The Day After!

Hello Ladies,

I just wanted to see how you are doing today.

The kids are home from school again today so we are enjoying a quiet day around the house. Doing some cleaning and organizing of things that have been left undone while we were in the midst of some special activities in the last few weeks.

I feel the analogy in my own life today as I am sorting and organizing my thoughts concerning the next step in my walk with God. I was reading from Hebrews 11 this morning. My plan was to read the entire chapter - I did eventually but was stopped immediately to meditate on verse 1. This is a verse that has been set before me for the past year. Even still it penetrated deeply as I realized that if I do not have this verse in front of me, my next steps will be shaky. I desperately want to keep moving, to know and acknowledge the goodness of God, to continue being intentional in my obedience to God.

Hebrews 11:1 NIV says:

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

I spent time looking through the chapter searching for what the ancients were commended for. What is it that kept them hoping believing and obeying even though they couldn't see it nor was it fulfilled in their lifetime. What made them live beyond themselves? It reminds me of that line - dot thing that Dave was talking about on Sunday. We are not just existing so that our dot will be highlighted - we are part of a larger plan. Our Christianity is lived out in our interactions with others. The Message says it this way;

their faith and our faith would come together to make one complete whole, their lives of faith not completed apart from ours. Hebrews 11:40.

What was it that kept these ancients certain of what they hoped for? What made them walk with God, build an ark, condemn the ways of the world, be obedient, turn away from the treasures of the world around them? They hoped to please God, to seek Him to save their family, to receive an inheritance, look ahead to their reward, to long for a city with foundations, whose builder is God, to receive the promise from God.

What do I hope for? What is the promise that God has placed before me for my life that will keep me going? That will help me decide not if but how I am going to live my life for Him in community?

My thoughts returned to the video session last night. A word that was spoken that was so powerful was that there is no other Saviour than Jesus.

What do I hope for?

In a word -

Jesus.

I continue to pray Philippians 3:10 (Amplified version) to be the hope I am fixed upon and the reason I bow before my Saviour and the reason I so no to other things that entice.

For my determined purpose is that I may know Him, that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly.