I Feel My Hope Comin'

 Dear Beloved,

This week someone close to me experienced some serious tragedy. It was bad. The reality of her grief and pain caused me grief and pain. First, I was in shock and trying to be as present as I could be with her. Then hours later, when we held a prayer call for her, the tears of grief hit me. When I got off the call, all I wanted to do was call someone and cry and process. So I did. (This is huge for me because my past self would've suppressed and isolated, praise God for emotional healing). 

                                

Beloved, please know that hope is not the absence of sadness. It is the pillar and foundation of endurance. To finish the race of life, one must have hope. To make it to heaven, one must have hope in Jesus Christ. I pray you both. I still have sadness today, but I have more hope, then I did yesterday. After I got off the phone with no else to call, though I wish I had others, I felt Holy Spirit say, "talk to me". I started singing a worship song and then another. Then I went to the Book of Psalms, the book that validates pain and emotion. 

I started off in Psalm 6, then to Psalm 42, then Psalm 145-150. By the end, I felt my hope comin. The circumstance hadn't changed, but I was reminded that God hadn't either. His works of old were good and so were the ones of TODAY. I once read a quote in the book The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom that said "Heaven never panics". I was reminded of that yesterday. It wasn't to dismiss the horrific situation, but a reminder that God is still in control in the midst of what feels chaotic. 

If you're in the midst of tragedy as well, I pray you feel your feelings while drawing to Christ for hope. When everything is out of your control, drawing near to the one who has control gives you the hope needed to endure another day. Although these trials freaking suck and are massively painful, they do not last forever. In eternity pain will be a distant memory and every tear will be wiped away. If you've surrendered your life to Christ, this will be your future. If you haven't, know that the Lord has been pursuing you for a long time and He's using THIS HOPE LETTER to speak to you. No matter when you read this, HE IS CALLING YOU. I haven't written a Hope Letter in 2 years, but He strongly urged me to write this one. 

There is ONE God who created all the universe. He is the great I AM. His intention was for all his creation to be one with Him, in glory separate from pain and angst. He gave mankind full authority in the earth and free access to everything, except one thing: the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But through man's (Adam's) sin of pride, greed, and lust, the ONE commandment  given (stay away from the tree) was broken and in that moment God's relationship was broken between mankind. You and me were born in sin. We know we've sinned. We've gone against what we've known to be right and that has caused a void in our hearts that can't be filled by relationships, money, power, or fame. ONLY God, the one true God who created us can fill it. It's impossible for us to be holy on our own, our lust for self and sin won't ever allow us to do right by heaven. With this, God decided to stand in for our weakness. He being perfect and sinless cannot be connected to sin, which we're covered in. But, The Father WANTS to reconnect with us. 

We're His creation, He doesn't want to spend eternity separated from us when we die. So, He made a way. In His divine love, He came down from heaven through His son Jesus Christ and took the punishment of sin that we deserved. Our sin deserves God's wrath and separation from Him, but Christ took the wrath and separation for us through the crucifixion. He died and was buried in the grave and 3 days later he rose again, proving his deity! The blood he shed on that cross was the price paid for salvation and forgiveness of sin. You don't have to carry the guilt and shame of your sin. You don't have to live with the void in your heart. God made a way for you to reconnect, receive forgiveness and have your slate wiped clean! This is the Gospel and good news of Christ. If you truly believe that Jesus Christ is God and he died and rose again for your sins, then recite the prayer below OUTLOUD and you will be saved!

Lord Jesus, I believe you died and rose again for my sins and I ask you for forgiveness. I repent of all sin and ask you to renew my mind and clean my heart. I give you full control of my life. Please show me how to walk in righteousness, in Jesus name I pray Amen.  

Praise the Lord my new brother/sister in Christ!! Now go and watch this video to learn what's next! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzZ-m8C9hsA&list=PLmtSnLV8O89pDosLdVKT234erqFjJJNx-

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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Does God's Love Cost?

Dear Beloved,

God's love is ABSOLUTELY FREE. 

How do I know this? He says it in His word: I will heal their backsliding and love them FREELY for my anger is turned away (Hosea 14:4). It's not a hoax. God's love is absolutely free and any teaching that tells you otherwise is full of lies. Whether it's lies we've heard from other people, other religions, or the enemy speaking to our own minds, many of us hold the assumption that God's love costs something. Some may say in order to access God's love you have to accept Christ, well technically not really because the Hosea verse above was written long before the birth and sacrifice of Christ. God said He will love the children of Israel FREELY before they could ever accept Christ. It's actually BECAUSE of God's love that Christ came in the first place, as we read in John 3:16 For God so LOVED THE WORLD that He sent His only begotten son, and whosoever shall believe in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. It was God's FREE love that sent His son to be sacrificed for our sins. It's the reality of our sin that makes us feel like we owe God. We feel our sin has created a long tab with God and in order to really receive His love, we have to pay off the tab. False. 

