JUST AS I was listening to a pastor on TV, I was struggling with forgiveness. as it seems to be my life theme when it comes to the not so nice parts of me. I have always struggled with forgiveness. I think forgiveness has a lot to do with trust. It is very, very difficult for me to forgive as I have a memory of a wrong doing the size of 2 elephants in a small room! Stubborn-ness is also a part of me that makes it that much more difficult.

   Since going around in an unforgiving way towards others makes for excess clutter in your brain, like a program in the background running and slowing down your computer, it should be turned off.

How do we do that? How do we forgive, when we don’t trust enough?

What Is Hope?

Maybe it starts with hope. Hope is intangible, we can’t see it. We can’t touch hope or grasp on to it. Hope, as used as a noun, is a feeling of expectation, a desire for something to change or stay the same.  It is a feeling to trust. God is hope, in that we can’t see what we think we want to see, but God gives us many manifestations of hope in action, with hope used as a verb. We anticipate when we are hopeful, we look forward, we wait in trust, earnestly. On a basic level we commit to what we want to happen. That, in essence, is what we have to hold on to.

When we commit to hope, we have just made hope into something that is very powerful. Quoting Krista Tippett, Becoming Wise, she writes about hope and how transformative it can be:

” In a century of staggering open questions, hope becomes a calling for those of us who can hold it, for the sake of the world. […it has nothing to do with wishing.] It references reality at every turn and reveres truth. It lives open eyed and wholehearted with the darkness that is woven ineluctably into the light of life and sometimes seems to overcome it.”

Hope; like every virtue, is a choice that becomes a practice that becomes spiritual muscle memory. It’s a renewable resource for moving through life as it is, not as we wish it to be.”

Hope makes us stronger and more resilient. It works like that because we will feel better about our life so we tell others and they will tell us also. It’s spiritual, in the nature of being hopeful, which has the transformative power to move forces beyond ourselves because of how it strenghthens us to be free from what was holding us down!

We have now moved into a light within, God and Holy Spirit. May we spend time in this place often as it is us uniting with Creator and creation and in return, uniting with each other.

Too many of us have grown addicted to the arguing room. Every day we go and make a visit to this room. We make the choice to go in it and it becomes an addiction in our brains. It seems too many of us are either going in and out of the arguing room or hanging in the isolation room, in one of the lonely rooms. Especially, many of us are hanging in the lonely rooms when there are others all around us, but we prefer to be part of the “woe” crowd, probably because it’s so huge!

The hope room is smaller in comparison, only because it usually takes a bit longer for anything to happen.

   Hope is a state of mind that is an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one’s life or the world at large.[1] As a verb, its definitions include: “expect with confidence” and “to cherish a desire with anticipation”. (From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope

Hope is a God thing; meaning; Expect with Confidence!  “to Cherish a Desire with Anticipation”, those are some big affirmations!

In order to have hope we must move our self towards God, as God is the startup of our engine. We humble ourselves to God at this point. We are choosing to hope. But how can we understand that in our negative state of mind or logical self, how do we believe in confidence of what we can’t see or touch or even smell? How long must we wait? Like dangling from a tree, how long are we able to hold on?

The answer is simple yet very unorthodox in a religious sense.  We don’t do it our self. That’s why the puritans called hope a virtue. It is the anticipation of a favorable outcome under God’s guidance.”

Ok. But, wait a minute, haven’t we just put our self in a box, did we just give up our control by giving our situation to God and is that what it means to be confident and not waver in our hope?

Not exactly, and by the way, everything we do in our life is speculation. Even when we get our answer, another question is right behind it. Such is our life. But what is going on is that as soon as we decide, (decisions are big because they open a way to go*), *don’t spend too much time in deciding because you need to start somewhere. The reason that we don’t get what we’re searching for is that when in hope, if you’re going to reap the huge benefits from it, first, you have to “Stay” (like when you tell your dog to sit and Stay, same thing) Not sit, just Stay, meaning; don’t tell your sister off and then say your life craps the bed. Stay in hope in all things, have all the fun you want, just stop with your own personal negativity and trying to push events that you can’t control. If someone says no more than once, except it (only except it, if you’re interested in seeing what God has in store for us, but if we think we can do better, than by all means, use that free will-y and see where you go! The other amazing thing about hope and God is that there’s usually always another chance, no matter where you are or what you’re going through. So, if you’re facing something that is bigger than yourself to handle, or if getting out is just getting too heavy a burden then have hope which equals =faith and trust, and in that, help is on the way. That is our mustard seed:  hope. It is greater in this world than anything else except what it ultimately leads us to,  love one another.

It is in hope that we have the courage to give up our pride, feel the pain of giving up that pride and move on. It is in hope that we ultimately give in to trust again, open once more to our world, and forgive. We have made the move in hope to trust, forgive and be made new to love once more.

Inspiration means and God Breathed, spending time in this inspiration of God’s words through Moses and the Gospels will give you amazing strength to stay in hope. God doesn’t make or take away our burdens but God will give you everything you need to overcome them with gratitude!

Mathew 11:28Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.…

Jeremiah 31:25 for I will refresh the weary soul and replenish all who are weak.”

Reconcile and Connect

God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Take your focus away from everything else and consider the Sovereign Lord, the one true, living God. The chapter begins with a message of comfort and redemption from the Lord in Isaiah, chapter 40:28-31 then directs you to consider the immensity and wisdom of the Lord to do all he promised.

28: Do you not know?

 Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

    the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

    and his understanding no one can fathom.

29: He gives strength to the weary

    and increases the power of the weak.

30: Even youths grow tired and weary,

    and young men stumble and fall;

31: but those who hope in the Lord

    will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

    they will run and not grow weary,

    they will walk and not be faint.

From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2040&version=NIV>

We only need The One, The Holy Spirit of God is Always with each one of us.

I AM the Lord is where we should focus, with that, our release of ourselves comes when we stop the voice of only I am, our self and focus and prepare our self for the only ONE, I  AM. God will show the Glory of The Almighty! Hope is where our forgiveness lies. We need to give up trying so hard to tear down our mountains and raise up our valleys by ourselves

Hope is where our forgiveness lies. We need to give up trying so hard to tear down our mountains and raise up our valleys by ourselves

Those who are confident in hope and have faith that we believe there is our living God, and release our stresses of doing it all by ourselves and ask, speak, out to God, to take our burdens and then walk it out in the confidence, which is hope that cannot be seen or heard or felt, but to stay in our minds and work on ourselves to accept that help has already been released, and with patience, we will see the Hand of God work it all out. Forgiveness is found here! What a wonderful feeling it is to give up that heavy burden in not letting a slight or betrayal that another has done, that weighs us down with our own thinking of what they did only to us. The betrayer always has many more problems than the one who is betrayed!

If you have a longing or a need to find what you cannot see in your life, just stop, stay still, ask that God reveal something to put your mind at peace and stay in confidence no matter what is happening around you and stop perceiving that it is only being done to you. Step back, lift up your posture, put on a smile, even if you don’t feel like it and wait by simply being busy in doing what you are supposed to do, while God moves that mountain that has been in your way, no matter how long it’s been there. You will see the elephant in the room turn into a small mouse and scurry away.

Blog by Lisa Hornor, Artist