, ESV)

At the heart of God, the driving force behind His actions is to reconcile, to restore.  To bring His people before His face. He works in and through the brokenness of this world to bring about wholeness in Him. Through the grief, through the tragedy, we can track His heart.

What does this matter? How does it connect with fighting for hope?

My measure of God is the measure of my hope. If I believe God is small, powerless, unable to save – my hope will be, at best, based on my current mood.

But if I see His majesty and power, in Scripture and in my life, my hope will be an anchor that keeps me steady in spite of mood or circumstance.

Hope that anchors reminds us of His promises. Hope that anchors reminds us of His character. Hope that anchors reminds us who we are to Him. This hope gives us strength to continue fighting, even when things don’t make sense.

 

 

Reaching Out and Fighting Doubt

If God’s vision for the helpless includes you and me, where do we even begin?

Let’s start with those doubting thoughts niggling away in your mind. I know, I had them too.  But God placed a child  and her adoptive process right in front of me.  I wanted to be involved, and God wanted me to wade through these doubts and watch Him provide.

Doubt #1:  If I can’t solve the problem, why even try?  I wrote about wrestling with this question in the post Stretching Out a Hand of Relief. 

Doubt #2:  It’s such a big problem. 153 millions orphans! What can one person do to make a difference? Not much on their  own.  But one person can join with others who are reaching out by:

Supporting Organizations Reaching Out To Orphans & Children in Difficult Situations

Heritage Ukraine – Odessa, Ukraine

Read more about the amazing ministry of Heritage Ukraine in the post

Heritage Ukraine: A Light in Dark Places

Hispanola Mountain Ministries – Haiti and the Dominican Republic

French Camp Academy – French Camp, MS

Sponsoring Children in Difficult Situations

Hope for the Fatherless– Ethiopia

Compassion International

Cross Mountain Mission Legacy Centers – Nicaragua

Providing funding for homes for orphans who are too old to live in the orphanage.

Orphan Mission Transition Homes – Ukraine

Jeremiah’s Hope – Hope Market

Considering adoption

 Walking beside a family in the adoption process.

  The adoption process is filled with mountains of paperwork, moments of doubt, and uncertainty that all will work out. An adoptive family needs a network of friends who will pray for them, encourage them, and help them raise the necessary finances.

This post tells the story of an adoption process our family was incredibly blessed to be a part of:  FIshes, Loaves, and Cookie Dough

 

Suffering & God’s Sovereignty

♥ ♥ Day 6 ♥ ♥

 

God’s view of suffering

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  

 

Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9:1-3)

In His Sovereignty, God gave this man the condition of blindness at birth. He was unable to change his situation without God’s direct intervention.

In the suffering we see and experience, we don’t have Jesus standing there, explaining the purpose for the suffering.  In fact, in the moment, it is very hard to see how suffering can bring God glory.

 In Growing Your Faith, Jerry Bridges sums up three truths God’s Word teaches us about God and our adversities in this way:

God is completely sovereign. God is infinite in wisdom. God is perfect in love.  God in His love always wills what is best for us. In His wisdom, He always knows what is best. And in His sovereignty, He has the power to bring it about.

These assurances can change the way we react to suffering. They give us the ability to look for evidence of God working in the darkness. They give us confidence to pray God’s words back to Him.

We can respectfully say, “Your Word says that You are the helper of the fatherless. It says that You have not forsaken the needy.” And we can pray for God to act.

In His Sovereignty He places each of us right where we are.

In His Sovereignty He uses suffering in our stories to bring us to Himself.

What is God’s view of suffering? What is His goal?

Romans 8:28

Psalm 40:1-3

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

Romans 5:1-11

James 1:2-4

1 Peter 1:3-7

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This is Day 6 of The Hope of the Helpless, a 7-day devotional I wrote as a guide for praying for orphans.

The Hope of the Helpless walks us through God’s heart for the  helpless, His vision for their future, and His gracious invitation to join Him in caring for them.

In honor of the International Day of Prayer for Orphans, I am posting a devotional from The Hope of the Helpless each day this week.

I am looking forward to your responses, to having real  conversations about orphan care, and to talking through your questions.

If you would like to receive these posts directly to your inbox, subscribe to my mailing list on the sidebar. 

