With A New Hope ... We Wait

As I am sitting here this evening, my thoughts go back to the past few months. I realize the situation we've been in has been very hard to deal with and it's not over yet. After spending time with the Lord, I had to write. 

I am ashamed to admit that I have failed drastically. I was bound up by the shackles of those failures. I realized that during this time, all I saw were the struggles. Then a load of disappointments hit me all at once and weighed me down and I couldn't carry it any longer. I finally broke. What was I doing carrying it all to begin with when I know the load was not mine to carry!?! I cried out to the Lord and I finally let them all go tonight after I had talked with some friends who God used to minister to me. God's word for me was to “Lift up my head” not to be weighted down. And that no weapon formed against me shall prosper.

He later told me to “Lay aside every weight that so easy besets you. Cast your cares upon me, because I care for you”. So I did.

I like this quote by Paula White: "The key to defeating your struggle is finding your ‪strength in God."

My husband put a music program on my iPad today. When I was listening to it tonight, a song began to play, called “Redeemed”. I've heard it many times before but tonight, I actually heard the lyrics from my heart, not just my ears. It ministered straight to my heart and spoke of many struggles my husband and I had been facing. After you listen to the song, you'll see just how much was in it that I included here. Amazing how much GOD knows!! I could have written that song myself.

God will always send what and who we need in our life at the right time needed.

It can become so easy, while in a trial, to see more of the struggle than see what God can and will do during that struggle. I felt all alone and that nobody cared what we were going through. My heart was plagued by pain and disappointments because all I could see were the struggles. It was becoming all about us instead of all about God and what He was doing. You know what I'm talking about. We've all been there.

God is working all things out for our good. He knows what we are going through and goes through it with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. But if we get our eyes off of Him and on our circumstances, we will sink!

When disappointments come, we can start to lose hope. We don't even want to get our hopes up about anything anymore for fear of getting disappointed one more time.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12)

The DELAY of what we so eagerly desired and expected was such an affliction, that it differed little from a lingering disease; but when the desire does finally come — When the expected is obtained,we know it will be a tree of life — That is, most sweet, satisfactory, and reviving to the soul.

SO....we continue to WAIT but with an expectancy. The 'waiting room' is such a hard place to be, is it not? And the hardest part is not knowing when the waiting is going to finally end.

Yes, we are still waiting, but as I refocus, I remind myself again, I don't care what we go through or what doesn't seem to work out on our schedule, God has a reason for all that we go through and we must remember that we always have a Hope that will carry us through!! Nothing that we go through while here on this earth will compare to what He has waiting for us in heaven – our real home.

I was bound up by the shackles of my failures and the shame of who I used to be, but now I am freed by forgiveness and I am redeemed by His blood! I am no longer who I used to be! I have a new life, a new beginning and a new HOPE.

With a New Hope......We Wait!

Connie J. Schmoll

If you are viewing this from your email, to listen to the video, "Redeemed" by Big Daddy Weave, please visit my devotional blog.