A Moment of Encouragement

Emotions can become so intense and overwhelming that you will feel pulled undertow by the sheer weight of them. Sadness covers you, fear tracks your every step, frustration pushes against you, stress seems to smother you. You feel surrounded, backed into a corner. Your fight or flight response kicks in like wounded prey. No matter that, nothing appears to have changed, or maybe because nothing seems to have changed. Whatever the impetus, you feel the rhythm of your heart uptick as you paddle against the waves of hopelessness. Desperate to seek an intravenous injection of hope. You turn your head away from the world, and you go chasing after that feeling of relief, assuredness, security. Desperate to find respite from the noise of everyday life.

The Hebrew word for hope 'batah' has the meaning of confidence, security, and being without care; not the blasé unsure "I sure hope so" that we have come to toss out when we are tentative and unable to believe. One of the most famous scriptures known to believers and non,

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1)

This verse shapes the formula for Christian hope and its necessary relationship to faith. When we know that our hope is birthed and secure in the confidence that comes when we have faith, certainty and no doubt, that God is watching over His Word, alert and attentive to perform it (Jeremiah 1:12) we fall victim to feelings of hopelessness less easily. Because we know that God has promised, "So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. For you will go out with joy And be led forth with peace: The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands." (Isaiah 55:11-12) our hope has firm roots in the promises of God. Therefore hope is not an emotion or a feeling to be sought after. It is our reality. It is grounded in our certainty that God is who He says He is. That every promise is founded on the unshakable character of God. Unwavering, never changing, and oh so faithful.

Don't let the pull of circumstances, stress, and emotions succeed in perverting the truth of God. The definition of pervert means to alter (something) from its original course, meaning, or state to a distortion or corruption of what was first intended. The enemy of our very souls has endeavored to subvert, twist, and contort the authenticity of our birthright as children of God. It is his hope that we will be so deceived by external variables that we will go seeking for in the external what is inherent to our nature. Hope, peace, love, and an expected end through Christ Jesus. Be encouraged that there is no situation, circumstance, or problem that will ever alter, shift, or change the promises of God for you.

Don't lose hope Beloved, our God is faithful. #soulstuff

The Feeling of Being Loved

Have you ever felt the love of the Father? Not just known it, not just sensed it but, actually felt it. Like the comfort of a fleece lined blanket pressing into your skin, you feel weighed by it, covering you completely. The warmth of the total saturation of God’s love is not oppressive but, it is ever-present, not easily ignored. There have been moments when I have lifted my eyes to the heavens, soaked in tears, lips grasping for the words to say “Thank You.” My humanity makes it impossible for me to articulate my love towards Him. Maybe because there seems to be no word to explain it or maybe because as vast as my love towards Him seems to stretch my chest to the point of breaking it does not compare in any way to the unadulterated waves of His love towards me.

You cannot explain it unless you have lived it. The feeling you have to have been pulled from the suffocating depths of sin into the marvelous light of Christ’s redemptive love. Your sin clung to every part of your soul like the smeared, pig-pen scented muddy fingerprints of a Prodigal son. And still, He pursued us. You know the feeling, it seemed that there was nowhere you could turn where He wasn’t present, wooing you, calling you, entreating you to “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28). Your testimony is tattooed on your grace covered heart, “I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there.” (Psalm 139:7-8)

Like a merry-go-round, your life spun you in circles turning the faces of the crowd into one sickeningly swirl of madness, deceit, evil, and perversion. But your eyes seemed to catch Him on every turn. Drawn to find Him again you spun your head searching for Him like a lost child frantically searching for the familiar face of their mother in the crowd.

When I recognized Him, my heart shouted like the voice of John the Baptist, “…Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) He was there for me; I just knew it. He heard the cry of my soul, the one I could not voice for fear that there would be no answer. The cry of my soul that wanted only to rest. Rest in the uncompromising assurance of steadfast love. Rest in the unchanging nature of trustworthiness. In the love of Christ, I have found a love safe enough to crawl into and turn my face from the world and feel protected.

Soaked in Uncertainty

When the skies over your life split open, and chaos seems to rain out of the heavens, your soul feels soaked through and through. Like damp denim clinging to your skin, heaviness and fear appear to cloak themselves around you making it difficult to move in any one direction. Like a drowning man flailing to break through the watery surface you rail against everything that threatens to drown you. The more you struggle against it, the more you feel yourself slipping under, fatigued, afraid, and desperate. 

This is the feeling of uncertainty, that unsure first step off the boat toward a water walking Savior, that precedes every awesome move of God in your life. This is not the crowd you are walking away from, leaving them gobsmacked in a bobbing boat, these are your friends, nay your brothers in Christ. And still, your heart longs to go where He is. This feeling we know so well, the one that makes your heart swell in your chest like a Grinch who learns to love, stretching the confines of his chest with an overwhelming love, pulls you out of what you have known into what you only dared to dream was possible. This faith-filled love draws your usually steadfast feet to the edge of your situation and begs the question, “…Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee…” (Matthew 14:28) 

In this moment normalcy, safety, assuredness, and the status quo no longer romance you as it once did. Instead, you embrace the torrential rains, the uncertainty, the risk of failure and looking like a fool and step out. And there He is, closer and closer still. Your eyes on Christ, His hands stretched to you, this is the love you searched for throughout every day of your life. This love makes you braver than you ever thought, bolder than you could have ever imagined, and closer to the miraculous than you have ever been. Yes, fear may make you stumble and start to sink along the way, but your eyes dart frantically back to Him, the Christ who bid you come, and you keep moving forward. Staying in the boat is not a sin but, stepping out into the unknown, embracing the possibility and harnessing the storm brings you to another level of His promise. Don’t fight the storms that come in your life, slip your fear trembling hands into that of our Abba Father and let the force of the winds blow you closer to the place He is leading you. Trust in His Word and “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” Deuteronomy 31:6 soul-stuff.com