Living in Hope and the Perfect Parking Spot

When was the last time you broke down? What? Did I just ask that? How can I ask you for such information. Maybe because most of us post our most intimate details on Facebook, but then when I ask the same question face to face in a coffee shop, the floodgates drop! It's pretty easy to receive this question when you're looking at your laptop screen, but it won't hurt my feelings if I don't see any stories in my comment box. It's not an easy question to give an open answer to. Most of us would rather not talk about when we were most vulnerable. Who wants to reveal our ""weakness""?
       "Did you see the double apostrophe there? I wanted you to visualize me doing very obvious apostrophe fingers".

I was driving around with some family one Saturday and we were talking about what has been going on with my life. A lot of revolved around usual small talk and the obvious questions you usually ask someone you haven't seen for a couple weeks, until we came to one specific topic. This conversation had a lot of questions that went along with it.

How is that going now?
Where have you been looking?
Has anyone called you back?
What do you want to do?
When are you going to get a girlfriend? (okay, this question I made up, but the question has started to come up more often now that my get married at 27 timeline has long expired, whoops!)

I didn't have an answer for a lot of these questions. Which is where the breakdown occurred. Wait, let me back up. There was one more thing that happened just after the question firing squad. My mom turned to me and said "Everything will work out". To that I responded "I Hope so." It was just after this that as I walked back to my apartment, walking through the outdoor hallways towards my mailbox that I..broke..down.

"Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior, and my hope is in you all day long" Psalm 25:5

The Bible makes a beautiful translation for the word hope and i'm just going to go ahead and give the two that we most hear about- the Greek and the Hebrew

Greek- the expectation of what is SURE
Hebrew- to lie in wait for, or to BIND

I really do love these expressions of hope because they reach so much deeper than what I think the world see's the inward and outward expression of hope. A lot of times I will hear people say, "Man I hope I get that new job" or "I hope that I get a good parking spot at the grocery store" or even "I hope that that guy at the club calls me".
   (With the last one, ladies. there are many reasons why he won't call you, but don't take it personally. You're beautiful.)

But I think that hope is a term that we use when the circumstances in our life are going well and even if a few little things don't go the way we "hope" they would go, it is only when those circumstances start crashing down and the things we really hope for pass us by, that incredible gift just..vanishes.

Of course this happens to the best of us, right? That moment when all uncertainty, the shadow of doubt just crashes on us and the feeling of hopelessness when thousands of question marks just overflow our hearts. If Jesus has made a home in our heart, do you think He is welcoming the enemy in for coffee every now and again? The realization is there that there is a difference between having hope and living with hope. Just saying you have hope in any given hope is fleeting and melts away from the moment the words leave your mouth.

Having hope- is an optimistic notion
                     is accepting that the worst can happen
                     is giving doubt a voice
                     is letting that doubt tell you that the worst is bound to happen

Living in hope- is a faithful notion
                    is accepting Jesus will help you overcome the worst
                    is silencing the voice of doubt
                    and is an eternal outlook that Binds us to the love of God and
                    is an expectation of God's promises to bless us and mold us for our better.

"For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have Hope" Romans 15:4

and

"May the God of Hope fill you with all Joy and Peace as you trust in Him, so that you may OVERFLOW with Hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" Romans 15:13 

and finally

 "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the Hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his Holy people." Ephesians 1:18 


So guess what? I am now proud to announce that I am now in a serious relationship. Just kidding. :-) I am still on the look out in that department. But I will say that God gave me a big "Are you kidding me" on the patio of my apartment that day. It was as clear as day too. He asked me flat out, "When have I ever not been there for you?" "When have I not been for you?" The simple truth is, is that when we lose hope, it is not because of an inconsistent track record. If we were keeping score with God, he would already be millions of points ahead of us, solely on sacrifice alone.

We should walk up hope because we have a merciful God that SURE of how he created us. We should have hope because we have a loving God who lying in waiting to join Him in eternity. And finally, we have a God that is expecting to help us overcome the good and the bad, the voice of doubt in our ears and in love bound himself to our eternity through his Son. Do you think you have every reason to hope now? And it's not so much the things we see that we can hope for, but we live hope that no matter what the circumstance, we are being taken care of. We are being nurtured and grown to a beautiful image of completion.

