Hope

God arrives when all seems hopeless because it is then, in that moment, that His purpose becomes a miracle that can not be explained away.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

1 Thessalonians 1:3 We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 40:31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

1 Peter 3:15 - ... Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have...

By the word of our testimony...

Revelation 12:11

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony;

they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

Skeptics may debate the validity of Scripture or argue the existence of God, but no one can deny your personal experiences with him. When you tell your story of how God has worked a miracle in your life, or how he has blessed you, transformed you, lifted and encouraged you, perhaps even broken and healed you, no one can argue or debate it. You go beyond the realm of knowledge into the realm of relationship with God (christianity.about.com/od/testimonies/a/howtotestimony.htm).

Every day is unique and different but yet looking back they all seem to blend together, life becomes a blur, and before we know it time passes us by and we quickly forget the journey that took place to get us to where we are.

Just recently I have witnessed God’s hand in my life, His grace, blessings, providence, and purpose. Some days I have felt him so close that I was consumed by His presence, in awe of His glory; and then there are other days where I am consumed by worry, anxiety, and my own earthly desires. We all have a doubting Thomas within us, how quickly we forget and how quickly we allow God’s awesomeness to be overshadowed by our fears of earthly defeat.

Civilizations build statues to commemorate significant moments in history, time capsules are accumulated to show generations to come what was once important, documentaries are made to tell of one’s life and accomplishments, and books are written in hopes of capturing feelings and emotions that will one day describe to an audience what was felt, seen, and heard.

We are a nation that is quick to forget, a nation that relies on these statues, capsules, documentaries, and books to remind us of where we once were, how far we’ve come, what sacrifices were once made, and what examples we can use from the experiences before us.

We rely on scriptures to enforce the values that we experience today, we use the words of men and women, inspired by God, to draw encouragement and hope from. How many times do we search for articles or messages from others of faith to help us along in our journey? We all possess the ability to encourage, to give hope, and to enforce God’s presence among us because God is at work in all of us. He is not just the God of ancient history, but a God that is so evident and working in His creation today that each one of us can write a testimony proving the existence of God and the unique experiences we have encountered in developing a personal relationship with Him. We can not only encourage those who will one day read our testimony to draw encouragement from, but we can also remind ourselves again and again of God’s faithfulness in our lives, His divine design for us and that He is continually working within us.

How quickly we can forget, how often we need reminded, but each one of us posses the proof that God is at work in each of us. We all have a testimony and it is with that testimony that we can overcome.

In the hands of the potter...

I went and had the opportunity to watch a man shape and create pottery. He sat behind his spinning wheel, with the clay spinning round and round, and his hand the only instrument in shaping and creating his vessel of choice. He made it seem easy as he gently added pressure and took away pressure in creating just the right shape, thickness, and functionality to this piece of pottery. He took out a measuring device to make sure that the thickness of the pot was just right, but after so many years of creating these vessels, he knew by sight what was right. It seemed to take no time at all to see this pot take shape, and to see it from start to finish beginning as a simple lump of clay and ending as a piece ready to be of function.

This of course brought to mind the scriptures where God is the potter and we are the clay. Such a simple analogy but yet deep in its application and thought provoking lessons.

Isaiah 64:8
Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Romans 9:20-21
But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

Jeremiah 18:5-6
Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as the potter does?” declares the LORD. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.”

Clay is an inadament object, it does not have free-will, and it does not have emotions or physical abilities to move on its own. It’s fun to watch the potter at work because he has complete control of the clay. It is the potter’s own will and his own physical ability to shape the clay and the clay is formed by his complete control.

We are the clay but we have free-will, we have the ability to wiggle, to move, to resist the potter’s shaping. God often has us on the wheel, He has his hands on us, shaping us, forming us, creating us to be something of beauty and of use. We always want to move, always want to get off of His wheel, trying to avoid His hands. Our movements create weakness within the clay, His perfect shaping is made weak not by his own hands but by our desire to move away from his shaping. Like any good potter, he then has to start over because the integrity of the entire vessel is compromised by weakness in one area of the vessel.

How many times do we disrupt the beauty of the potter, the awe of His creativity by compromising His work and by making him begin anew in breaking us down, re-forming us and then re-shaping us. How patient is he that he does not just throw us aside and begin working on a new lump of clay, one that is more cooperative and willing to be shaped and formed. It is my own weakness that often creates the delays in life that I see as struggles but it is God’s patience and creativity that continually re-shapes me, strengthens me, and works within me to begin again and again stronger than the time before.