Hope - Advent - Day 7 - Week 1

It's our last day on hope. It feels like a good time for a refresher in what hope and faith are.  

Revelation 15:3-4

and sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb: "Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed."

Have you ever read the Song of Moses (Ex 15)? I got goose bumps! I think sometimes we do not stop long enough to retell God's working in our lives. What I love the most, is looking back at where God has had me. Exodus is in the beginning of God's story. Revelation is the end. Here in these verses is a recounting of God's faithfulness. Can you remember a time when things seemed hopeless for you? Have you ever been stuck between Pharaoh’s army and the Red Sea? I've been there! Can I tell you all today that God is just as faithful for me as He was for Moses? He is - I've seen it with my own eyes. From the first day of our marriage Al and I faithfully believed for children. Year... after year... after very painful year passed by us. Others got married and had children. Others had 2.. then 3.  We had a miscarriage... several painful fertility treatment cycles... hours of driving... hours of waiting.. shots... tears... a final miscarriage. But no children. 2016 we hit our Red Sea moment. All that He promised was slipping away. Our final pregnancy loss came on our anniversary that year. But God...
December 2016 we went to our first meeting for The Call to foster children in our area. 9 months later we  had the first of four children in our home. It was not the path that I would have chosen. It for sure has some major moments that break us and bring us to our knees.  But God... my children - all of those that have come and left, and come and stayed, and will come and stay were worth the pain and tears.

He is good people. He is faithful. And even if it doesn't look like it, He is still working.

Trust it!

Father

My only prayer tonight is that we would always be faithful to share our Red Sea moments. Help us be aware of what you have brought us through... and share it.
Amen.

Hope - Advent - Day 6 - Week 1

Hebrews 1:1-2

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.

In the days before Christ God's followers clung to a hope and a promise. They waited for a coming messiah through trials and terrors. We too cling to a hope and promise but we have something that they did not. We have the knowledge of the Son and the presence of the Spirit. We have the defining moment of history written down for us to read and study anytime we choose. We have glimpses of who Jesus, the Son, was and is today. And through Him we have a glance at the Father that Old Testament folks did not have. God has spoken to us through the Son, through His life, death, and resurrection. And when it comes down to it we are blessed just in the knowledge of Jesus. Many of us know the Christmas story inside and out but as Christmas approaches I must tell you... it's not the knowledge of the cross and the Son that is Important. The key decision in life is what you do with that knowledge? Hope is great. But you hope in vain unless you have placed your hope and life in a relationship with the Son. That's Christmas at its very heart. It's God's love for us wrapped in a baby and opened at the cross.

Father,
As we speed towards Christmas and the end of this year, may we remember that there is always hope for our futures when our faith and trust is in you. Please bless those reading this prayer tonight. Wrap your arms around those who are grieving. Encourage those who feel alone. And most importantly, help us to see outside of ourselves to bring our hope to others.
Amen

Gina

Hope - Advent - Day 5 - Week 1

This seems like a strange post for a day on hope. But I promised myself this journey... so tonight is going to be a little different.  

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

I know I have asked "why?" a lot this year. Here is one of the answers that I have received. How would you know how to comfort someone else if you had never had any troubles yourself? Talk is great, but if you've never been there you really can't offer the advice of one who's "been there, done that"

God promises comfort. When you get out of your troubles - whatever they are - you can comfort those around you. 

Try a little comfort today. Take the time to tell someone how important they are to you. And be specific folks.

Father,
The only words I can seem to find tonight. Help us. It's been a long, rough season... and the end seems so far away.
Please, be near. Please be the God of comfort for us all tonight.

-Gina

Hope - Advent - Day 4 - Week 1

1 Corinthians 13:12
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

This seems like a weird place to go for a day on hope.
But stick with me. :)
There are a lot of things here in this life that I am forced to admit... I cannot understand. There are plenty of events that just break my heart because the pain that they bring seems unnecessary and cruel. Hello! to most of 2020. Almost all of this year legit seems God-forsaken and filled with so much pain.
In this passage it talks about seeing life as you would look at a reflection in a mirror... a poor or dim reflection. Ever looked in a mirror in dim light? You can kinda see outlines but really there is no hope at getting a clear picture. That is just the way we live our lives now. We can't hope to see the whole, clear picture until this life is over. So hmm... maybe we should stop trying to figure it out already!!! 

You can stare at that reflection and try to piece together the shadows. You can live in your past desperately trying to pull pieces together and "work all things together for good...here," or you can go live your life with God's directions.

Let me tell you friends.  Peddling hope in this year of Advent 2020, it seems like I keep nailing my own self over and over again.
If you know me even in the slightest, you know how personally devastating this year has been.
I'm realizing tonight, as I sit here typing, that I just an hour ago had my dim mirror out trying to polish it up into a picture that makes sense.

Spoiler Alert - It didn't. It doesn't. It won't. 

Tonight as I am telling you to keep hope, because someday that dim picture will come into focus in His timing... I'm basically yelling it at myself.

I have no "quick fix" solutions for the pain in your heart. But I have this hope: when I do see Him face to face, I will know fully.
Until then, I will live in this moment. I will stop trying to replay and fix the things that are past. I will remember, that some day it will all make sense. But today is not that day.

