A Door of Hope...

Hello, Dear Friends!

Susie Larson here...

And to those visiting, I say welcome!

I post a devotional blog every Wednesday and my purpose is to nourish your soul and encourage you along the way.

This morning I talked on the phone with one of my mentors about some recurring health issues I've been battling. I was blessed to be on the receiving end of one of her powerful prayers.

She prayed something to this effect: "Dear Lord, May the power of Susie's past be broken that it may not affect her future. May she be delivered from all of the effects of past sin, sickness, and wrong beliefs. And may her todays and tomorrows be marked only by Your promises."

Is that not a powerful prayer?

A writer from the 1800's (so sorry, can't remember his name) wrote, "Our past is forgiven. Our future is bright with hope. Our present is filled with power."

Psalm 103:1-5 tells us that God forgives, heals, ransoms, crowns, satisfies, and renews us. If we've taken our sin to the Cross, God has forgiven our past. He wants to heal and restore us. And yet we often drag our baggage with us. We hang on to old fears, age-old debts, and paper thin opinions others have of us.

We can look at those things, we can continue to walk forward while looking over our shoulder, but eventually, we'll fall on our faces. Which isn't such a bad place to be if it makes us remember the Cross once again.

At some point, though, we have to look up. We have to look forward. We have to shake the dust off our past - all of the bad stuff that is - and dare to place our feet on the next place of promise.

Not that our past is a waste. It isn't. On the contrary, when we give our ashes to the Lord, He forms them into jewels fit for a crown.

How do we diminish the negative effects of the past, that we might embrace God's mighty power for our future?

Read on...

The only way to give more weight to God's power than we do our past, is to spend more time looking up to Him than we do looking over our shoulder.

God wants to woo us into a divine and intimate relationship where we are at home in His presence. He wants us to be so assured of who we are to Him that every lying voice fades into the background.

Sometimes He allows us to wander through the wilderness; sometimes He leads us there. But we never have to be afraid.

He knows we are but dust. He knows what it would take to take us out of commission. He is the One who is able to keep us from falling. Therefore we can also know that every trial, every battle is a winnable one.

He will never forsake us. He will always be there for us. He will take every tear and give us back a gift worth more than its weight in gold.

We cannot out-give God. When we give Him our worries, and our past mistakes, and our old injuries, He will give us more of Himself.

We must see our trials as opportunities to be strengthened and to be blessed.

Just this morning I declared once again, "I will be strong! I will live out the number of my days in health! I will not relent because GREATER is He that is in me than he that is in the world! God is FOR me, who or what can stand against me! NOTHING can ever separate me from His love. EVERY pain and heartache is an opportunity and provides a door of hope for God to restore and bless me. Surely I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!"

Read this wonderful passage from Hosea 2:14-15...

Therefore I am now going to allure her. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards and will make the valley of (pain and heartache) a door of hope.

There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the days she came up out of her captivity.

Develop a heart of faith that expects God to be good. Know that He wants to speak tenderly to you. Faithfully and expectantly wait for Him to give restore what you've lost. Look up and believe that your valley of disappointment will become a door of hope.

God is good, all of the time.

Until next week...