God's love isn't a "thing" to posses, it's God's VERY BEING. That's why it's free, it's WHO HE IS. 1 John 4:16 says And we have known and believed the love that God has toward us. God IS love.. We can look at the sun as an analogy. The sun doesn't just give light, it IS light and because it is light it gives light. Similarly, because God IS love, therefore He gives love and gives it freely to all mankind. I didn't understand this when I was diagnosed with herpes in 2011. I believed I had to work for God's love and that I had to pay off that tab before I could REALLY experience His love. Although I lived a life of sin, I felt like I wasn't as "bad as other people".  I thought I may not have God's love, but I'm at least in His "good graces". I believed I was in "good graces" because I worked to stay away from the "extreme sins". With this belief system, it was easy for the devil to lie to me and tell me I was cut off from God when I contracted herpes. I believed God's love was dependent upon me, so when I contracted herpes, I believed I lost the "good graces" and I had no chance at His love. ALL LIES!

As we see in God's word, HE LOVES FREELY and these words were written LONG before any of us were born. Just as the sun won't stop shining based on what we do, God's love won't stop because it's who HE IS. Wherever you are in life, if you believe God's love costs you, I'd like to denounce that false belief right now. You can't pay for the character of God. Even if God's love did have a price, it'd be one that no human being could ever afford. 

God's love is completely free, however experiencing a full relationship with God in this earth and in eternity after we die does cost. To be in relationship with God is to become ONE with Him. God is love because God is HOLY. That's what make His love so special and out of this world, it's actually perfect through His holy character that has never been tainted. The bible says we are born into sin (Psalm 51:5). This means every human being on the earth is a sinner from birth, our sins make look different, but we ALL have sinned. This sin is a violation of holiness, perfect goodness. In order for God to become one with us in relationship, we too must be holy so we don't violate God's perfect holiness. There's a cost to becoming holy, but guess what? Because of God's FREE love, He paid that cost for us!! That's why He sent Jesus to die on the cross. God wanted a relationship with us more than we did with Him. He wanted one so bad, that rather than placing the responsibility on us to pay the cost of holiness and attempting to rid ourselves of sin, He came from heaven in the form of Jesus and paid the cost for us! Every payment of our sin, every penny that you could ever owe God was paid through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ! Hallelujah! God's free love means anyone can enter a relationship with Him once they accept the payment Jesus did on their behalf.   

Beloved, you are not cut off from God's love. God will always continue to be who He is to you. If you desire to enter that glorious relationship with Lord and ensure your soul will spend eternity with Him all you have to do to ask for forgiveness of your sin. No, not every single individual sin you've ever committed since you were born. God is so gracious, if we just ask Him to forgive us of ALL our sin, one time, His word says HE WILL FORGIVE US (1 John 1:9). Once you receive that forgiveness, that indebted feeling you had will go away because Jesus paid the entire price for your sin. You and God will be one through Jesus Christ and your life will never be the same. I know this because that's what the Lord did for me January 2, 2012. God's love is free my dear. He loved you yesterday, He loves you today, and He'll love you tomorrow. 

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka 

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God Promises Safety

Dear Beloved,

I don't know where your mind is right now, but God keeps placing this Bible chapter on my heart, Isaiah 11. In the midst of any mental, emotional, or spiritual turmoil you may be experiencing, God uses this chapter to paint one of the most beautiful pictures of safety I've ever read. For me in this hour, there is a great well of hope I can draw from God's promise of safety. Life can be hard with the enemy consistently threatening our safety. Whether it be the safety of our health, our hearts, our minds, or our lives all together. As long as there is God's light pursuing to love us, there is the darkness of the enemy seeking to drain us of hope and keep us blind. 

It's only by God's GRACE does He allow us to experience His light and opens our eyes to His great hope. Maybe you've had a heavy week with recent events in the news, dealing with your health, balancing life situations, wherever your heart is reading this letter, I pray God's grace over you. I pray the Lord will grace you to open your heart to His light and open your eyes to the hope in His word. Proverbs 18:10 says The name of the Lord is a strong tower and the righteous run into it and are safe. I pray through the grace of God, that His very name and His word which is greater than His name will be a place of refuge for you as you read and safety will be your portion. 

In Isaiah 11 God explains what it will be like when Jesus returns to the earth: 

In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard and the goat 

will be at peace. Calves and sheep will be safe among lions, and a little child 

will lead them all...Babies will crawl safely among poisonous snakes.

Yeas, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes

an pull it out unharmed. Nothing will hurt or destroy

in all my holy mountain. And as the waters fill the sea, 

so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.

