I see hope in the "pits" of life.

Thought of the day: fasting hopelessness 

I see hope in the "pits" of life.

"So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. 24 And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it." 

Genesis 37:23-24

I have been studying the story of Joseph, on and off, for the past 2 years. 

During this time I have also been running into a reoccurring theme of :"love God, love others."

Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself."

Matthew 22:37-39

I was not sure why these two themes kept presenting themselves to me ... until this past week.

 In the beginning of the story of Joseph, we see his brothers ,who hated him, throw him into a pit. They wanted him dead because he was a dreamer and he was his father's favorite. God had given him a dream that one day he would reign over his father and brothers. When he shared this dream with his family, he ended up on a path that led to pits of slavery and prison. 

Lets just say this did not look very promising. He spent the next 13 years in captivity wondering if his God dream would ever come true. He suffered greatly in the pit, but he also must have hoped greatly too. I believe the pit was a place where God prepared him for his dream. 

His pit was his school. 

In the pit he learned all the skills he would need to reign. I think he also learned in the pit to love God so he could love others. Which by the way is the greatest of all the commandments. 

He made the pit a place where he learned to lean on God. It was a place where God filled his hollow broken heart with love so he could some day love "the others" who tried to kill him.

Could our pits be a place where we learn to do what Jesus said was most important? A place where we learn to love God with all our heart, soul and mind so that we can love our neighbor as our self.

While we lean on God in our pit, His perfect love restores our hearts. It is a journey where the heart goes from hollow to whole. When your heart is whole with Gods love it will overflow to others. 

The pit restored Josephs heart to be able to say to the brothers  who hated him, "do not fear , I will take care of you".

  "Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid. Do I act for God? Don’t you see, you planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good, as you see all around you right now—life for many people. Easy now, you have nothing to fear; I’ll take care of you and your children.” He reassured them, speaking with them heart-to-heart." 

Genesis 50:19-21

My hope is: I have a Savior

Thought of the day: fasting hopelessness 

My hope is: I have a Savior; I'm not mine or anyone else's savior.

Have you thought?

1. I've got to fix this.

2. This is my fault, so I will fix this.

3. I feel so bad for them so I will fix them.

The burden we feel to fix ourselves or fix others can be overwhelming. I believe that we can get in the way of how God wants to deal with us by thinking we can do the fixing on our own. Truth is God will allow us to choose “our will” over “His will”. That is what makes Him a loving God. He will never make us choose Him or His will. We must see that our need to fix is really our way of taking on the role of "Savior". When we do this we eventually become overwhelmed and worn out. Not a bad place to be if you turn to the true Savior, Jesus Christ and confess you've stepped in His place. Then confess your need “to fix” and ask Him to take the place of the fixer, healer, deliverer. Our obedience in this area is foundational to hope. It ushers in rest for you "the fixer" and builds trust that God's heart is best. Remember, God knows this is a process. It’s all about recognizing good and evil, real and false.

"There could be no true obedience from the heart unless there was the freedom to disobey"-Rick Joyner

Being Obedient by allowing God to be God is hard! Especially when someone we love hurts for a long period of time. We must remember that our job is to encourage and pray. To be an example of God’s healing and delivering power. To know and trust that we have prayed and placed that person in God’s hands. And to realize that sometimes all we can offer is a hug and the simple words of hope "This is a season and it will pass." You can believe it because it’s proven to be true in my own life. God saved me and He will save you!

The hope we hang onto is if we do our job God can do His Job.

Jesus is our vision of hope

Thought of the day: fasting hopelessness 

Jesus is our vision of hope

The cross before Jesus represented death. Our view was one dimensional . We could only see the power it had to steal, kill and destroy. 

But

The cross after Jesus represents power over death. Our view is now multidimensional. Now we see the power it has to restore, resurrect and renew. 

We see so simply that anything can change after an encounter with Jesus. He changed our view of their electric chair from gruesome to glorious. 

"it is finished" were three words spoken by our savior that changed our view of the cross forever. They opened the door to hope. 

He encountered our worst fear, death, and said to it- enough! 

Our hope is He had and still has the final word to our gruesome circumstances. Our hope trusts that His encounter with them will restore, resurrect and renew 

Believe that in our encounter with Jesus He will say, enough, I have come to give you life!

