Hope

My morning started out fantabulously !  I had a nurses meeting in Rainelle at 8am so that meant I had an extra 30 minutes.  I didn’t have to leave til 7:30!  I decided to go over Craig.  I love going that way because I pass the house I grew up in and the winding road reminds me of Daddy.  He thought there was only one way to Rainelle and Craig Rd was it.  As I drive along, I am thinking of feeding and delivering meals to the shut-ins.  I had a cake in the back seat of my car and as the road is quite curvy and winding, I was worried it was going to end up in the floor board.  So I turned to check on it, only for an instant. As I turn to look, I hit the ditch.  It’s a one lane road so there is a ditch on one side and over the mountain on the other side.  So I was lucky!  I didn’t get stuck up but I soaked up some serious mud.  My car starts to shimmy and shake so I think, well not a good sign!  Since I am in Rainelle I will get Lonnie or Shawn to check it out for me!  Wouldn’t you know, neither of them answers their phone!  So my go to guy in Rainelle is Roger Brown.  He always fixes my car, tires, oil that kinda thing.  So I stop in to see Roger and he looks at it for me and thank God it was just packed with mud.  No damage, nothing permanently bent.  He cleaned it out and said Merry Christmas!  No charge!  But while I am there, I hear that still small voice say, invite him to sing in your cantata! So I do.  He is already singing in a cantata so I say, “OK God, already obligated here!”  So I invite him to our cantata, even if he can’t sing in it!   So that was that!  As I leave I say, “OK God I get it!  I was supposed to go there and invite Roger to the Christmas Cantata at our church.  But did you have to put me in the ditch to do it?”

Isaiah 45:21-23 (NIV)

²¹ Declare what is to be, present it—
    let them take counsel together.
Who foretold this long ago,
    who declared it from the distant past?
Was it not I, the Lord?
    And there is no God apart from me,
a righteous God and a Savior;
    there is none but me.

²² “Turn to me and be saved,
    all you ends of the earth;
    for I am God, and there is no other.
²³ By myself I have sworn,
    my mouth has uttered in all integrity
    a word that will not be revoked:
Before me every knee will bow;
    by me every tongue will swear.

 

 I am getting better at hearing His voice!  Maybe He thought I wouldn’t hear Him if He just said go!  I would make excuses!  But He knew if I had car trouble I would go there!  That’s how God works.  He takes what you know, what you do, how you deal, how you communicate and He uses that!  But wouldn’t it be so much easier if we would just listen to Him when He talks and then obey Him.  Just say OK and GO!

Jeremiah 31:16-17 (NIV)

¹⁶ This is what the Lord says:

“Restrain your voice from weeping
    and your eyes from tears,
for your work will be rewarded,”
declares the Lord.
    “They will return from the land of the enemy.
¹⁷ So there is hope for your descendants,”
declares the Lord.
    “Your children will return to their own land

 

  As I was driving then to Lewisburg, Christmas songs are everywhere!  This song titled “Be Born In Me” began to play,

Everything inside me cries for order
Everything inside me wants to hide
Is this shadow an angel or a warrior
If God is pleased with me, why I am I so terrified
Someone tell me I am only dreaming
Somehow help me see with Heaven's eyes
And before my head agrees, my heart is on it's knees
Holy is He. Blessed am I.

(Chorus)
Be born in me, be born in me
Trembling heart, somehow I believe that You chose me
I'll hold you in the beginning, You will hold me in the end
Every moment in the middle, make my heart your Bethlehem
Be born in me

All this time we've waited for the promise
All this time You've waited for my arms
Did You wrap yourself inside the unexpected
So we might know that Love would go that far?

Chorus

 

I am not brave
I'll never be
The only thing my heart can offer is a vacancy
I'm just a girl
Nothing more
But I am willing, I am Yours

Do you ever wonder what Mary felt when He asked her to do this?  Did He have to put her I a ditch to get her attention?  Here she is a little more than a girl and she says “I am willing” “I am yours!”  If we coul only be like that when He asks us to do something.

Ephesians 4:14-16 (NIV)

¹⁴ Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵ Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶ From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Most of the time when He tells us to do something, chances are it may make us uncomfortable at times, but it’s never ever going to be like Mary and Joseph.  I want to be that obedient!  I want to be like Mary so when He comes to me He doesn’t have to put me in the ditch again.  He can just say this is what I want you to do!  And I will say, “I am willing, I am yours!”

Colossians 3:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts

I want people to look at me when I do something and not say well there goes that crazy Trish doing something totally off the wall again!  I want them to say well there goes Trish doing what God wants her to do, no matter what it is!

Romans 12:2 (NIV)

² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

We should all want to be that obedient.  The blessings are out of this world.  They are the super natural kind!

 

 

Luke 1:46-47 (NIV)

Mary’s Song

⁴⁶ And Mary said:

“My soul glorifies the Lord
⁴⁷     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

1 Corinthians 16:13-14 (NIV)

¹³ Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. ¹⁴ Do everything in love.

We need to be like Mary.  Courageous!  And I am sure she was afraid.  She had to be because she was human.  But in Matthew 14:27 Jesus immediately said to them “Take Courage!  It is I!  Don’t be Afraid!”

He is in all our circumstances!  The good, the bad, and the ugly!  He doesn’t create the bad but He can turn it around and make it beautiful!  And when you least expect to hear Him, if you will listen, you may just hear a still small voice.  Right in the middle of your storm!

1 Kings 19:12 (NIV)

¹² After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper

So many years ago He sent a new born baby who offered us such a promise!  He wrapped so much up in that little bundle!  He wrapped up love in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger!  Right there for the entire world to see and know!

Isaiah 9:6 (NIV)

⁶ For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

My Hope is in you Lord, all the day long!

Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark.       George Iles

We search for something in this world, we all do!  Something to make us whole.  The more we look the more we find!  So this Christmas, look for Jesus!  Seek and ye shall find!  I just love when that happens!

Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV)

¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Hebrews 6:18-19 (NIV)

¹⁸ God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. ¹⁹ We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain

Merry Christmas

Trish