(Isaiah 11:6-9)

When God says NOTHING will hurt or destroy, He means NOTHING. No disease, no wickedness of me, nor devil in hell can cause hurt or destruction to those who will be in Christ Jesus. This is the future that God promises His people. Pain will be eradicated from the earth when Christ returns and ALL things will be healed. Nothing can bring harm, not even animals. God promises an eternal peace and an eternal hope in the safety of His power and His plan. Turmoil may be all around you now beloved, but remember this life is temporary. Hold true to what is eternal. Enter the safety of God's presence TODAY by filling your mind with worship music and thanking God for the eternal peace to come. God is not a man that He should lie. Thank you Lord for your truth and thank you for your safety. We place our hearts, minds, and bodies in your hands, in Jesus name, amen. 

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

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Hanging On By A Thread

Dear Beloved,

Are you hanging on by a thread? This year has been a roller coaster to say the least. There's people passing away, illness, relationships being challenged, stress on all sides, and the list goes on. Maybe you had high hopes for this year and then BAM, 2020 had other plans. I'm honestly at the point where I'm tired of hearing news. Whether it's the world news about covid or news in my personal life that's bringing shock. I just need a 6 month break from hearing any new information about anything! Well, except good things (naturally, lol). Am I the only one?

Well, taking a few steps back from my temper tantrum, today I thought about joy. I thought about how similar joy is to the sun. When you have it, it's always there. With the sun, as long as the earth is in rotation, it will always be there. However, some days we can't see the sun and may not even feel it because the clouds are covering it up. I feel that's how joy is. When God gives us this precious gift, sometimes it's shining bright to the point that others can see and feel it, but other times it's more behind the scenes and we can't really detect it's presence. The latter can happen when unexpected circumstances and life twists overtake the forecast of our lives. It feels cold and rainy, and may even look darker, but similar to the sun, God's joy is STILL there. The sun never goes away and neither does His joy. Once you have it, it keeps you anchored through the clouds and when (not if) the sky clears, your joy will shine again. 

There was a time I was helping a friend of mine move. It was a warm, sunny day. We packed everything up from her first apartment into our cars, it was a lot of boxes and clothes on hangers. On the 30 minute drive to her new place, the clouds came out of no where. It started to rain lightly, then it started to DOWN POUR! As I drove, all I thought was: how is this going to work?! Today is her last day in the old apartment. It's thundering and pouring. And we're going to be soaked, not to mention all of her things if we attempt to unload these cars. I had no idea what the outcome was going to be, but I continued to drive behind her to the new place. I KID YOU NOT. When we were five minutes away, the rain literally cleared and stopped! Not only that, but the sun came out shining like nothing even happened! That was a huge spiritual lesson for me. When we saw the weather take an unexpected turn with no hope in sight, we would've had every reason to turn around and quit the mission. However, my friend kept driving and I followed. If we had quit or gave up, we would've never seen how God was going to clear sky for us on the other side and meet us with the sun. Through the rain, the sun was behind the clouds the ENTIRE TIME. 

I pray through all of the clouds of 2020, you're encouraged to not give up, but to KEEP DRIVING. Rest in the fact that God's joy is your anchor behind the clouds and you WILL see and feel it shine again. If you don't have God's joy, you can receive it through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Your relationship starts when you ask Jesus to forgive you of your sin, then he will send you the Holy Spirit to dwell in your heart. The Holy Spirit will bring a number of gifts and one of them will be joy. I pray today that the joy of Christ which is ever present, even behind the clouds, will increase your hope. 

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

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God Hasn't Left You

 When the shock of life hits and it seems like darkness is flooding in all around, it can seem like God is no where in sight. Some people feel as if God doesn't care or that what they've done is so horrible that God has left them. I believed the latter when I was diagnosed with herpes in 2011. I had no truth to teach me or tell me otherwise. I believed God's love and attention came from being "good" and when I really, REALLY messed up then that was it, His presence in my life was cut off. That's kind of how people are. Everyone has a tolerance threshold and once that mark is passed, they say enough is enough and you're not worth my love any more. I took human behavior and applied it to God. That was my first wrong move. The Bible says in Numbers 23:19 God IS NOT A MAN, that should lie; he is NOT A HUMAN, that he should change his mind. I placed God into the box of how others have treated me and how I treated others. God makes it clear, He is not us or like us. He is God, higher and greater than any being we've encountered on this earth. His is ACTUAL goodness and because we know so much hurt, it's hard to believe actual goodness when we see it. Believe it or not, God hasn't left you.

Before contracting herpes I didn't live for God, but even though my life wasn't surrendered I still believed I could at least pray to Him when I needed Him most and believed He would hear me. There was some level of hope in believing I could at least talk to Him because He was there. However, after contracting herpes for the first time in my life I thought God left me. There was no way He wanted to be around me. That lie the enemy planted in my mind, left me in so much gloom. 

