I'm Trying To Hope, But I Can't

Dear Beloved,

God's grace doesn't just exist to give us blessings and promises. Similar to mankind, God's grace has a purpose and an assignment to fulfill in the earth. God uses His grace to teach us. By God's grace we are healed, saved from sin, delivered from bad situations, but also by God's grace we have space to press toward high prize of Christ Jesus. In that space we will make mistakes, but by grace we get forgiveness that allows us to get back up and continue pressing toward the prize of Christ. God uses His grace to help us learn from our mistakes and bring us deeper in our walk with Him. God's grace is what grooms our hearts to look for the BLESSED HOPE. God's blessed hope is the highest hope and serves as the foundation for all other hope. It's very difficult to have hope in the daily things of life, when there's no hope for the eternal life to come.  

This week I was reading Titus 2 in the Bible and the Lord wrote about that blessed hope, but before He speaks about that hope, He explains the role of His grace:

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men (people). 

Teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, that we should live 

soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.

(Titus 2:11-12) 

As we see in the first line of the scripture above, God's grace certainly comes to save. God's grace brings salvation to the soul and to life situations. God can save us spiritually from hell and naturally from sickness, attacks on our life, financial hardship, and stressful situations, but that's not all God's grace does. God doesn't just want to save us and leave us the same person, but He wants to save us AND transform us into vessels of light that will glorify Him. He wants to bring us from created image bearers of God to adopted sons and daughters. This means we're not just made in the image of God, but we walk, talk, love, and surrender the very way Jesus did when he walked the earth. God wants to bring us from the noun version of image bearer to the adjective, the DOER, of intentionally living as an image bearer of God. To do this God uses His grace (which encompasses His patience and forgiveness toward us) to teach us how to deny ungodliness (anything that doesn't glorify the character of God) and worldly lusts (sinful desires). 

Before coming to Christ, the enemy has us all in a drunkeness. Our vision is foggy and our stupor says that our sin is better than God, God limited in His power, and He'll fail us just like people have. This is the cloudy, hopeless mindset sin creates. How can a person truly have hope if their mind hasn't been renewed and cleaned of these falsehoods? God uses His grace as the ultimate cleanser. As the scripture says, grace teaches us to live soberly (with a clear mind), righteously (doing what is right before God, not what's right to ourselves), and godly (doing things that glorify the character of God). If you have been trying to use your old mind to hope in God for new things and you keep finding it difficult to hope, this is a major reason why. 

Back when I used to drink alcohol, my body would become extremely dehydrated (because that's what liquor does), but in my drunkeness my mind couldn't focus to get my body the water it needed. My brain felt like jello and it did what my emotions wanted, rather than what my body needed. Similar to the spirit realm, our souls NEED hope in order to endure. However, when our spirits are drunk with the sin of ungodliness and worldly lust, our minds are cloudy and unable to focus on the truth of God that can give us the hope our souls so desperately need.   

As God's grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and we take heed to the lessons, then our minds are renewed and sober to hope in what God calls that blessed hope:

Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and 

our Saviour Jesus Christ. Who gave himself for us that he might

redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar (set apart) 

people, zealous of good works.  

(Titus 2:13-14)

That BLESSED HOPE is the return of Jesus Christ to establish his kingdom and rid the earth of all evil and unite eternally with His adopted sons and daughters. Those that are justified by His grace (take heed to the teachings of God's grace) will be heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:7). That blessed hope, the greatest hope is God's promise for eternity. When a person has hope for the eternal future, according to God's word, that creates an even greater capacity to hope in God for the present day. 

Have you been using a drunk mind to believe and hope in God for the impossible? There's a disconnect because your mind isn't clear, you aren't living soberly, righteously, and godly and it's hindering the height of your hope. If the enemy has a hold on your life, he will have a hold on your hope. Grab a hold of God's grace (His patience and forgiveness) and begin listening to the lessons God is giving when it comes to denying ungodliness and worldly lusts. The first step in grabbing hold of God's grace is repenting and apologizing to God for the sins you've committed. Through grace, He will forgive you. Next is to start reading the Bible, start with the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), read how Jesus denied ungodliness and worldly lusts and pray for the Holy Spirit's help  to do what Jesus did. Then, look up scriptures that speak about the sins you've repented for and read them daily to learn the lesson God's grace is teaching you through His word. Seek out and talk to other Christians, express you desire to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and ask for their guidance and help. Lastly, institute boundaries. Take note of where you're weak when it comes to ungodly things or worldly lusts and put boundaries in place to prevent those weaknesses from being triggered. 

Purification is a life long process, but once you allow God's grace to begin the work in you, your spirit will become clearer and sober and your spiritual eyes will be able to look for that blessed hope of Christ. Then through the blessed hope, all other hope will come.

