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12/5/2025 0 Comments Day SevenAnyone who has gardened, and many who have not, have heard this warning “ Don’t dig up your seed to see if it is growing!”. Yet how many little ( or bigger ) hands have done just this? I know I have! I will plant my garlic every fall and then wait ... and wait for the garlic to poke its bright, green, grass-like blades out of the ground, promising me that something is happening below the surface. I have been known to dig up a sacrificial bulb to check.
If only I trusted the process more. “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you to you” Mat 6:33 This verse refers to our needs, what we will wear, what we will eat, and where we will sleep. And in case we think God is only interested in providing for our needs, Jesus tells us that that our heavenly Father will also give good gifts to His children. Even better than the gifts we could give to our own children. Gifts are not needs! If only we trusted the process more. And that trust comes from spending time with the Father, learning how much better His ways are than our own and being willing to lay down our own agenda. To listen to the master gardener, our Lord and Father, and not pull up the plant to see if it is growing. So hard to do! To wait after expressing our need and not grab control, and to submit to His process, acting when He tells us to act, and tending the soil around the planted seed when He tells us to wait. To not take over, out of impatience or fear, and allow God to move in His time... His way. When we do this repeatedly, our trust grows, waiting actively by listening to the Father, engaging when and how He says, moving with our Father and following His lead. This is the speed and rhythm where true peace can grow, out of a growing trust in our Father who knows more than we do, who gives good gifts because He is a good Father. Walking behind Him in His footsteps we learn we can follow His lead, learning He is faithful and worthy of following. That is the beginning of peace. Father, thank you for being faithful and gracious to me, giving me gifts that I have not earned. Help me to trust You in the waiting, resting in peace that Your plans and timing are best.
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12/4/2025 0 Comments Day sixLately I have been struck by the deeper need of humility required to transfer hope in myself to hope in the Lord.
When I believe I can handle things on my own, my position of dependence and hope in the Lord is one that I go to more out of obedience than need. At these times I believe I can handle things on my own, not really believing that God the Father’s best plans for my life are better than my own crafted goals and plans. Sadly, this is pride, to place my own abilities near the same level of the Creator of the universe. It’s not pretty but my confidence in my own plans, to achieve a stress-free, successful life that is full of love and meaning, can be pretty high. Until my plans fail. My job disappears, I or someone I love gets sick, my marriage bottoms out, a family crisis or need becomes all-consuming and my stress mounts, friends move away, a pet or someone I love dies…. the list goes on. Maybe I fail spectacularly at something, or my success gets overlooked, either way, at some point in life I eventually face the hard reality that I am simply not in control of nearly as much as I thought. This place of facing our own inability to achieve a dependable source of love, safety and peace can be incredibly painful! And let’s face it, many of us would spiral down in hopelessness if all we were relying on was our own plans. Except for our heavenly Father, that spiral is very likely. Except for our God. The place of recognizing our own inability is not the end for us, but the beginning! The beginning of hope in our Lord who knows more than we do and has plans to walk with us through everything. It is the beginning of walking in a greater level of humility partnered with hope; a transferring of hope in ourselves to hope in a heavenly Father who does not condemn us but loves us in our weaknesses. Who heals our shame, forgives our failings and tells us that we were never designed to this life alone. That we are designed to be dependant, not independent. And that in Him we can bear so much more fruit than we could on our own. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5 Father, thank You for being patient as You watch me build my own plans without You. Thank You for always loving me when my plans, that I have built without You, disappoint me. Forgive me for trying to do this life without You. You know more than I do, help me to lean on You and follow You closely more closely. 12/3/2025 0 Comments Day fiveWhat does God say about us? These are things to place our hope in!
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11 Now many of us may hear this and immediately stop and object. “But so many of my plans did not work out, things did not happen as I hoped” Yes, our lives can and almost always do contain trouble, to deny that would be living in unreality. But God didn't say our lives would be trouble free, He said He has plans for your life, to bring you a hope and a future, and plans for your welfare. And in case you are feeling cynical, He also says those plans are not for evil! But let’s notice something here, God is saying these are His plans. He is offering His plans, plans He created before we were even born, plans to give us a hope and a future! It is always good to stop and ask our heavenly Father if we are following our own plans, hoping He will come alongside us and support us in our own goals. Or are we following our Father’s plans for our lives? It is so easy to get off track of where God is taking us, and to lose sight of His plans for our lives. Our own plans, formed without God, leave us striving and without rest, often complaining to God why He won’t help us. While all the while He is saying, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Psalm 32:8 Does this mean when we follow God there will be no disappointment or trouble? Not at all! What it does mean, is that His plans have the promise of a hope and future with Him that does not disappoint. A bigger picture and promise that He has given us when we follow Him. We can hope in His plans for us! Father I give You my life again today, I surrender my plans and ideas for Your perfect plans. I give up my good ideas for your better plans. Thank you for loving me so much that You created plans for me to prosper that I can have hope in. Teach me what Your plans are and what this means. I love you Father. 12/2/2025 0 Comments Day fourWhat emotions or thoughts does the word hope evoke within you? Do you settle into a place of peace, joy, or expectancy? Or does the idea of hope bring up feelings of anger? Of disappointment? Of bitterness?