If this is where you are and what you're experiencing, I want to interrupt that lie right now! Long before you were born, God wrote words and promises to you in the Bible. As mentioned earlier, God is not like people, HE DOESN'T LIE, so we can trust that His words below are TRUE:

Isaiah 41:10 Fear not for I AM WITH YOU, be not dismayed, for I am you God

Joshua 1:5 ...As I was with Moses, I WILL BE WITH YOU: I will not fail you, nor forsake you

John 14:18 I will NOT LEAVE you comfortless: I will come to you

Hebrews 13:5 ..For He (God) says I will NEVER LEAVE you, no forsake you

These are just a FEW scriptures that highlight God's promise to not leave us. His presence is not measured by what He does (or doesn't do), but rather by WHO HE IS. And John 1:1 says that God IS HIS WORD. So if His word says He's with you and won't leave you, then that's who He is. I encourage you to stop comparing God to humans and how quickly they are to desert you. God IS NOT human, He KEEPS HIS WORD. Cling to this truth. Anytime you feel overwhelmed with thoughts of God leaving you, reference the scriptures above. Speak God's truth! Remember God is not a feeling or bound to our circumstances, His character is His word. Life might be going left, but I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU says the Lord. You might not feel Him, but I AM WITH YOU says the Lord. Rest in God's truth beloved. Rest in God's truth.

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

TELL ME IN THE COMMENTS BELOW: Have you ever felt like God has left you? Which one of these scriptures resonate with you the most?

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Life Can Be Hard, But DON'T STOP!

At the start of this year, the Lord told me the most simple instruction, but it's been quite life changing and I feel led to share it with you: DON'T STOP.

I don't know where your faith lies with Jesus Christ or whether or not you're born again, regardless God has called you to do something in this life. God DOES NOT CREATE ACCIDENTS, you were placed on this Earth with the utmost intention of heaven. However, there are a million and one things that the enemy and just life on earth will throw at us to get us to turn from that truth and                                                            give up.

Personally, whenever I'm walking in life doing whatever God has called me to do and something unexpected occurs or things get uncontrollably busy, I get discouraged and I stop doing the original thing God told me to do and that discourages me even more. But this year, those 2 words have helped me so much. Things WILL happen, whether it's a life storm or just a week of crazy events, but lean on God's UNEXPLAINABLE GRACE to do what you can't do in your own strength and KEEP GOING. For whatever reason you may pause, you may even take a break from something, but no matter what DON'T STOP. From the business God called you to start to the ministry to the Hope Letters to getting up in the morning, DON'T STOP.

When I was diagnosed with herpes in 2011 I stopped. I didn't see the point of anything anymore. In that moment I gave up on college, future career, future family, and life in general. I stayed in the dark in my room and cried and didn't care about anything. Every dream, hope, and energy in me died. But then Monday came and my friend I'm telling you until this day I truly believe God sent an angel. Somehow I was taken out of my bed, dressed, and on my way to class and I promise you NOTHING in me had the will to do that. Pre-herpes I would skip class like it was nothing, so you know I get hit with this news the last thing I wanted was to be around people. But I'm telling you I really believe an angel came down and picked me up, as dead as I was.

I had nothing in me to keep going, but God had a plan and though I didn't ask Him, He helped me. It reminds me of Hosea 13:9 O Israel, you have destroyed yourself, but in me (God) is your HELP.

Maybe you're at that point of stopping and not caring and if you are, I believe God is GREATER THAN YOU and He can send His angel to pick you up and help you walk when you can't in your own strength. So I pray: Dear Jesus, I lift this soul to you Lord. God they belong to you. Whether they know it or not, you created them and paid a hefty ransom for their sin to reclaim your relationship with them. Lord meet your son or daughter, please God send your angel down to them. They've given up and are sitting in darkness, alone listening to all the lies of satan. God overpower the darkness and pick them up, get them dressed and bring them where they need to go. Give them the miraculous experience you gave me, that they don't even know how they got out the bed or out the house, but they can only attribute it to you. Do it Lord! Draw them near Holy Spirit and day by day insert hope into their heart. In Jesus name I pray amen!


May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka


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One Reason It's Hard To Hope

As I sat down to write, I heard the Holy Spirit say: It's hard to hope without the Word. As I have mentioned before, the heart behind these letters is that you would ultimately place your hope in Jesus Christ, who is the only REAL source of hope in this world and is an EVER LIVING hope as you read in the last Hope Letter. Jesus is hope, Jesus is God, and Jesus is also THE WORD. This truth is written below in the scriptures from the book of John:

In the beginning was the THE WORD, and the Word was with with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1)

And THE WORD was made flesh, and dwelled among us (and we behled his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of GRACE and TRUTH (John 1:14)

For the law was given by Moses, but GRACE and TRUTH came by JESUS CHRIST (John 1:17)

God's Word is Him and He IS His Word. So in order to truly place your hope in Jesus Christ, it means you must place your hope the Word of God, The Bible. To place your hope in the Word of God, you must consume the Word of God. In my personal walk, whenever I'm distant from God's Word I become very weak in my mind. Life circumstances and situations start speaking to me louder than I'm speaking to them. Light at the end of the tunnel becomes very faint and I get tempted to wonder if it's even there.

