Hope

An unending topic of late.  It seems who ever it is that I run into has something to say about hope.  Pretty sure it's because I'm in a slump, okay maybe a bit more then a slump, either way I've had time to think about this word and what it means.

Some speak of hope in themselves. A hope that changes with time and circumstances. Others who believe in a bigger hope pat me on the head with there words as if I'm a three year old just now learning this word or I'm blowing things out of proportion. While still others simply hope the eternal kind with me.

Here's my take on it. Hope, the eternal kind, like Grace comes in degrees. Those who have lived the dark Storm I am going through now, know hope to a degree that others do not. Those who have endured the death of a spouse or child know hope again differently then I do.

Hope is personal.

Hope comes with hardship. Without hardship we would have no need to hope in anything.



Here is a small bit of what Job says about it: 
~My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and come to an end without hope. (7:6)
~Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him. This also will be my salvation, for the godless man may not come before His presence. (13:15-16)

I have not even begun to suffer the way Job did, but I am suffering and I do cling to the same hope he did:

"As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last He will take His stand on the earth.  Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God; whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes will see and not another.  My heart faints with in me!"

~ Job 19:25-27

1232.  Lasting Hope.

1233.  Divine Words.

1234.  Hardship.

1235.  Personal relationship with the hope Giver.

1236.  Baby Girl hugs.

1237.  Heart shaped hole chewed into a leaf.

1238.  The death of fall so I can have the hope of spring.