What is the virtue of hope?
1. It comes straight from God: Hope is called an infused virtue - a direct gift from God, which is a pretty good source. It isn't a feeling we conjure within ourselves, simply a positive attitude. It comes from God.
2. It goes straight to God: there are many lesser things we might wish for (I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow) but the virtue of hope is outrageous in its expectations. God gives us the gift of expecting everything and God tells us that we can have everything.
3. It is grounded in God right now: Hope isn't hanging somewhere out there in the future. It is based on the living experience of God, now, because God exists now and I can experience God now. Hope is the enjoyment now of what God has done and is doing for us and the anticipation already of what God will do for us.
Hope is not something wishy, faint or shaky. Hope is something real, full, rich, rugged, strong. Because hope comes from God and goes directly to God and God is real right now.
--- From the little white book.
Sometimes people take faith for granted. Faith is a gift of God, but it takes personal courage and conviction in order to believe. You have to take a risk. You have to think about your faith and reflect on it.
Lately, I have been feeling angry, resentful, confused and exhausted. I have let those feelings get the best of me. It's a shame because I need to remember to take one thing at a time and not deal with all of them at once. I eventually felt numb afterwards because I keep pushing my feelings away until I felt nothing. I realized that for those feelings to go away, I have to forgive those who drives me crazy. Then I would become hard on myself for letting it get the best of me sometimes, then I saw this on facebook and I was like WOW, this is interesting and it relates to what I have been thinking and reading about faith.
true faith flowers from and through doubt. | |
 | If you never questioned your beliefs, - you are just a puppet dancing to somebody's strings. If God had wanted your mindless obedience, you would've been created without mind and without free will. But you have both so you can come to God of your own accord. Just look at the lives of saints, - most of them had gone through a dark night of the soul, and that's why their faith was so strong. The path to true faith always goes through doubt. So ask those questions you've always been afraid to ask, and find the answers, and then your faith will become unshakable. |
God has showed me who my true friends are. I have learned to trust two people this year. I have taken the time to get to know them and be able to trust them. I always hold it in but I realized that it is healthy to talk to someone especially those who are my age and are women. They understand how I feel and just feeling heard and understood means the world to me. It doesn't make me feel alone and it doesn't make me feel out of place. I feel like I belong. I thank God for my friends. They are wonderful.
I hope for a lot of things - I hope that my husband and I will have a nice house with healthy children and cute dogs. Have a lot of opportunity to be part of the community and be a family with everyone. I have a lot of hopes and I have faith that God will provide it for me. It's a risk that I'm ready to take on.
It takes a risk but it's worth it. God will only bring us to places where we will see grace afterwards.
Psst....rapture doesn't happen when we expect it....it only happens when we don't that's the whole point of it. Be ready no matter WHAT.
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