Prayer for Today
Father
Please help us let go of the dim picture we are clasping onto right now. Help us remember the past days with a hope of understanding, when we see you again. Help us leap into tomorrow with an expectation that days are still ahead where we will laugh and smile. Please help my friends who are currently wrapped in grief to know that they are not alone in their grieving either. You are with them fully yesterday, today, and tomorrow. These days of weeping seem to never end but some day, oh someday they will.
Amen

My friends - put down that picture. It's time to walk on.
-Gina

ps - some of my sweet friends have very, very recently begun their journey of grief. To them I also want to add... grieve! Do not let anyone rob you of the healing grief that you must endure. It is a season that takes as long as it takes. And that is a part of living too.  <3 Here with you always. - Me

Hope - Advent Day 3 - Week 1

 Habakkuk 3:16-19

I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.

 Habakkuk has had a big impact on me tonight. Have you ever noticed that sometimes you get the most impatient for something right before it actually happens? It's like the long awaited wedding, or baby, or homecoming. The closer it gets the more anxious and ready we are for it to get here. So it is with a move of God in your life. Even when Habakkuk had no external sign that God was working, he knew in his bones that God was moving. Check out that middle verse - even though crops are failing - even though there are no sheep in the pen - I will rejoice. I will wait. I will be joyful. I know I talk about waiting a lot. I think part of the key is in how we wait. 

Are you waiting like Habakkuk was? 

Are you confident that God is moving even with NO evidence? How about joyful? Ya feeling joyful? I think some of us (ME) maybe need to examine our waiting posture. Do not grow fainthearted now. The redemption of the Lord is somewhere just around that next corner. The promise of God may be just moments away from fulfillment. Press on!!
Some of these words are from a Gina about 13 years ago. That's pre-Al... pre J and J... pre house building. It's a Gina who had lots of promises for a future, but very few fulfilled. I said then that life is always about waiting for something. I stand by that even more strongly now.

This week of Advent is about hope. You don't hope for things when you know the future is certain. Hope lives in uncertain, even scary times. That is why Hope 2020 is such a revelation.

Keep hoping my friends. Things do get better. Sun does shine again. You will laugh and love again.
If I can pray for you, please either comment or send me an e-mail. 

Prayer for today
Father,
Please let the person reading this right now feel such a jolt of hope that it takes their breath for a minute. Be the ever-present, God of Hope for them right now. Please help us to be a beacon of hope in a weary world that needs it more now than ever in recent memory.
We love You!
Hope-Filled
-Amen

-Gina

Hope - Advent Day 2 - Week 1

Lamentations 3:25-33

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him. Let him bury his face in the dust- there may yet be hope. Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace.For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.

I love Lamentations 3. I always quote verses 22-24 to people who are going through rough times. But I am realizing that sometimes the next series of verses speak more to what I am going through. Waiting is NEVER fun but sometimes it is very necessary. Waiting in a distinct silence from God is twice as difficult. We must all remember that no season in our life will last forever good or bad. That's the way it is with seasons... they come and go. 

That's two days in a row that I am reminding that life is all about seasons... I may have a point that I am driving home to myself. The thing about seasons is, at the beginning and middle and sometimes even at the end, you are not aware how long this season lasts? "2020 as a stink year" may start to ease up tomorrow.  But it may end sometime in 2021. One thing I am confident in is that it is just a season. My hope is not in politicians, or vaccines. It's not in my family, friends or work. It is only in the One who does know the beginnings, middles, and ends of all seasons.

Day 2 Prayer

Father,
Even as many of  us sit in the silence of the unknown tonight, may we be reminded that you sit with us. You have not left us destitute and alone. You have not shown us the end of this season, but you know it. Our days are fully in Your hands. Help us rest secure in knowing that you are holding us here in this season and into the next.
Amen,

 Press on my friends. The Lord IS with you even in the silence of this season.

-Gina

Hope - Advent - Day 1.. Week 1

I decided that I wanted to write some Advent devotionals. It's 9 pm on the first night of Advent. I have not written word one while I try to fight off this whatever non-virus it is. (Corona negative).

So, my fever brain decided to search my old devotional files for the word HOPE.

And the neatest thing... there were too many results. "This shows up a lot"

Y'all. My life's testimony in one word is Hope. God has restored so much for me over the years. I pulled up example after example in my devotionals. They are from 13 years ago, give or take... Before Al... Before Jay... Before Jackson.

Those devotionals were all in the waiting years of hope... not fulfilled.

This week - Week 1 of advent... is all about hope. So I "hope" I find a lot to encourage you with.

Let's start off with a strange place to find hope - Job

Job 42:2

"I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.

Knowing that Job said this after all the junk he had been through is incredible. Job really had gone through more bad things than anyone I know. He'd lost everything and no one stood beside him. Yet he knew that God's plan had never suffered when he did. Job knew that God had only good in store for him. What do I think is key in this? One word that I notice I use here a lot is "through." 

Job went through all of this. 

He didn't sit and moan (okay, he didn't do it much). He let God bring him through the bad stuff and to the end. Push on folks. There has to be an end somewhere. God has shown it over and over again.

I wish I could tell you I knew when that end was. I have no idea.  But I know that seasons never last. This one will be no exception.

Someday we will be telling stories to the next generation of how we survived Covid19. They will be hard stories.  But, like all seasons, we will start to remember the good things too.
It's one of the toughest seasons of all our lives most likely. But there are hopeful things. There are rays of light either right here or somewhere just out of sight.

Advent Prayer - Week 1 - Day 1

Father,

Please help us see that you are working here, even when we cannot see it. Make this season a season where we see you fully. Help us move through this world with joy. May we be reminded every day of the humanity that is all around us. Help us to see where we can bring hope and joy to the tired world that is around us. If any of my friends reading this prayer need that hope and joy, please show up this week in some unexpected way and bring peace, hope, and joy.

Amen

You're my peeps... Much love to you.

-Gina