Hope Victorious

  Prayer is communication with God. We pray to God because we believe that He hears our prayers and cares about them. Communication with God is based on faith and trust. Our faith gives us access to what we believe is available to us in God. We trust in His love and willingness to act on our prayers. When we talk about prayer, more often than not, we speak of people praying to God; talking to Him with faith that He listens, cares and will respond in some way. But prayer also includes listening. We believe that prayer is a dialogue and that we can also hear God’s voice speaking to us. Prayer, as it is most frequently talked about, is a human activity. But there are scriptures that show that prayer is part of God’s activity as well. God prays?!   Why? To whom? In Romans chapter 8, Paul speaks of how the Holy Spirit helps us when we do not know how to pray. Paul says in verse 26 that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. The Holy Spirit prays for you and I?! In the second part o...

  The most common definition of faith is quoted from Hebrews 11. Verse one defines faith in this way: “ Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is real, it is a substance! I think of it like this; faith is what you have while you wait for what you are having faith for. We hope for things, pray for things and wait for them to be realized. When we are still hoping and waiting, faith is what we have. We believe that the answer is coming. That believing, is faith. Faith holds the place. Once the answer comes, faith is no longer needed. My husband and I dealt with unexplained infertility for 5 years before we got pregnant with our first son. We had waited several years after we got married to start trying to get pregnant, then when we wanted to have a baby, we couldn’t! Without getting into the details of that difficult and complex time, I’ll just use it as an example of faith. We both believed that we had a promise from God that He would ...

          Unknowns shout Questions taunt me Like you, I have felt the looming darkness Fears pursue Disappointments pile around me Where can I go from here?   Facing faith, I too hear the demand What if it isn’t true? My doubts have made themselves so loud My unbelief demands my faith to answer   When did my faith become so quiet? Where has my boldness gone?   I confess my disappointment I repent of my unbelief But then I run as hard and fast as I can Straight into hope Anything is possible with God I may not understand There is much I surely don’t But I have seen enough to be convinced I am not deciding I have already decided   I have weathered disappointment Crying out my sorrow and confusion My questions and doubts nearly tore me in two But there beneath them was a remnant of faith Small and tenuous - far from perfect Perhaps it is not enough…   But how it grew – The day I stood and shouted “I have already decided!” I will not wait...

  Don’t wait for perfect conditions.            One house that Phil and I rented had no room for a garden, but I wanted to grow some vegetables. I had time and energy to tend a garden, but no open space. We did have a big concrete patio that was in full sun most of the day. So I bought a couple of big plastic baby pools, drilled holes in the bottom, and set them on wood slats to provide air space and drainage. My birthday is in the early spring. We had a bunch of friends over and I asked for bags of potting soil as my birthday gift. Once they were filled with dirt, my baby pools were perfect for planting. I built a climbing triangle in the center of one for green beans and grew zucchini plants around it. The other pool was full of tomato and cucumber plants. My in-laws gave me a redwood planter with herbs to plant, and my patio garden was complete. The plants growing on all that concrete made a difference in the temperature and feel of our yard an...