The concept of hope can stir up intense emotions within us or even the opposite reaction of ambivalence, responding with an “I don’t care, it doesn’t matter to me...whatever.” At some point in time in our lives however, even those lives less impacted by trauma or crisis, we have all experienced disappointment of some type. How did we respond to these disappointments? And what do we do with hope now? As we prepare for Christmas and celebrate the hope of a Messiah finally realized in Jesus, take time to tell the Father what you honestly feel when you hear the word hope. Christmas is a season of hope. What does your heart believe concerning hope? It’s okay to share with Him the truth about the condition of your heart, about how you are actually feeling. He already knows, but He wants to hear it from you. But don’t stop there! Preparing our hearts for Christmas involves letting our Father God into our hearts, and hearing His loving words speak to our innermost being, doing the transformative work we cannot do ourselves. So, take some time in a quiet place and share with your heavenly Father your honest thoughts and feelings about hope. Dig into the Bible looking up verse on hope, some are listed below. Then hear what your Heavenly Father would say to you about hope, from His heart to yours, as He meets you where you are at. This is a place where He offers safety and respect for the value of your heart. The Father’s character is always something we can hope in and look forward to meet with. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31 Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1 Father thank you for being a safe place for me to share my feelings and heart with You and always meeting me with love. I chose to renew my mind with Your word and the truth of what You say hope is. Help me to hear Your loving voice as I share with you. 12/1/2025 0 Comments Day ThreeWhat were the magi hoping for as they travelled to find the king they had been studying? They had many desert filled days to think about it. They could have asked for riches, or trade with their countries, or at least a place to stay and food for the camels. They had travelled a long way; didn’t they deserve that? Did they know what to expect? What were they hoping for? What was the point in travelling so far and investing so much time to find Jesus?
“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” Matthew 2:1-2 They wanted to worship Him. They hoped for the opportunity to worship Jesus. That’s all. We have so much more reason to hope than the magi, because we know how the story ends! We know we have an invitation to become a child in God’s family, to learn how to be fathered by a perfect, loving Heavenly Father. We can begin to move from hoping in something, to hoping in the perfect Someone. Can we take a step towards Jesus today? We can enter His presence as His child, coming up to our Father to raise our arms to Him and cry “Daddy!”. Father, create in me a hunger to know You more deeply, to seek Your face more regularly and to respond with a heart of worship more readily. 11/30/2025 0 Comments Day TwoHope and trust intermingle like soil and seeds. I can plant a seed in the ground, but I need the nutrients of the soil to help the seed grow. The soil also holds water and supports the roots of the seed as it begins to sprout and reach for the sun. Take the soil away and the seed is in trouble; it may even die. As we learn to follow Jesus, and hear our heavenly Father’s loving voice, following His plans for our lives, we can begin to learn that God, our Father, is a good loving father. This is choosing to plant that seed of trust into our relationship with Him. By taking that first step towards Him, we begin to relax, a little bit at a time, because His character is faithful, trustworthy and full of love. God will never force us to trust Him. And as we realize He knows more than we do and that He wants to use that knowledge for our own good, our trust begins to grow. Sinking our own roots into His character more and more, our hearts learn that His plans are good and He is a perfect, loving and capable Father. The Father’s character is the soil in which we plant our seed of trust, it is His faithfulness and love that supports us as our trust grows. This is where the beauty of soil and seeds occurs. Because as we grow in trust of the Lord, and this takes time, as all growth does, we begin to relax. We start to trust His process and our heavenly Father’s heart for us, let go of our fear, look ahead.... and hope. Father thank you for being faithful and true! Help me to take a step towards you today, teach me to hear your voice as I read your word and spend time with You. I invite you into my decisions today Father, teach me to follow you. 11/29/2025 0 Comments Day OneIt is a powerful choice to decide what we will put our hope in. Have you ever hoped in someone or something and been let down? It is a very real truth that hope differed makes the heart sick. Disappointment can be heartbreaking, causing us to close off our hearts rather than be disappointed again. Trust is hard to restore, and trust is needed for hope to grow.
So, what should we put our hope in, what or who is worthy of our complete trust? We can have all the success or money in the world and still suffer from anxiety and loneliness. People, including ourselves if we are honest, are imperfect, incapable of bearing the burden of being completely trustworthy. Wealthy homes still house unhealthy marriages, and parents with successful careers still grieve over children who struggle. What can we put our hope in that will not disappoint? Ourselves? How lonely and exhausting it is to only trust yourself; your entire life is a lot to carry on your own. What do we do? Enter Jesus, and His invitation to be part of God’s family. Jesus, who offers a way to come close to His Father, the Creator of the universe. who wants to call us HIs children and who gives us the right to call Him Father. A heavenly Father who promises to never leave us, who is infinitely capable of handling everything we deal with, and whose love is surer and more dependable than a sunrise. The benefit? As we move more towards a relationship with the Father, our hearts begin to trust and hope in the Father to intervene in our lives, and to desire for His love to take root in our hearts. Why? Because we have begun to learn who He is and have taken the first step in the the journey of learning to trust Him. If you haven’t accepted Jesus’s invitation to become part of God’s family, and His invitation to follow Him, this is good news! You don’t have to live life alone; there is a safe, loving, heavenly Father waiting to do life with you! If you have already decided to become part of God’s family, when was the last time you came to the Father with your heart, and spent time with Him, raw and real, crying “Daddy!”, sharing with Him your current fears, hopes and stressors? It is in this place that our hearts can begin to move from fear and distrust to learning that our heavenly Father is capable, trustworthy, loving, and faithful. Learning this takes time, and it begins with the simple yet powerful acceptance of who Jesus is, the Son of God, who died for everything we could ever do wrong, so we could come to God, as our heavenly Father and cry “ Daddy, here I am!”. Scripture tells us that hope in the Lord does not disappoint, because of His love for us, poured out into our hearts. "And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us" Romans 5:5 Everything else is an added blessing, because He is a good Father, who does not abandon His children. We can put our hope in Him, HIs love and His perfect Fathering. Take some time today and share with God, your heavenly Father your current thoughts and feelings, questions and concerns. He wants to do this life with you! |
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