Hope Comes The Hard Way
Hope Comes The Hard Way
Often we believe that in order to have hope we need to see an absence of struggle or conflict on the horizon… smooth sailing ahead. The way we think of the birth of Jesus doesn’t help either, we hear phrases from our favourite Christmas carols in our heads and we risk losing the reality of the events of that night. Jesus came into the world through pain and struggle and his birth triggered a storm that the prophet Simeon told Mary “would pierce her soul.” Hope isn’t the absence of pain and struggle, it is an anchoring to Jesus, the one who calms the storm and walks on top of the waves and the one who can bring us through whatever we face today.
It's Small But It's A Start
It's Small But It's A Start
Have you ever felt you don’t have enough? Maybe you look at your resources, your job or your relationships and you assume that God can’t use you fully until you’re in a better spot. The bible actually says the opposite, that we are made strong in our weakness and that God isn’t asking us for what we don’t have, he’s asking wants to use the small things to demonstrate His great name. The bible is clear that we aren’t to despise small beginnings, but rejoice in them because they are the seeds for the glory of God to be revealed in and through us.
Before You Break Ground
Before You Break Ground
The Bible talks about two kinds of rain, the former rain and latter rain. Each one comes in its season. The former rain falls in Israel in late October/early November and it has a specific function to prepare the hard ground to plough and receive seed. In 1Kings 18 the nation of Israel was about to enter a new season but before the rain came God had to bring them through a process of preparation.