Hello, everyone!! Thanks for checking out my blog! Today, I am sharing my thoughts on hope. Life has been so busy lately, and sometimes it gets so overwhelming. I know that God has great plans for my life-plans to give me “hope and a good future” (Jeremiah 29:11); but sometimes I feel discouraged as I journey from where I am to where he is taking me. My future God-given hopes, goals, and dreams seem so far away sometimes, like they will never happen; but I know my God can do the impossible in me and through me and for me. Hope is defined in one dictionary as a “favorable and confident expectation.” When I was a small child, my heart and life were filled with hopes and dreams. I remember daydreaming about the future plans that I was sure would become a reality one day. However, as I grew up and life set in, and I started to experience disappointments and sorrows, my hope grew dim. There were times I didn’t expect anything good to happen; instead I was waiting on the worse possible outcome. I am thankful that my heart and life are filled with hope again. Somehow (and I’m really not sure when it happened), God helped me start to expect good things to happen in my life again. I have hope for the future now because of God’s promises in his Word and how they apply to my life generally and specifically. I have hope because I have read the end of the book, and I win because of the cross of Jesus. I have hope because I know that God has brought me through so many trials in my life already and he will continue to do so-He doesn’t change. I feel like I could write a long book sharing testimony after testimony of how God has shown up time and time again for me and for my family. I know that God is faithful to his promises. When I get discouraged about the dreams that haven’t come true yet, I need to say what David said : “Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, who is the help of my countenance, and my God” (Psalm 42:11 AMP). In order to not lose hope again, I have to keep looking to Jesus, who is my anchor and the author and finisher of my faith. I have to keep trusting in him to lead and guide me, to protect me and direct me. “We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield, In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name” (Psalm 33:20-21 NIV). And even though I made what seems like a thousand I-statements in this post, I encourage you to do the same: keep hoping and keep expecting good things to happen, just like God has said they would. Keep believing that all things are possible with God because they really are. Keep going even when things don’t seem to be getting better. God will be with us every step of the way, and He will not let go of us.

Songs that inspire me: “My Hope Is In You” by Aaron Shust; “Hope In Front of Me” by Danny Gokey; and “It Is Well” by Bethel Music.