 

 

 

Hope>Fear

One of the Hope Warriors in my life gave me a tea towel with these words to keep in my kitchen.  Each time I see it, these words remind me that fear doesn’t have to have the final say. These words help me see the fear in my life for what it is. And they give me courage to keep fighting for hope.

Since there seems to be plenty of fear going around these days, I wanted to drag fear out into the light where we can really look at it.

Here’s the skinny on fear vs. hope:

Fear chokes out hope.

Fear screams and calls for immediate, desperate action. Fear makes us think we are alone, without help, and ultimately without hope. Fear paints the future in total darkness. It is like a tornado, loud and destructive, throwing debris in every direction. As long as the tornado is there, no one can reach out to help, no one can be heard over the noise, and everyone gets hurt.

Hope removes fear.

Hope is something else entirely. Hope starts out quiet, sometimes as a small spark. The presence of hope can dissipate  the fear-tornado so that healing can take place.

Fear isolates. 

It whispers in the darkness “You are alone. No one will help you.” It covers us with shame to keep us bound in addictions. It makes us think no other marriage has struggled like ours, no other person has had dark thoughts like these. It whispers lies to keep us from coming into the light.

Hope builds community.

When we surround ourselves with people who fight for hope, we hear these beautiful words, “You are not alone. I am with you.” They remind us of truth, which brings us into the light. And Hope Warriors lovingly help us let go of the lies we’ve believed for far too long.

Fear begets fear.

The more we surround ourselves with fearful thoughts, statements, and actions, the more fear will surround our hearts and paralyze us.

Hope begets courage.

Hope stirs a quiet, fierce strength inside us. Hope helps us believe the future could be good. When those around us are pointing us toward truth, we grow brave. When we point others toward truth, we grow strong.

Hope reminds us that change is possible. It reminds us that the last chapter has not been written, and that we hold the pen to begin a new chapter.

Hope is greater than fear.

 

 

 

When Jesus Turns Things Upside Down

Jesus often said and did the unexpected.

He turned things upside down and left people perplexed.

When the rich young ruler approached Jesus, he was confident that he was in good standing with God.  The prevailing thought of the day was that riches proved that God was pleased with you. Add that to his rule-keeping, and he was practically guaranteed to inherit eternal life, right?

This man was trusting in what his religious culture said about his wealth.

And then Jesus asked him to give away the very thing that his trust was wrapped up in to the poor- the very people that he was certain God was not pleased with.

In one simple conversation “Jesus exposed in that man the thing that he treasured more than he treasured God.”

Jesus turned things upside down.

Nicodemus wasn’t confident he was in good standing with God, but he knew he was on the right path. He was, after all, a respected Pharisee.

And yet something in Jesus’ teachings led him to go to Jesus in secret.

In one statement, Jesus rocked the world Nicodemus had carefully built during a lifetime of serving the Lord.

Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

The despair in his response leaps off the page.  How can a man be born when he is old?

Seeing the kingdom of God was the focus of Nicodemus’ entire life.

“What if Jesus had told Nicodemus,’You need to work harder and trust God more’? Nicodemus could have gone home and tried to do better. But Jesus was emptying Nicodemus of any hope he had of fixing himself.

One sentence emptied Nicodemus of all of his self-centered schemes for rightness with God.”

He spent his life seeking God, but his trust was in the seeking, not in God.

Jesus turned things upside down.

The Samaritan woman at the well knew she wasn’t favored by God. She definitely knew she didn’t have a chance of being right with God.

After all, she had messed up way too much, searching for a relationship that would make her feel loved. Everyone, including her, knew that for a fact.

And yet, when Jesus revealed that her hope in relationships would always leave her thirsty and pointed her toward Himself, she recognized her need for Him.

When Jesus turned things upside down for her, she saw that things were finally right.

Jesus turned things upside down for these three to reveal that what they were trusting in could never fully satisfy. He poked holes in their false hopes so they could see that their need of Him, the source of lasting Hope.

And He does the same for us.

Sometimes we are the young ruler trusting in social status or rule-keeping. Other times we are Nicodemus, hoping that our service to God, our sacrifice, our theological knowledge will make us complete. And, more often than not, we are the Samaritan woman, hoping to find love and a sense of worth through relationships.

Jesus turns things upside down so that we can see Him clearly, run to Him readily, and follow Him closely.

Quotes are from the workbook Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically by John Snyder