Hope forgives

Thought for the day; fasting hopelessness 

Hope forgives because forgiveness always ushers in new life. 

I'm so glad that hope see's past sin, confusion, heartbreak and my broken way of seeing things.

"Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.” Dividing up his clothes, they threw dice for them. The people stood there staring at Jesus, and the ringleaders made face...s, taunting, “He saved others. Let’s see him save himself! The Messiah of God—ha! The Chosen—ha!”

Luke 23:34 MSG 

How hopeful! That our Father would see past His own heartbreak to pray forgiveness for those who were putting Him to death. You know what I think He saw when He looked down from the cross as He died? I think He saw the hearts of His Fathers children losing hope. I believe that somewhere deep in their hearts they wanted Him to be God in that moment. I think they wanted to see the power of an almighty powerful God come and save His son. Their hope was dying right before their eyes and Jesus knew it. His prayer was for them to not make agreements with their hopelessness in the deep pit of heartbreak. 

Truth is Gods ways are different than our ways. New life always comes after old life (the worlds ways). And it all begins with forgiveness . We must learn to see through His eyes, His heart. Our Hope was born the day Jesus died on the cross. 

Our hope is secure because Jesus forgives.

Hope focuses on joy.

Thought of the day: fasting hopelessness 

Hope focuses on joy. The joy of The Lord is our strength. 

Don't allow your circumstance to shape your belief in God.

Allow your belief (His word) to shape your circumstance.

Hope keeps its eyes on the joy set before to overcome present circumstances. Jesus was able to endure dying on a cross by focusing on the joy of conquering death. 

The more we know... Him, the more we love Him, the more we trust Him.

Truth: God loves me. He is always with me and has great plans for me.

"We must focus on Jesus, the source and goal of our faith. He saw the joy ahead of him, so he endured death on the cross and ignored the disgrace it brought him. Then he received the highest position in heaven, the one next to the throne of God."

Hebrews 12:2

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)

Hope is trust in Gods perfect outcome.

Thought of the day: fasting hopelessness 

How can we hope in trust when bad things happen to good people?

We trust in a Sovereign God. 

He has supreme power and authority. Nothing happens in our lives without passing through the loving hands of God. I know this truth is hard to believe. I have wrestled with it for 8 years. The night before my son's funer...al, was the first time I heard someone say to me, "God is Sovereign". A big word for my grief filled mind and heart to understand, but it's what I needed to navigate my way through grief. I needed a God bigger and stronger than my circumstances that day. I needed a God that gave me hope that the world could not offer. The night my son died here on earth was also the night he was born back into heaven. He went home, the home where I HOPE with confident expectation to one day be reunited with his precious embrace. 

Yes , bad things happen. I honestly believe He does not cause them but He is the answer to them. The hope He gave to me as I gave Him my grief was peace and joy. I am surprised and thankful for the lack of bitterness and resentment in my life. 

A truth I held on to was Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD. They are plans for good and not disaster- to give you a future and a hope"-Jeremiah 29:11

His plans always lead us from our bondage to His freedom. So my trusting hope is always rooted in His love that works all things for good.

Hope requires us to choose.

Thought of the day: fasting hopelessness 

Hope requires us to choose. 

When I pray for hope in exchange for my worries my desire to obtain Gods help for an outcome MUST be rooted in the Character of Gods Spirit. 

If they are not rooted in Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control ...I pray that God would change my desire and re-root them. 

This is... the process of active faith - transform your mind to see suffering as a producer of the ability to endure and obtain character that hopes in Gods love to work all things for good.

Steps to walk it out:

Is our hope motivated/rooted by our flesh (evil) or Gods Spirit?

Hope - a desire motivated by our character.

Our character - a set of characteristics that make up who we are, they define us a person.

Characteristics of Gods Spirit - Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control . 

Our Character - the qualities (gifts) we receive as we Endure our suffering. 

Endurance- ability received as we experience our suffering.

"We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."- Romans 5:3-

Additional thought for today's fast of hopelessness

Is the suffering I'm enduring producing/making me lean upon :love,joy,peace,patience,kindness,goodness,faithfulness or self control?

Check your fruit, if you feel bitterness, anger or resentment ask God to help you work your way through those feelings and to transform them into the fruits of the spirit.