Trying to hope in God without His Word is like baking a cake without any flour, you're not going to get very far. Resources like these Hope Letters, sermons, and Youtube videos are awesome to help us keeping holding on, but it's the actual WORD, which is Christ himself that's going to be the anchor of our hope. When we have the Word in our hearts, it's the one thing this world can never take away. Despite what happens or who comes to attack our hope, we stand on the Word and declare God's truth over EVERYTHING. Isaiah 40:7-8 says The grass withers, the flowers fade because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it: surely people are grass. The grass withers, the flowers fade: BUT THE WORD OF OUR GOD SHALL STAND FOREVER.

Whenever I'm reading scripture consistently, my hope is greater because I remember the promises of God over life circumstances. I'm more confident about that light at the end of the tunnel because I know God is not a man that He shall lie. I'm able to encourage others and point them to hope because when the Word is on my mind, it naturally comes up in conversation.

If you're finding it difficult to hope in Jesus, I encourage you to get into HIS WORD. That's going to be the foundation and life source of your hope. Even if it's just one scripture verse a day, that's a seed of hope that can work wonders in your life! Start with the Bible App and read the verse of the day each day (you may find you want to know more about the verse and you end up reading the whole chapter it's from!). You can also Google, scripture verses concerning whatever you're hoping for, if it's healing look up 3 healing scriptures and write them on flash cards and read them every day when you wake up and every night before bed. After doing this a while, go deeper, start reading a half a chapter in the Bible a day or a whole chapter (I suggest reading in the New Testament if you're new to Bible reading). Before you read pray to God to help you understand His Word and to show you hope through His Word. The more you do this, the stronger your hope will be and the more confident you'll be that Christ CAN.

I pray this letter ministers to you my friend. The Lord loves you.

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka


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The Hope That NEVER Dies!

One of the most common thoughts and discouragements that come into a person's mind when they contract an STD is: No one is ever going to love me or No one is ever going to want to be with me. This is certainly something I believed and it brought me deeper into my sorrow after my diagnosis. However, this is a conclusion I came to after believing the popular myths about STD's and allowing those myths to dictate my future. This was my state of mind. Maybe you're in this place right now or maybe you just started talking to someone special and you fear they won't want you anymore once they find out.

In addition to believing this because of the myths, I also believed this because throughout my whole life I placed my hope in people, in this case men. My hope for a future marriage was in a man seeing me as a qualified candidate. I had to pass his tests. I had to meet all his expectations. I had to be everything he'd want me to be in order to be his wife. This is what I believed. I didn't believe I was worth being anyone's wife. Although I hoped to be one day, deep down I believed that my future husband would be the real prize and I'd just be one of his options. My hope, value, worth, everything was in a man choosing me as an option. So, if I already believed I was a last pick option and then I contracted herpes, it's clear to see why I completely removed myself from the game altogether. My hope was entirely in the opinion and acceptance of a man, so if you remove the man, you remove my hope.

Maybe your hope for relationships or future marriage didn't die, but your hope in other areas did: confidence, self-esteem, identity. All of these took a hit for me. If you're in that place right now, I'd like to point you to the scripture below:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant

and boundless mercy caused us to be born again to an EVER-LIVING hope and confident assurance through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3).

When I gave my life to Christ on my bedroom floor on January 2, 2012, for the first time in my life my hope went from natural things and people in the world to Jesus Christ. I end every Hope Letter by saying "May your hope be in Jesus Christ" and this is why! When we surrender our lives and repent of our sin and ask Jesus to be the Lord of our lives we are born again. This verse is saying that our new birth experience gives a NEW hope, a hope that is EVER LIVING, a hope that NEVER DIES because it's through the resurrection of Christ. When Jesus rose from the dead He defeated EVERYTHING satan could ever throw at us in this world. Jesus defeated herpes, AIDS/HIV, syphilis, cancer, depression, mental illness, suicidal thoughts, death, EVERYTHING!! Through Him we have victory over the grave and anything that would try to send us to the grave because in Him our souls will live eternally in full health, prosperity, and glory. There's nothing the devil has over us anymore! This new hope that never dies is what carried me through when I first got saved and it's what's carrying me through today.

