'Tis Blessing, I Speak {3}

Hope.

It is yours.

That you would see it and know it,
that you would choose it, claim it,
breathe it and be it.
~~
I remember one day you'd done yet another inexplicable thing
which suggested to me that I was not in your mind.
And it upset me.

It upset me because I was so afraid that I was being deceived,
and it sure looked like it. On the surface.
And I got on my knees in tears before Him,
and I asked Him what in the heck He was doing.

It was so hard for me to retain hope in those days,
given my own journey, given yours.
I'd let myself go where He seemed to be saying to go,
but then you'd do something that didn't line up,
and, well...that would set me back. A ways.

But guess what happened when I got down on my knees?

I saw His fist go slamming through a wall.
And then I heard: Hope.

His anger surprised me.
I learned in that moment that it mattered to Him
that I put my hope in Him, and not so much in you;
It mattered to Him for me to believe that He would come through.

By the time I stood up, I understood:
This journey of hearing about you but not seeing anything from you
was really about my hope in Him--
being restored, from all of the ways it had been stolen.

It was about ending the cycles of hopelessness.
~~
What about you? Hope is a word I consistently hear for you too.

So today, I pray hope over you.
Hope in Him alone.

May the Lord bless and keep you, 

may he make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you, 

and turn his face toward you, and give you his peace.