So, realizing that I just need to be me--drinking coffee and at my computer in my P.J.s--I'll just write out what is on my heart today; everyone needs hope and I'm so thankful that I have that in Jesus. He redeems everyday of my life, giving me hope and purpose.
Okay--no joke--my keyboard died immediately after I wrote that last sentence! (I think this is confirmation I'm on the right track. Just sayin'...) With new batteries in place, I will continue on.
Life is full of heartache, uncertainties, betrayals, hardships. We have all experienced some or all of these and I don't know of anyone who escapes them. That is why we need hope, otherwise how could any of us make it through this life? I know I couldn't. Everything comes up disappointing and lacking. Even the most indulgent thing one can imagine ends up disappointing and falling short.
I work for a major weight loss corporation. Each week I engage with several hundred people as I lead meetings that are designed to educate and inspire attendees to reach their weight-loss goals and change old habits to build a healthier lifestyle. It is not uncommon to have times of one-on-one consultation with an attendee who says they are "stuck" or have "fallen off the wagon". Often, during these conversations with a member, they voice frustration and/or disappointment and are seeking that 'one thing' they can do that will change things for them. More times than not, as we talk, I discover that their trials are not really about their weight, but about life 'stuff''. I can see despair, sorrow, sadness in their eyes and a longing so deep for something to soothe the hurt and fill the void--one that they have tried to fill with food--that has, in the end, come up unsatisfying and even more so, left them frustrated and empty.
I know of only one thing--one person-- that can fill that void and give meaning and purpose and it is a relationship with Jesus. I mean just that; relationship. It isn't achieved through a series of religious rituals and practices or attending church every Sunday or at the very least at Christmas and Easter; it most certainly isn't about getting your life straightened out before you are ready for Jesus or being a 'good' person; but, it is about trusting and believing that Jesus truly is the only hope we have and receiving his gift of salvation and coming to Him with our need and our messy life.
When I was a child I "asked Jesus into my heart" so I would go to Heaven when I died. As I have aged and matured in my faith, I have grown in my understanding that Jesus not only payed the price for all of my sin, but also the reality that He gives everyday, every situation, hope and 'possibilities'. He is the only one who can make sense of the non-sense in the world and in my life. He is the only one that can really change things that I am powerless to change. He is the One who can bring peace to a situation--even if it never changes-- where it seems there should be no peace.
All of this takes faith. Each of us (if we're honest with ourselves) are looking for that 'one thing' that will fill the void in life and have probably tried every other substance or activity to fill it: food, alcohol, drugs, anger, bitterness, sex, shopping, exercise and on and on--and find ourselves left wanting more to be satisfied.
So, let me pose this question--one that I have used in the weight loss world; What do you have to lose? But really more than that, what will you gain if you "taste and see" that He is good and satisfying?*
Just a side note--I love the Bible app on my phone. I always have it with me and can use it in multiple ways. The link is here just in case it will be of help to you! https://www.youversion.com/
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*Psalms 34:8 (Amplified Bible)
O taste and see that the Lord [our God] is good! Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who trusts and takes refuge in Him.
Lamentations 3: 22-25 (Amplified Bible)
It is because of the Lord’s mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not.
They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion or share, says my living being (my inner self); therefore will I hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him.
The Lord is good to those who wait hopefully and expectantly for Him, to those who seek Him [inquire of and for Him and require Him by right of necessity and on the authority of God’s word].
