I just love a good book! Especially when it offers encouragement and helps me draw closer to God. The first book I read this year was My One Word: Change Your Life With Just One Word, by Mike Ashcraft and Rachel Olsen. The "My One Word" project is something that Ashcraft has been doing at his church for several years. The concept is quite simple: do something for the year about just one thing - instead of nothing about everything. So, my homework assignment was to choose just one word that represents what I want God to do in my life and in my heart, then focus on it for an entire year. So, to start 2015, I chose the word HOPE. (I figured it was the perfect choice, since 2014 ended in a puddle of hopelessness).I'm amazed at how many scriptures there are about hope. There are nearly 200! My key verse is Psalm 33:22: "Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone."
Every time I pick up my Bible, I come across more and more words filled with hope. When I start to wonder why I should even get out of bed - "what's the point of all this anyway?" - I'm encouraged to press on to reach the end of the race, to receive that heavenly prize for which God, through Christ, is calling me (Phil 3:13-14).
I need that reminder because many days I'm just plain exhausted. I know I'm not alone. Several of my friends are hanging on by an emotional thread and ready to fall into the abyss any minute. It's the curse of menopause, and the curse of Adam. "All your life you will struggle to scratch a living...[the ground] will grow thorns and thistles for you...by the sweat of your brow ..." Yeah. Thanks a lot, Adam. We've all been working for so many years, and we're dang tired. We need to see a ray of light at the end of the tunnel (is retirement ANYWHERE in sight?).
But, then I'm reminded. I can't put my hope in anything but God. Not my husband, my kids, my bank account, my job, my future retirement, my health, my friends, my house ... it's all just quicksand. So, repeat after me: God, alone, is my refuge and my hope. Amen
