 Tis time after a long hiatus to compose a post. On the heels of the Thanksgiving holiday, naturally I am inclined to focus this post on the topic of being thankful. And a photo from a walk that I took Thanksgiving morning stirred an idea... In the cold Midwest midmorning of Thanksgiving, I was surprised to see some long, green grass blades poking up through the snow alongside the lifeless brown ones. Of course I had to snap several pictures. And as I did so I was struck with the thought that even when all that once was vibrant and full of life in nature has became frozen and dead, there is still the promise of new life in spring. In a lifetime, just as in nature, there will be cycles and seasons. Sometimes things must pass away and be let go of, some things may be brought to restoration after a period, and sometimes completely new things suddenly grow. And of course what must die and what will live again, and what seeds will sprout and what will be later reaped, is known only by God until the time comes. And that is where thankfulness and tenacity come in. Psalms 9:1-2 TPT And of course there are a plethora of verses throughout the Bible on thankfulness. But there are two keys that I pulled out of these ones. By the way, I highly recommend reading the entirety of Psalms 92 & 100. Key 1: Thanksgiving and Praise are tied to remembering the good things that God has done in the past for you, and tied to the goodness of God's character in general. Key 2: An attitude of gratitude is like a secret code to open the door into God's presence - which results in peace and joy regardless of circumstances. (See Psalm 16:11, Isaiah 26:3, & Phillipians 4:4-8 listed below at the end) So, if you can stir yourself enough to praise and thank God no matter the situation, and recall how He has shown Himself faithful thus far, then you will be spurred into a resolve to remain steadfast and experience hope, peace and joy in the presence of God. Another way to put it > Thankfulness begets Tenacity, and Tenacity begets Thankfulness. And I know oh so well that this is easier said than done! This has been a long season of testing thankfulness and tenacity for me. I have to very intentionally remind myself of the truth of the verses that I included in this post. So keep going, stay the course, and know there is light ahead. Psalms 16:11 TPT 
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 Step number one onto the path of this blog... this first blog post. I had a blog for awhile in a past season. And I felt with this new season of mine, it was time to blog again. But on a new website for my new season and new day. The past half dozen years have been quite the time of learning and growing, of facing feelings and experiences of the past and processing through that with a shift of perspective. Due to all that processing and perspective change, and realizing some things about my purpose and identity, I felt it was time for my new season and new day to start, and to step into that by boldly stepping on a path pursuing ways of getting my story out there, to spread hope, joy, peace, freedom, truth... and long story short, I just launched a podcast - Coffee, Tea, God and Me - and am now beginning this blog. For awhile these will likely be short posts as I focus more on the podcast. But I am definitely capable of long ramblings when I have the time! In spoken and written words! Hahaha. Speaking of rambling (or rather writing of rambling hah), I feel that this post is about to become what I call "reflective rambling." I have been waiting a long, long time for many hopes and dreams to come to fruition. Some things have materialized in part, but mostly I have had to settle with glimpses of what I wait for as time keeps going forward and I feel like I am stuck. And sometimes hope almost all but disappears and I am clinging tenaciously to the tiny shred of hope left. And there have been times I am about to lose the grasp that I have even on that last shred. But then... God steps close to me... and when I am willing to listen to him... hope rises... and I rise in that hope. Key part of that - when I am willing to listen and believe God. The following verses are ones that have helped me hold on when there's only that little piece of hope left that's about to slip away. Powerful truth. Our faith in Jesus transfers God’s righteousness to us and he now declares us flawless in his eyes. This means we can now enjoy true and lasting peace with God, all because of what our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, has done for us. Our faith guarantees us permanent access into this marvelous kindness that has given us a perfect relationship with God. What incredible joy bursts forth within us as we keep on celebrating our hope of experiencing God’s glory! But that’s not all! Even in times of trouble we have a joyful confidence, knowing that our pressures will develop in us patient endurance. And patient endurance will refine our character, and proven character leads us back to hope. And this hope is not a disappointing fantasy, because we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us! "...enjoy true and lasting peace with God... permanent access into this marvelous kindness... we have a joyful confidence... we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit..." Yes and Amen, thank you, Lord! And now with "joyful confidence" I am putting hope and faith to action by courageously moving ahead with these steps that I can take right now, the podcast and blog. And I am finally going to self-publish a book in 2023! Details and release date to be determined. I could say so much more on hope, but as Thanksgiving Day is coming to an end to transition into another day and another season, I will bring this post to an end with this idea... I am thankful that I have a living God who is a God of hope, and that he has been with me through it all and has turned ashes into beauty and mourning into joy, and he has turned suffering into strength. And this wonderfully powerful but gracious God will continue to walk with me into the new day, and so I will continue to rise up and shine. Now may God, the fountain of hope, fill you to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as you trust in him. And may the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround your life with his super-abundance until you radiate with hope! |
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