Hope

In this season of Christmas what are you hoping for? We all hope for something. We all want things to work together for a positive outcome. This is what hope is - belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. Hope implies a certain amount of perseverance, believing that a positive outcome is possible even when there is some evidence to the contrary. Hope is often the result of faith in that while hope is an emotion, faith carries a divinely inspired and informed form of positive belief - a knowing. To hope we must have the faith (we must know) that God can see the bigger picture. We must persevere through circumstances in our life which seem to be working against, as actually working for us. We must believe in a postive outcome! This may mean that we will not actually see that postive outcome ourselves, but trust that there is a positive outcome there that God is making happen.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:1-8

You see we have been given this great gift to be a host to God through what could be seen as such a tradegy. At the time that we were the most worthless and powerless to God, Jesus entered the world. Jesus died a horrible death to that God's love could be demonstrated. We have a hard time understanding this because it is hard for us to understand dying for someone who is a good or righteous man, how could someone die for someone who is not use to them at all. God did it so we could live with the very source that created us.

We do the same with people and circumstances in our lives. We want to toss them aside, ignore them, and beg God to take them away because they are not as we wish. "How could we possibly learn from that," we tell ourselves. We miss that circumstances and people in our lives that we see as causing suffering are actually there to produce something in us. It is there to produce perseverance - instruction and discipline. Once we change our thinking and accept this, trusting that the Creator actually knows how to make things work, we gain character - wisdom. Once we gain character to act in Christ minded ways, we gain hope - unconditional love. We have a knowing, not just a belief, but a knowing that a positive outcome is coming. We realize that a positive outcome may not be in this physical life, but in the spiritual, eternal life. What a hope!

Hope today for a positive outcome. Give up that ego that so strongly desires to make things work for pleasure right now and leaves us wanting and disappointed. Hope for and know that there is a Creator who cares for birds and grass and loves you even more! Accept that love, be a child and allow yourself to be taken care of rather than pushing away the safety of this love for the dangerous world of ego.

Your choice this week is to be a hostage to ego or a host to God!

Namaste'