Notice God says this EVER LIVING hope is accessed through being born again. My friend, if you truly want hope, the real hope, you have to surrender to the one who IS hope. These letters can't be the source of your hope. I write them to point you to the source who is Jesus Christ. If you believe that you are a sinner and you've messed up and God came down to the earth in the form of His Son Jesus Christ to pay the price of your sins on the cross. And that he died and rose again three days later and by his sacrifice you can be forgiven, then I'd like to lead you in prayer to commit your life to Jesus.

Recite this out loud:

Lord Jesus, I believe you are God. I believe you died and rose again for my sins. I am a sinner and I ask you to forgive me of my sins. I pray that you wash me clean and show me how to walk in righteousness. I surrender my life to you and ask you to take control of my life. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.


Hallelujah!!!! You are now born again!!! You now have full access to the EVER LIVING hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ!! Praise the Lord! You have a hope that will never die, as long as it's in the finished work of Jesus Christ!


May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

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I'm Too Dirty For God To Forgive Me

In the book of Hosea, God uses the prophet Hosea to demonstrate His relationship with children of Israel. God tells Hosea to marry a prostitute and this marriage will reflect God's commitment and devotion to Israel although they worship so many other idols and false gods. God uses this book to speak of His pursuit of Israel, but also to foreshadow Jesus' pursuit and proposal to us even though we've prostituted ourselves by worshiping everything, but God. This prayer is for the prostitute (which is anyone who has ever sinned). The one who feels no matter how much they hope, they're too dirty for God to ever forgive.

Let's pray:

Lord, I place this soul before you at your altar right now. God you literally sent Jesus for the prostitute. Your word even says that the prostitutes and tax collectors will make it into heaven before prideful religious teachers. There is NOTHING that can stop you from loving us. There is NOTHING that can stop you from loving this soul. No one is too dirty to receive your hope and healing. No one is too far gone to receive your mercy and grace. You loved them before they even entered this world. You saw them taking shape in their mother's womb. You word says you ordered their days BEFORE A SINGLE DAY OCCURRED. You knew all that would happen in their life before they did it and yet STILL sent Christ to die for them. Still suffered on the cross. Still took the punishment of their sin, so that they can live eternally with you. That's love no human can fully understand because we're not capable of it, but you are and you have given this love freely. Lord overtake them with your agape love. May you wash their mind from the belief that they're too dirty to receive your hope. And fill their hearts with faith and revelation that YOU ARE LOVE and they are not exempt from YOU OR YOUR LOVE. Silence the lies of the enemy Lord and bring this soul near to your bosom. They are your masterpiece. May they see themselves as you see them. In Jesus name I pray, amen.

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka


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Herpes During The Holidays

I remember my first Christmas with herpes in 2011. At that point I had been living with herpes for ten months. I was home on winter break from college and my family had no idea what I was going through. There was a moment where I had a small bag on my dresser with a bunch of personal stuff including my herpes medication. I rushed into my bedroom and accidentally knocked the bag over. I totally forgot the pills were in there until two seconds later my mom was picking up the bag and the bottle of pills that fell out and said "What's this?". I was thankful my mom couldn't see fine print without her glasses and I dashed across the room to grab the bag and pills out of her hand. I lied and told her it's just something I got from the health center at school because I wasn't feeling well.

Although, I knew my mom couldn't really see what was on the bottle, I couldn't help but be gripped by fear. What if she was able to make out the name of the medicine in that split second? What if she would then go and ask the nurses at her job what that type of pill that is? I was so scared. I was already holding this secret and now I had the fear of possibly getting found out. It was rough. The holidays were suppose to be a time of happiness and closeness with family, but I couldn't have felt farther away from each. Although, I stopped praying to God, I was still crying and the Lord heard the sound of my tears. I had no idea that a week and a day later on January 2, 2012 in the wee hours of the morning, God was going to show up in my bedroom and tell me the one thing I desired my whole life: You ARE LOVED. The fear I had about my mom wasn't even a thought anymore. The God of the universe LOVES ME!!!!

The next Christmas in 2012, I still had herpes, but this time it was different. I still hadn't told any members of my family, but shame and fear was starting to dwindle. That year I had HOPE. I had TRUTH. I had LOVE. Having these things in Christ changed EVERYTHING. My body was still sick, but my soul wasn't anymore. Through Jesus I had actual joy that one day I could be healed and he loves me even while I'm sick. God's love ran through me and I just wanted to share it with my family. That was the first year I wasn't thinking about everything wrong with my life or what presents I was going to get, I just wanted to cherish the family I had and share the love of God with them. I didn't spend my break prioritizing my friends over my family, I put my family first for the first time ever. I went to church out my own will and I just wanted to glorify God for saving me!


I don't know what your situation is whether you've just been diagnosed, or you've had herpes for one year or many years, but I truly pray that through Jesus Christ this Christmas can be different for you. I pray against your health robbing you of your LIFE. Place your health and body in the hands of Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to how He wants to use you with your family this year. If you haven't repented and asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins, do so even now and watch the Lord over take you with His love and HOPE. Don't let herpes block you from being used by God this holiday season. Jesus Loves YOU!


