Jay Saunders Supporter

When things are hopeless we must find the courage to go on. That courage can come from God or your own determination but we all at some point in life fail.

Yep! Failure is a part of life. Divorce is failure, bankruptcy is failure. Losing someone you love is seemingly hopeless to us at times. 

Personally I find loving my Lord more than anything or anybody on God's earth liberating. Why? Because his love is from everlasting to everlasting. He will never fail me even if I fail him.

He will never leave me or forsake me. Only he will be there after death. Everything here on earth is just vanity. This life is but a vapor of smoke. I am 68 and it seems like I must have fell a sleep and lost years somewhere.

If there is nothing after this life then well it all seams pointless really. Life is so fleeting. I used to be able to hike all day and never get tired and I still am not tired but my feet just will not do, what the rest of my body wants.

That's why we can not focus our lives in this life only because it is fleeting like a puff of smoke being consumed by the atmosphere. Like a breath taken in and blown out. It is gone and I wonder, "Where did all those years go?"

But I am excited because I am closer and closer to eternal life in Him. I want to walk barefoot in the hottest desert and in the coldest snowy Antarctica because my new spirit body will not be bound by the laws of physics.

What awaits us can not be fully comprehended but the Lord said we would be like him. And he was able to do cool stuff before he died, let alone after he died.

Think about it and smile!
We got a hope and a future.
Jaybird

April 07 2020 • 3 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Shirley H Supporter Wife, mother, veteran in the spiritual war we all face!

Continuing in this chapter of Hebrews, notice verses 11&12. Sarah was well past the age of having a child, both she and her husband as good as dead! Yet, is anything too hard for God! 

We know that He raised Christ from the dead! Nothing, is impossible! Luke1:37

I would suggest reading Job. He says in 7:6, " My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope!"

Job was in dire distress. Chapter 17 Job prays for relief. He asks in verse 15, where then is my hope?

Job focuses on personal suffering. The book of Lamentations focuses on national suffering, lost hope. Tough questions asked by God's people are tackled. If God is in control, where is He? These two books help us understand that there is "Light" In the midst of wherever we are. His name is God, Jesus Christ! He cares. Lamentations 3:26, "It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord."

I offer this poem that I found years ago, I don't know who wrote it, but it has helped me many times...
I'm glad my Times are in thy hand Lord, it is so sweet to know- that everything is by Thee planned for me where ere I go - the Hand that holds the oceans depth can hold my small affairs - the Hand that guides the universe can carry all my cares. Thou seest all that's coming Lord, the pleasure and the pain - and thou art shaping all for me, and my eternal gain! Thy Hand is one of love and power, so gentle, yet - so strong. It surely can control all things which unto me belong - I'm glad I cannot shape my way....please help me to be still. I'm glad the ordering is not mine! I'd rather have Thy Will! I do not know the future and I would not, if I might. For Faith to me is better - than faulty human sight. My Times are in Thy Hand Lord - tis restful! It is so - and as I trod the untrod way 'tis quieting to know that My Dear Father up In Heaven doth understand my case! So I can safely trust to Him, ALL - till I see His Face!

The Bible reminds us that Love Never Fails. God is Love. Hope in that, you can most assuredly, trust in God. He is our hope and salvation!

April 07 2020 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Thomas Riccardi Supporter Warrior Spirit

I can give testimony to answer this question. In March of 2014 I needed emergency open heart surgery. I had a 6cm aneurysm that was about to dissect and my aortic valve was bleeding out into my thoracic cavity. The surgeon botched this surgery horribly by putting a defective valve in my heart. I developed a suite of health issues including, veinous insufficiency (my blood was not circulating), the valve caused an infectious sepsis in my blood, I was actually dying, I was given last rites, I developed an auto immune issue called lupus anti coagulant syndrome, I had to take blood thinners for the rest of my life I was told. I kept getting sicker and sicker. Four years passed, and feeling terrible, near death actually. I went to NYU in New York to find out what was wrong. I was told the truth about the valve (which was not told to me by the health team that initially operated on me, nice huh?) I had to have a second open heart surgery immediately or die. I never lost my faith throughout this entire ordeal. 

I traveled to Cleveland and had the operation. I was terribly frightened because a second open heart surgery of this type is very bad, I was being prepped and people were flying around doing this and that and fear gripped me so terribly, I was pretty sure I was not going to make it so I prayed and confessed and asked the Lord for mercy. Then I recalled Second Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

As soon as I claimed this promise my fear was gone! When we are born, we each receive a measure of faith and if you recall, Jesus said in Luke 17:6 Jesus replied: If you had faith no bigger than a tiny mustard seed, you could tell this mulberry tree to pull itself up, roots and all, and to plant itself in the ocean. And it would! I was not only saved by his Grace but the auto immune disease I developed, which I was told never goes away and would have it for life is now gone! No more blood thinners :) yay!

So all that being said, use the power of the faith God has given you, BELIEVE without wavering as spoken in James 1:6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind....and any hopeless situation will soon have nothing BUT hope! I pray the Lord strengthens you and opens your heart to him fully. God bless and keep you always :)

April 10 2020 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report