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

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Voices Hijacking Your Hope

Dear Beloved,

God will met you right where you are. You're not too far gone. The Lord isn't over you. Sometimes it can feel like you're so out of reach, or even if God could reach you ,why would He want to. Sometimes it can be hard to talk to people because they can't relate to what you're going through. But I thank the Lord Jesus Christ, THAT HE GETS IT. No one knows you more than your Creator. So, when you experience pain, the one who made every fiber of your being is feeling it right along with you. 

I was watching an interview this week and this couple was asked: What's the hardest thing about being a parent? The wife responded, "Seeing your child hurt or struggle as they grow older and there's nothing you can do about it". I don't believe that response is unique to her, in fact I've heard my own mother say similar things. If imperfect, sinful humans hurt when their children hurt, how much more would the perfect, holy God who actually created all of us in heaven? One of the places we see Jesus hurting with his creation is in John 11:35 where the verse simply says, Jesus wept. This occurred when his friend Lazarus passed away and Lazarus' sisters along with the village were deeply saddened and in mourning. Jesus related to their pain and cried with them (though he knew he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, he still hurt as they hurt from the loss). 

The beautiful thing about God is that, unlike us humans that are unable to do anything about the pain of our children, God can feel what we're going through AND do something about it. One of the greatest things God does is MEET US WHERE WE ARE. We see this in John 8:1-11 when Mary Magdalene was brought to the town square to be humiliated concerning her sin of adultery with a married man. Jesus could've waived his finger at her and pointed out her sin like everyone else, but instead he knelt down to the ground and wrote something in the dirt. She felt low in spirit, so he went lower in physical position. Instead of scolding Mary and calling out her faults, Jesus address her accusers. He called out the voices that were shouting "Die, adulterer!", he silenced them and overcame them with the power of his word. When the accusers were gone, Jesus looked Mary in the eye and said "I don't condemn you, now go and sin no more". 

Jesus did something about the pain and shame Mary was in. He used the power of his word to shut down the voices of condemnation and then set her free through his forgiveness and love. Many times our hope can be hi-jacked because the voices are speaking condemnation and death over us. Whether it's the voices of other people or in our own heads, the enemy will use which means he can to get his words of death and depression into our minds. However, beloved, Mary is just one example of many in the Bible where people were counted out, overlooked, and thrown away, but GOD SAW THEM. God met them right where they were. God SAW ME and still does and meets me right where I am. Even in times where I'd be over me, God says nope, "I'm coming to your level and I'm meeting you RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE". You are no exception. May you use this story and scripture in John 8:1-11 to shutdown the voices the devil is using to hijack your hope in this season and know that God is not condemning you, but He's coming down to your level and to your situation ready to love you and free you through forgiveness. 

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

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The Truth Will Set You Free

Dear Beloved,

I greet you in the mighty name of Jesus Christ! I give praise to the Lord by reciting Isaiah 25:1, O Lord, you are my God, I will exalt thee, I will praise your name; for you have done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are FAITHFULNESS and TRUTH. In other words, from day one, the two characteristics God will ALWAYS exemplify are His faithfulness and His truth. God is always faithful to His truth. Hallelujah! I pray this Hope Letter can be a form of encouragement to you today as we break down a piece of God's truth that He's been faithful in. 

It's dangerous to the enemy's plan when we know God's truth. Why? Simple, God's word says in John 8:32 You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you FREE. The last thing the devil wants for any human being is for them to spiritually free. Once a person is spiritually free in Christ, meaning they have been forgiven of all sin and are no longer bound by the control of the enemy through sin, he loses! The enemy loses the grip he had on their soul, the dark fate of their eternity separated from God's love, and the control he had over their mind, which guides their will, emotions, and decisions. The moment Christ becomes king in a person's life, the enemy's power is GONE. This is why the enemy works hard to place obstacles in our way when it comes to fully surrendering to Christ, because the moment we do, it's over for him!

The more truth we have about God, the more freedom we have access to. Today, God highlighted His truth to me ever so brightly in Isaiah 25:4:

For you have been strength to the poor, strength to the needy in his distress,

a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat. For the oppressive acts

of ruthless people are like a storm beating against the wall. 

Wherever you are right now, whatever you're going through, God wants you to know His precious and POWERFUL truth. He wants you to know this truth, so you can be FREE. Spiritual freedom doesn't mean circumstances will change overnight, but it does mean torment of the enemy in your mind must cease. In the scripture above, God becomes everything we aren't and provides everything we need. When we're in financial hardship and/or overwhelmed with stress God is STRENGTH. When the rain of life is beating us down, God is REFUGE (or hiding place/shelter). When the pressure of life feels like a fiery heat about to scorch us, God is SHADOW to protect us from getting burned. God isn't just one thing, but multiple things at the same time! God will never run short of strength, refuge, or shadow that He can't provide any for you. He is God and all of His saving qualities are endless. 

Revel in God's truth beloved. Declare God's truth over your life. Find hope in God's truth, and BE SET FREE in God's truth! 

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

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