shifting gears...

Tonight as I was cleaning my house from top to bottom I realized something about our hearts.  The problem with my style of cleaning is that I usually go from room to room and by the time I am finished I am exhausted and I have piles and messes in every room.  Tonight I decided to change it up and start at the back of the house and literally not move until the room I was in was complete.  I finished so much more than usual and I didn’t feel as overwhelmed as when I started.  I thought about how we leave messes all throughout our lives without ever really dealing with the issues of the heart.  We chase happiness through things and then after a trail of credit card debt and wanting more we move on to the next thing that will satisfy our craving.  We want to feel love so badly that we jump from relationship to relationship leaving more scars all over our hearts.  We desire to feel whole and complete and yet our hope is in things that cannot satisfy our hearts nor heal us.  For 2013 I have chosen HOPE as my one word.  The word hope means … confident expectation.  We expect God to heal, protect, guide, free, move, lead, speak and reveal Himself to us and make our dreams come true. When we go to Jesus with a heart that is filled with such confidence and expectancy imagine the possibilities.  We usually spend most of our time questioning His sovereignty because we can’t seem to see Him.  I go through each day praying for many of those things I listed and yet something inside me doubts His ability to do them.  I question the Creator of the universe and really for what?  Is it because His timing doesn’t match my timing? Does His plan seem out of line with what I want to happen? YES AND YES!! God doesn’t place expectations on me He simply loves me where I am and calls me into deeper intimacy.  What is it that you HOPE for? Do you long to live out a dream that involves you boldly stepping out of your comfort zone! DO IT!!! Here is what I know… Jesus is our Hope and through us we bring Hope to those around us.  We give them small glimpses of Jesus and how He loves.  I can hope that I lose weight. I can hope that my dreams come true. I can hope that I can share my story but I also can look through the lens of hope from His perspective and see that it’s not about the outcome that really matters it’s the hope of what is to come through my Creator.  He is my hope! He is my future! He is my everything! This year my one word was believe and I am overwhelmed with how far I was pushed in the areas where I didn't believe.  Now it feels like my heart is shifting gears and I am about to go full speed ahead.. God let me dream and wait with CONFIDENT EXPECTATION! 

Psalm 25:5

       Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me.
      All day long I put my HOPE in you.

 Psalm 130:5

        I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my HOPE.

Lamentations 3:25
      The LORD is good to those whose HOPE is in him, to the one who seeks him;

Micah 7;7
      But as for me, I watch in HOPE for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.

 Romans 8:25

      But if we HOPE for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.