I pray that the eyes of your heart will be opened so that you may have hope. That you may have hope in the purpose God has for you and that that purpose is for no better word, Glorious.

I hope you all have a great Friday and weekend and please, I encourage you to comment on any praises or prayer requests you may have, whether this is an unsure part of your life or if God has shed some light on where you're going. Thank you so much for taking the time to read along and I hope to hear from you all soon.

Grayson

Where to?

So...with Valentines Day just around the corner, I want to talk about anything BUT Valentines Day. I'm single. Do you think anyone wants to hear about how much money I am not spending this Friday. I'm just kidding ya know. I am guilty just as much as the next person of showering my significant other with love and generosity a little more than usual on this day, but as God has so eloquently told me, I am not ready for the love of my life yet. I am NOT ready for a relationship other than the relationship that I have with Him. He tells me, focus on the work I am doing in you first. Talk to me and lean on me and then maybe we will talk about adding a #3.

I'll be up front and honest, for a few months I was constantly asking God, where is she? I wonder if any of us have ever caught ourselves asking God when He is going to bless us. When are you going to give me what I so deserve? Did you see how I paid for my friends lunch the other day? Did you see how much I raised my hands in church last Sunday?

When did we ever deserve anything at all from God?

I am actually writing this entire post on the fly so Praise God for letting my words flow without hesitation.

"The Lord looks down from Heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

Pretty bleak huh? But let me show you what happens next

"Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord RESTORES his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad" - Psalm 14:2-3 and Psalm 14:7.

Over this long period of time, I went through three stages of prayer.

1. Wants

I noticed that a lot of my prayers sounded like a letter I would write to Santa Clause. It started as you would expect with a "Dear God" and then went down the list of things I was having trouble with, what I wanted out of my life and asking God to fulfill those things in my life. During this whole wish list process, we forget that God already has given or plans to give the gifts that we need to give the most glory to Him. To give the most to our part of the Body of Christ. Whether it has been already given (spiritual gifts) or is yet to be given (blessings), God gives even though we will never deserve it and he will bless us when he are most reliant on His grace.

2. Ill-Deserving

The next stage is when we have the realization that we do not deserve anything that we are asking for from God. I was sitting on my couch in mid-prayer a few months ago when something inside me just told me to stop talking. It wasn't like He was asking me to stop asking, but it was just a request to be quiet. Just be still and know that I am God. I was missing the point. If I was ever able to deserve the gifts God has already given me, love would have a price tag. It wouldn't be real. I remember sitting there in my living room. It was a warm feeling that told me that I would always be taken care of, but not by my own request. God calls our name first, not the other way around and as he molds us and shapes us, the clay does not second guess the creator. The pot does not wonder why He was being made in such a way.


3. Peace

I went back to my old job this week after being in a different department for close to a year. I won't go into the details but if I could sum up what has been going on at my office the past couple days, it would be "Total Utter Disaster." People were being laid off left and right or leaving for other opportunities and me and a select few were being allowed to stay to walk over the mess.

I want to take a moment to put a focus on the tangible presence of God. Some of you who are reading this may be thinking that prayer is mostly a gamble or maybe it's nothing at all. I am just some illogical spiritualist who spends his time talking to the wall. To be honest, I hope you're reading this, because there would be greater joy for me than for you to have an encounter with God. It would be my greatest joy for you to feel His love in a tangible way that you would feel a peace that engulfs you and no matter what is happening, no matter how unsure you are about what is coming in the next week, next month or next twenty years that you know that you are renewed and cared for. I don't know what is going to happen in the next few months. All I know is that I am loved by my Father who gives without expectation and will walk with me through all toils and snares.

Trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and please...do not lean on your own understanding. Acknowledge that He listens and that He gives and that strengthens and restores and I promise you that He will take your path, no matter how much it knocks you down or discourages you, hold tight to the promise that He will keep those paths straight.

I hope ya'll are having a blessed Monday and that this week will be a blessed on. Stay Dry Dallas