Got Hope?

It's been a while since I blogged about the Sunday church message. But something Pastor Mike Routt said made me think that I need to do it today. If not for any other reason than to share some of my testimony.

As you can probably guess by the title, today's message was about "hope" and more specifically the hope that we receive through salvation and a personal relationship with our savor Jesus Christ. I have hope. I have more faith in my God than my President. I have more faith in what my God can do for me than what Wall Street can do for my mutual fund. I have so much faith that I wait on my God to help me through the dark times. As the song says, "Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord". I have hope because I know who my God is. And that He is greater than my circumstances.

Let's put it this way, this month Jeff and I don't have enough money to pay our mortgage. They approved us for unemployment benefits through the military but not through Jeff's last job. This has caused something to go screwy in their system and our phone doesn't want to stay charged for the two hours it takes to get through to someone (no joke, you call them and they say that the wait time is 2 hours if you can even get through). Refiling unemployment, has gotten us nowhere. Now if I didn't have hope, I would be really freaking out about not being able to pay our mortgage. We even have creditors calling about bills that we just can't pay right now. Pre-Salvation Kristi would be freaking out. Freaking out about my credit score, freaking out about the mortgage payment, etc. But me, right now, in this place, I'm not freaking out. Most normal people would be right? Well I know that my God is bigger than my circumstances. I know that he is bigger than the amount in my bank account. I know that my God will take care of me. He has been so far. Hope breeds faith. If I didn't have hope I couldn't have the faith and the knowledge that I will be delivered from the mess we currently find ourselves in.

Now take Jeff on the other hand. My husband who says he is a non-believer. He doesn't have hope. He has a sour attitude about the whole thing. He's having a hard time finding a job and it's even a bigger blow to his ego to not be able to provide for his family. He stresses and struggles everyday and finds his solace in playing World of Warcraft which doesn't really help but allows him to take his mind off of his situation for a couple of hours. He doesn't have the hope, faith or peace about our situation as I do and believe me it's hard not to let his attitude rub off on me. But I truly have peace about it. I told Pastor Mike Farnham a couple of weeks ago, that it is very liberating to be able to give our problems to God and let Him worry about it for us. It took a long time for me to learn how to do that. And there are some days that are better than others. There are some days where the doubts creep in, I'm human it happens. But those days are fewer and fewer now.

In our situation, hope and faith are extremely important. I pray and I wait on the Lord. I know that He will deliver and take care of me and my family. That knowledge has led me through some very dark times. It has helped me through 2 deployments, dealing with post-partum depression, and unemployment. If I didn't have hope, I don't know where I would be.

Do you have hope?

If you are interested in reading the scripture passage that we talked about in church today, please look to Mark 5: 24-35 the story of the woman who bled for 12 years. It was through her hope and faith that she was healed.