Helllooooooo, blogging world! Man, it’s been a while!
I’ll be honest, it feels great to get back to writing. I have a ton of friends and family that think I should devote all my time to writing, but man do I have much less time now!
I wanted to touch on an interesting topic that I’ve been thinking about recently, and I didn’t realize how relevant it was until I really started thinking about it.
Today I want to talk about HOPE.
I’m listening to a cool podcast by Jennie Allen right now called “Made for This”. The very first series in it is about relationships and how to make friends, and I found it incredibly relevant with COVID preventing us from spending time with one another like we normally do!
The first couple episodes touched on our intentions for friendships, and Jennie reminds her listeners that relationships aren’t about us. They’re actually about serving and loving others.
I don’t know about you, but I genuinely never thought of it that way before. I think it’s so easy to think and believe that friendships are about creating bonds that serve us and help US grow, but in reality, that’s not what the Bible describes them as.
Take a look at Philippians (the book Made for This is going through). Paul is writing from jail, where he is ultimately going to stay until his death. He prays for the people he is impacting and expresses how thankful he is to have them because he is thankful both for their love and to be able to cherish them as people!
Jennie goes on to talk about how we put our hope in other people and every single time, we are ultimately disappointed.
Why is that?
Because we weren’t designed to lean on others for support. We weren’t meant to put our hope in things other than God.
Friends, if you don’t get anything else from this post, read this:
God is our hope.
And you know what hope depends on?
God.
Not us.
God.
Not our efforts and how much we can hold on to hope.
It’s up to God.
Do yourself a favor and listen to the song “You Keep Hope Alive” by Jon Reddick and Mandisa. The chorus goes like this:
You keep hope alive, You keep hope alive
From the beginning to end, Your word never fails
You keep hope alive, because You are alive
Jesus, You are alive
God keeps hope alive because JESUS IS ALIVE. Not because we stick to our faith perfectly, or depend on Him perfectly.
We don’t have to depend on ourselves to stay hopeful. The more we spend time in God’s Word, praying, and simply spending time with Him, the more we will see hope.
In the middle of COVID, hope can be really difficult to find. Thank God we don’t have to find it in this world.
making mustard seeds 