Hope.
What an incredible word.
The idea that things will change for the better.
That one's current situation or circumstance will not remain in the same state forever.
Hope?
Parents name their daughters after this word.
Young girls have wooden chests that they fill with things in preparation for marriage.
Hope.
Yet in the addicts life, hope is something that runs in short supply.
Oh, there may be the obligatory "hope" that somehow karma or the planets lining up will make our lives better.......but truth be known, that kind of hope is just having something to hang on to. It is truly hope with no direction and no purpose.
Romans 15:13 reads: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Here in this verse, we find the author and created of hope.........that would be the one-true-living-God of the Bible. He made it.......He sustains it........He defines it.......He is the giver of it. Real hope is found in Jesus.
Notice that God is in the "Filling" business. If God does something to you or in you, it isn't a dribble and a drab here and there. No sir! It is an over flowing, above abundant, hang on it's gonna blow you away work.
It says that God of hope will fill you (notice---as you trust in him) so that you can overflow with hope.
You know what that means....
People close to you are going to get "hope splashed" whether they want to or not.
All of this wonderful work is done by the Holy Spirit.
Now that is the kind of God I need. A hope-giving-hope-filling-hope-overflowing God.
I Peter 1:3 reads:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
This is my most favorite part.....
We have been born again (saved/ salvation) into a living hope.
A hope that is constantly changing as we change and grow in Christ.
The hope I have today is still found in Jesus, but the way I see it and the way it is applied to my life has changed over the years as I have grown and matured in him. I'm still not there and there is a whole lot of growing to do,but that hope will grow and change with me as it directs my focus to Jesus.
Bottom line...
Your sobriety and new life is not found in any program....
Your new way of thinking and doing business with this world is not found in any steps.
Your new life is found in Jesus.
Jesus makes the 12 steps come alive.
God the Father has sent His Holy Spirit to be the POWER we need to make the change.
Either this stuff is true....
Or it's the biggest lie ever perpetrated on the human race.
As for me and my household....
We believe it to the truth.
God on you.....
mb
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