May your hope be in Jesus Christ,


Anreka


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With Hope You Can ENDURE!

A couple of weeks ago in church my pastor quoted 1 Corinthians 13:13: And now abide in faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. He asked the question, why does God tell us to remain in these three things? He answered because when you have these three things, you can go through ANYTHING in life and bounce back. No matter what storm or trial comes your way, you may be down for a season, but when you have faith in Jesus Christ, hope in Jesus Christ, and love from Jesus Christ, you WILL NOT be down permanently.

These are not only gifts from God to us, but these are literal characteristics to who God is. When we abide in faith, hope, and love, we're abiding in the character of God and God is not stopped or limited by any illness, circumstance or situation. There's nothing in this world that is greater than God, He reigns over everything! Just as His word says, GREATER is HE that lives in you than he (the enemy) who lives in the world (1 John 4:4). When God's faith, hope, and love lives in us, God says they ARE GREATER than anything the devil throws at us, that's why we won't be kept down through the trials. That's why we'll always be able to bounce back! That's why no down season is a permanent one!

God could've healed me from herpes the same night I got saved and first prayed for healing, but He didn't. He gave me something much greater, He gave me HOPE! Hope is what sustained me while I waited to be healed. Hope is what made me want to know more about Jesus Christ. Hope is what kept me believing God after I got healed. Hope is what's kept me celibate for 7 years. Hope is what helped my heart to heal after being hurt by people in the church. Hope is what got me through the tragedies in 2018, the hardest year of my life and still keeping me. Hope is the gift of God that allows us to ENDURE (1 Corinthians 13:7).

In addition to reading these letters, I pray you add hope in your prayer request to God. It's a gift from God and a part of His actual being. Pray for Him to grant you hope, not only for healing, but for ALL things because after you get healed you WILL need hope to get through whatever comes next in life. Hope in Christ is the guarantee you'll get through it! God bless you.


May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka



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Who Is Your Hope For Healing In?

This week I've been studying the book of Esther and God gave me the greatest breakthrough in my current journey for hope and I pray it blesses you all and increases your hope as well.

To provide some context, the book of Esther in the Bible is about a young Jewish girl who was an orphan and under the care of her older cousin, Mordecai. During the time of Esther, the king of the land desired to find a new queen and launched a competition for all the women interested to enter. Esther entered and by God's grace and favor she was selected as the next queen. Now, one of the king's right hand men had a very evil heart and through a turn of events he wanted to commit genocide of the Jews. When Mordecai received word of this he was filled with sorrow and mourning. Mordecai sent a message to Esther telling her that she needs to go before the king and request for the Jews to be saved. Esther responded and told Mordecai the palace rule that no one can go before the king unless they are called. A person can be killed if the king doesn't accept them showing up on their own.

Now, this is the part I want to hone in on. Mordecai is a simple Jewish man, with no political power or influence. A decree has gone out that he and every single Jewish person in the land will be slaughtered by an army of soldiers soon to come. All men, women, and children have been ordered to be killed. This is an entire nation. Mordecai has no power, however he has cousin who is the QUEEN, married to the KING who has ALL POWER. In a sense, one would rationalize that Esther is his only hope. After Esther responds about the palace rule Mordecai says this (Esther 4:14):

For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance WILL arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?


In spite of this great travesty that's about to hit Mordecai's entire nation and his cousin being his only political connection to overturn the decree, Mordecai's faith WAS NOT in Esther. He didn't know how and he didn't know from where, but He believed that God WILL bring their rescue from somewhere else if she decides not to help. God was the source of Mordecai's hope and faith. He believed God could use Esther, but ultimately his hope wasn't IN Esther. If it was, then he would've been distraught when she said she can't. Instead he stood firm and said God WILL do it another way. This word shook me to my core. I have been putting my hope in some Esthers this season and when they say no I'm let down and discouraged. God had to wake me up and show me if Mordecai can trust God with the lives of an entire nation, then what is whatever I'm trusting God for compared to that? I had to take my eyes off Esther and say God if you don't use Esther, you WILL come through another way and that has increased my hope and rocketed my peace in so many ways.

If you're waiting for healing, what's your Esther been? Have been putting your hope in a certain date you want to be healed by? Or a specific church you think you have to go to be healed? Or a specific person praying over you? Stop placing your hope in your Esther my friend. If you believe today you will be healed or after a person prays for you it's going to happen and it doesn't, don't be let down. Pray for Mordecai faith and say it may not have come today or through this way, but God I believe YOU that it will come another way. Then trust it, and let it go.


May your hope be in JESUS CHRIST,

Anreka

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Can God Heal ME?

God has been putting this question on my heart for a few days and I believe it's because one or many of you are thinking it: "I believe God can heal, but can He do it for ME?"

