Tuesday... Our hope is getting bigger and bigger...

Tuesday... Our hope is getting bigger and bigger as we wonder if any of those presents under the tree are what we have hoped for and if our new year will be better.

Paul says in Romans 8:24 (MSG), "We are enlarged by the waiting." We are so anxious. Why can't we open them today? I want to know what I got. And we do that in what we are going through each day. I hope this will end soon. I wonder what is going to happen.

He goes on, verse 25, "But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy."

The Amplified Bible puts it this way, "But hope [the object of] which is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait eagerly for it with patience and composure."

I know we hope 2021 will be different than 2020. This has been a very difficult but also productive year. It has been greater than I could have ever hoped. But now we wait eagerly for what is coming and we can only do it with patience and composure. Verse 25 in the New Living Bible says, "But if we look forward to something we don't yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently."

And as we look back we can also look forward patiently with confidence because (V 28 NLT), "We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them."

And our confidence is strengthened in verse 31, "If God is for us, who can ever be against us."

So my our hope be enlarged with patience and confidence. Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

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Tuesday... I wonder what would happen if we didn't take the credit?

Nehemiah 6:16b (NLT), "They realized this work had been done with the help of our God." Tuesday... I wonder what would happen if we didn't take the credit? Over in the Old Testament in the book of Nehemiah it tells of a major task that through the leadership of Nehemiah was accomplished. The walls of Jerusalem had been torn down and God had laid it on Nehemiah to build those walls back up. It was definitely an almost impossible task but Nehemiah 6:15-16 says, "So on October 2 the wall was finished - just fifty-two days after we had begun. When our enemies and the surrounding nations heard about it, they were frightened and humiliated. They realized this work had been done with the help of our God." Now, we so many times want to take credit for doing the impossible. It would make such a difference for us. But I wonder what would happen through us if God got the credit? Psalm 96 tells us what we are to do. Verses 2-3 says, "Sing to the LORD; praise his name. ...

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Thursday... Yet, now this is true.

Colossians 1:22a (NLT), "Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body." Thursday... Yet, now this is true. Now Paul a prisoner in Rome is writing a letter to a church in Colossae. And in Colossians 1:21 (MSG) he says, "Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds, engaging in evil deeds" The NLT says "This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated by your evil thoughts and actions." And that is where so many in this world live today. They are blowing it and they don't know what to do. Yes, they are hostile in their minds and they are engaging in evil deeds but there is Good News. Now Paul in verses 19-20 sets the stage for an answer to those who don't want to live that way. He says, "For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and earth b...

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