A Hope and a Future
Posted by Rosemary Hines on Saturday, February 22, 2014
Reading the Daily Light devotional this morning, coffee cup in hand, my focus lands on my life verse.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” ~Jeremiah 29:11
This is my life verse because it literally kept me alive during a very dark time after my father ended his own life. Every morning before I could even lift my head off the pillow, I’d stretch my arm toward the nightstand, fumble for the Bible left open to this passage, and read it over and over until finally it spoke truth into my heart, mind, and spirit. Then I sit up and make a haltingly short prayer vow. “I’ll do today, Lord. No guarantees for tomorrow, but I’ll do today.”
Throughout each of those days, a voice from the pit would seek to derail me and draw me back into the darkness with taunts of worthlessness and failure from the past and promised demise in the future. Your life is hopeless. You are doomed.
And yet, there it was ~ in God’s Word ~ crystal clear. He had a plan for good and not evil, a plan to give me hope and future.
How much life I would have missed had I succumbed to the lies of the enemy! Decades of loving and learning in a committed marriage; watching our kids grow up and develop their own vital relationship with Him and then marry godly spouses; seeing Him restore my childhood dream of teaching; participating in ministries overseas and at home; discovering an unexpected opportunity to write for His glory; and now the crowning joy of grandchildren. All gifts that awaited me in those days that seemed so endlessly dark.
A second verse from today’s Daily Light reminds me that even when that darkness closes in and nothing makes sense, I can know God is at working to bring diamonds out of dust. The key? Understanding that He views life from a completely different perspective ~ an eternal one.
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts. ~ Isaiah 55:9
Dear Lord,
Thank you for the rich promises and perspective You speak into my life. No matter the darkness that threatens to overcome me, You continue to work Your plans for hope and a future.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” ~Jeremiah 29:11
This is my life verse because it literally kept me alive during a very dark time after my father ended his own life. Every morning before I could even lift my head off the pillow, I’d stretch my arm toward the nightstand, fumble for the Bible left open to this passage, and read it over and over until finally it spoke truth into my heart, mind, and spirit. Then I sit up and make a haltingly short prayer vow. “I’ll do today, Lord. No guarantees for tomorrow, but I’ll do today.”
Throughout each of those days, a voice from the pit would seek to derail me and draw me back into the darkness with taunts of worthlessness and failure from the past and promised demise in the future. Your life is hopeless. You are doomed.
And yet, there it was ~ in God’s Word ~ crystal clear. He had a plan for good and not evil, a plan to give me hope and future.
How much life I would have missed had I succumbed to the lies of the enemy! Decades of loving and learning in a committed marriage; watching our kids grow up and develop their own vital relationship with Him and then marry godly spouses; seeing Him restore my childhood dream of teaching; participating in ministries overseas and at home; discovering an unexpected opportunity to write for His glory; and now the crowning joy of grandchildren. All gifts that awaited me in those days that seemed so endlessly dark.
A second verse from today’s Daily Light reminds me that even when that darkness closes in and nothing makes sense, I can know God is at working to bring diamonds out of dust. The key? Understanding that He views life from a completely different perspective ~ an eternal one.
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts. ~ Isaiah 55:9
Dear Lord,
Thank you for the rich promises and perspective You speak into my life. No matter the darkness that threatens to overcome me, You continue to work Your plans for hope and a future.