God healed me of herpes in 2013. I'd like to ask you a question: what's the difference between you and me?

Did God not create both of us in our mother's womb? Does His word not say that BOTH of us are made in HIS IMAGE? Does His word not say that He loved the WHOLE WORLD that He sent His only son to die for our sins, so whoever believes might be saved? Are you apart of this world? I'm apart of this world. And God says He took the cross for THE WORLD. So, God existing as three beings, but ONE God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), separated Himself (the Son) from Himself (The trinity) by taking on your sin and mine, carrying the cross and the weight of our evil, just so we can receive forgiveness and be cleansed by the blood that he shed. God did that FOR EVERY SINGLE HUMAN BEING IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND. No one is excluded, yet at the same time God's global love is equal to His individual love. This means if you were THE ONLY SINNER on this earth who's sins separated you from God, HE WOULD STILL TAKE THE CROSS, the agony, the pain, the weight so YOU could be reunited with Him.

So, do you really believe God would do all of this to pursue your heart and give you another chance to be one with Him, but when it comes to healing you, nope you don't qualify? This is FALSE and it is a lie from hell!!!

When sharing my testimony I say over and over we are healed by faith. Many of you already have more faith than I ever did because you found Herpes to Hope as you were looking for a way to be healed. I wasn't looking for God. I wasn't looking for healing. I didn't know I could be healed, I just believed what the doctor told me. So, if God could give me the gift of faith to believe His word of healing and totally turn my heart around and then in time heal me, HOW MUCH MORE is He willing to heal the one who already believes??!!!

Don't listen to the devil. Don't watch the clock of your healing. Simply believe and rest in what God says.

In John 20:29, Jesus says to one of his disciples, who didn't believe he rose from the dead until he saw it with his own eyes, he says: Thomas because you have seen me, you believe: blessed are they that have not seen me and yet they believe. I believe this is for every one of you that searched for God's ability to heal you without having heard any testimony that He can. God calls YOU BLESSED! That wasn't me, I believed when I heard it spoken, and that's okay too because the Bible also says in Romans 10:17 that faith comes by hearing and hearing of the word of God. So whether you believed before hearing or believed once you read my testimony, either way let the faith in your heart BE YOUR HOPE! Don't let the enemy steal your hope. God didn't give you a gift of faith without a plan to use it, TRUST HIM my friend.

I love you so much and I truly pray the Holy Spirit does something in your life with this letter. For you and me Jesus died. For you and me HE ROSE. For you and me HE CAN HEAL.

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,


Anreka

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Having Faith Ain't Easy

                                 

Can I keep it really, real with you? FAITH AIN'T EASY.

As human beings, we are constantly hitting points in life where we're stuck between what world logic/society says we should believe, what our flesh (sinful nature)/inner fear says we should believe, and what God says we should believe.

I'm in this season RIGHT NOW. I keep hitting these "hard rock" moments one after the other and I have to choose what I'm going to believe. Whoever says faith is easy is a LIAR!! Walking in faith in Jesus Christ has been the hardest endeavor I've ever done in my entire life. Some of the feelings I'm going through relate to believing words God has spoken over me, having an expectation, praying for them, and then having opposite things happen, and feeling disappointed.

I remember these were the same exact feelings I felt while I was praying to God for healing from herpes. God's word said I could be healed, I believed it, I prayed for healing, I expected to be healed, and then boom the opposite happens, I'd get an outbreak. I had a hope for healing that was constantly being challenged by what I saw and what I was going through. Now, here I am six years later, healed of herpes, yet still facing the same feelings of disappointment. But I thank God for these Hope Letters because as I'm writing, God is encouraging me through my own testimony.

In a previous Hope Letter wrote about us having hope as long as we're alive. Well, I'm seeing the same truth exist in the reverse: as long as we're alive we will face opposition to our hope. Why? Because we live in a fallen/broken world due to sin and perfect lives with perfect stories just don't exist. However, there IS A PERFECT GOD WHO HAS A PERFECT PLAN TO USE EVERYTHING (EXCITEMENT AND DISAPPOINTMENT) FOR OUR GOOD (Rom 8:28).

I may not like feeling disappointed or being in this place where my hope is constantly challenged, but one thing I can do is look to what God has done before. If I gave up hope while I was waiting for my healing, I literally would have never gotten healed and would never be able to testify to you today. God used my continued hope to give you hope years later. Hope births hope!

God never said it would be easy in the Bible, but He said it would be POSSIBLE. So today as hard as it is, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I choose to believe God's word despite what I see and trust His timing because through the hope of today, there will be a greater hope for someone else tomorrow.

I leave you with Jesus' last words to the disciples in Acts 1:6-8

So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?” He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Tell someone about Jesus while you wait.

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka

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