Hope For Today

Dear Friends, My son, Josh, decided in this, his last year at secondary school, he would try out for the school football team.  He was thrilled when he was told that he had a place on the 'B Team'.  His skills weren't quite up to the standard of the 'A Team', but that didn't matter to us, all that mattered was he'd gone for it and given it his best.  He was happy and we were happy for him. It started me thinking about how we all have a need for acceptance and that for most things in life we have to meet a standard or a set of criteria in order to be accepted, for example, when applying for a new job, joining a team or club.  Josh is applying for sixth form college and has an interview in February.   Acceptance into college will be dependent on his application form, his interview and his exam grades.  We learn about acceptance and rejection early in life.  It starts in the home for the child who is...

Dear Friends, Today's post follows on quite nicely from my previous one. I have an ever growing list of favourite bible verses and sometimes God likes to grab my attention with a verse I've not really thought about much previously.  He does this by making sure I've noticed, seen and read it 2 or 3 times.  He's done this over the last few weeks of January with the following verse.  It's a verse that I'm going to take for myself for 2014 and keep reminding myself of regularly. Proverbs 16:3 "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans." (NIV)  The Amplified bible puts it like this: "Roll your works upon the Lord (commit and trust them wholly to him, he will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to his will, and) so shall your plans be established and succeed." God has created you and me, designed us specifically with personalities, gifts and abilities, strengths and weaknesses so that we can do the things he ...

Dear Friends, You may have read a previous post ("Looking Ahead") which I wrote at the end of last year.  In it I shared that I want to spend time alone with God, seeking what he wants for me in 2014.  I am still in the process of doing this and have just gone through last year's journal to see how God has been with me, leading and preparing me for what will come this year. There was a verse I had written down in my journal last summer and God brought it to my attention again.  It's Psalm 138:8  and David says  " The Lord will work out his plans for my life -  for your faithful love, O Lord , endures forever.  Don’t abandon me, for you made me." (NLT)  There are some wonderful truths and promises for us in just this one verse.  Let's take a few minutes to look at these: 1. God is a God who plans.   I like to make plans, I plan out a weekly menu so I can plan a shopping list, I make plans to go out with a ...

 Dear Friends, A friend was telling me recently that a big tree with many roots had been blown over, uprooted by the recent strong winds we have been experiencing.  I voiced my surprise that this had happened if it had many roots but my friend explained that it was because the roots had been just under the surface rather than going deep in the soil.  The deep roots are what helps a tree to withstand storms and keep secure.  Do you know that the bible likens us to trees?  It says in Psalm 1:3 that "Those who meditate on God’s word and delight in it are like trees: They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season.  Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do." (NLT)  The Amplified Bible puts it like this: "And he shall be like a tree firmly planted [and tended] by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not fade or wither; and everything he does shall...

Dear Friends, Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 that we are to " Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." (NLT) It's easy to be thankful when all is well with us, but it's another story when we are in the middle of difficult circumstances. If you are having a tough time right now, you may be thinking that you don't even want to read about being thankful.  There's a part of me that would agree with you.  Once I had made the decision that this post would be about giving thanks to God and having a gratitude attitude I hit a bump in the road.  I've been battling with depression for years and it regularly rears its ugly head.  When it hits I don't really feel like being thankful and I certainly don't want to write about it!  Besides, how can I write about something that I'm not doing?  But I felt God was saying to go ahead and write it anyway. ...