As the events in our homes and cities and world continue to escalate, we struggle to find our footing. We strive to keep hold of hope, to keep believing in a God we cannot see. But, nothing tests our faith like suffering. Physical pain that intensifies or refuses to recede chisels our rock of resolveContinueContinue reading “Reigniting Hope: A Map to Follow”
Category Archives: Hope
Reigniting Hope: Holy Preparedness
Lately I’ve found myself in “preparation mode,” which is not unusual for this Planner. But I’ve been learning throughout my fifty-four years that there’s a difference between being prepared and putting my hope in the plans I’ve created. So, as I read Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, I recognize his voice of encouragement forContinueContinue reading “Reigniting Hope: Holy Preparedness”
Reigniting Hope: Burning Love
Moses might be the most known and respected man of all the Old Testament. Yet, the biblical hero who confronted Pharaoh, met with God, and led the Israelites to the Promised Land had a shady start. Murderous, in fact. You see, when he came of age as an adopted son of Pharaoh, Moses began toContinueContinue reading “Reigniting Hope: Burning Love”
Reigniting Hope: A Living Hope
Collectively, we watch with horror all the atrocities happening around the world. We struggle with what we see and hear. We grapple with our responses. We long for someone to do something to stop the wars, to make things right. And, if we aren’t careful, we can let fear, despair, and cynicism steal our hopeContinueContinue reading “Reigniting Hope: A Living Hope”
Reigniting Hope: Building Muscle
Our sons are each about four years apart in age, so in all their growing up years, there was only one season when all three were involved in similar activities. In 2011, it happened that our three boys played some form of football. In the early days of the fall, our oldest worked out every-day,ContinueContinue reading “Reigniting Hope: Building Muscle”
Reigniting Hope: Louder Than Unbelief
You may know by now that I am a word nerd. I’m the one who actually enjoyed my sentence diagramming class at Sam Houston State University. Yes! There is a class on sentence diagramming. LOL. I took it and even dabbled in leading my English students through a basic level of it. Not to tortureContinueContinue reading “Reigniting Hope: Louder Than Unbelief”
Reigniting Hope: The Fruit of Love
We’ve zoomed-in the last two weeks to draw our focus a bit more onto one of our three graces, love, so that we can see how it is the greatest, how it sources faith and hope, and the way it flies over us in order to rally us to our King, assuring us He’s withContinueContinue reading “Reigniting Hope: The Fruit of Love”
Reigniting Hope: His Banner Over Us
Let’s imagine… We’re dragging our discouraged, defeated, and bruised bodies into the locker room at halftime. Nothing has gone the way we planned. Everyone is doubting our chance at victory. All hope seems gone. Then Jesus steps into the stinky, sweat-filled room, establishing Himself at the center of our sulking circle and slowly starts toContinueContinue reading “Reigniting Hope: His Banner Over Us”
Reigniting Hope: These Three Remain
If we only ever look at the world and our lives with limited nearsightedness, hope plummets. We don’t see a way forward when our lenses are scratched and smudged with despair and cynicism. We fail to believe that how we feel or what we see will ever get better when our vision is hindered –ContinueContinue reading “Reigniting Hope: These Three Remain”
Reigniting Hope: Flames of Faith, Hope, and Love
The summer heat brings with it dry conditions that ignite like kindling. Just this week, my brother and his family were at the ready to evacuate on three occasions because forest fires raged near their home. When my brother sent me a video of one of the fires, my heart sank. Then my mind gotContinueContinue reading “Reigniting Hope: Flames of Faith, Hope, and Love”