What's the story of your life?

So, I was heading into a coffee shop recently and I saw a woman, through the glass doors, holding a tray of coffees and a couple of small bags, presumably some yummy treats. There was no way she was going to manage the door so I swiftly opened the door and held it open for her. She thanked me and proceeded through the open door. Just as she made it outside the strap of the purse she was carrying slipped off her shoulder causing her arm to jerk and with that her entire purchase tumbled onto the sidewalk. She looked back at me and said, without skipping a beat, “That’s the story of my life.”

Have you ever heard anyone say that?  Have you?  People usually say that after some mishap.  But when I thought about it, what a terrible way to define ones life story.

The Apostle Paul, in Romans chapter 12, tells us how to tell and articulate a better story of our lives.

2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

This is such a powerful verse. It is gives us a clue to how we might get to the will of God, that I believe we all secretly want.  Paul says it is going to be proved in our lives as we learn to think and speak the actual story of our lives. He says, to have your mind renewed, transformed and revolutionized - think caterpillar becoming butterfly - we have to think differently.  You see it is of this world to see a bad thing happen and say, “that’s the story of my life”. It’s negative thinking, it’s being pulled down to this low level.

The thing is, we can’t live right if we don’t think right. That’s why the bible puts a huge emphasis on how we think. None of us wake up in the morning and say ‘I want to have a bad day’ but at times we allow that kind of negative thought to move us toward the very type of day we don’t want to have.

So today, let’s work on our thoughts being pulled toward heaven. Keep telling yourself the actual story, the Gospel story, that you are loved, you are cherished, you are valued, that you are a child of the king.  That is the story of your life!

You may think, ‘well Mona, that is just half glass full, half glass empty kind of thinking’.  I beg to differ, your glass is not half empty, your glass in not half full, in Jesus’ name your cup is overflowing!

Overflow with Hope in 2024

Have you ever been low in hope? Have you ever had days when things just seemed hopeless?Have you ever been in a situation when you thought ‘There is no way that this can turn around, there is no way anything positive can come out of this’.

Take a look at this verse:

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.  Romans 15:13

One of the things I love about this verse is… it’s actually a prayer…is that Paul calls God the God of HOPE.

Scripture calls God the God of hope because that is the result of a relationship with a God like this.  Hope is the expectation that good is on the way. That this good God is working things out for our good.  And I love that God is called the God of Hope because it’s not like we are asking for something that God doesn’t know anything about.

Hope is something that God specializes in.

Hope is something that God gives to His people.

Sometimes we have negative feelings about God — maybe we may think about God as a judge, or waiting for us to mess up. We shouldn’t associate God with feelings of burden or sadness, quite the opposite, we should think about God as a God of hope, because that is what God gives.  And Paul says that God will fill us with all joy and peace and that we will get that as we trust in God.

When we trust people, very often trust and peace is not what comes up because people can let us down, they are human and here’s what’s different about God…God always keeps his promises. You can trust God.

God is a promise keeping God.

And the more we trust God the more we are filled with joy and peace because God always keeps His promises. The result of that is, what Paul says, “so that we may overflow with hope by the power of the holy spirit.”

You know those times when things are hard and you start to feel a little bit hopeful? That is not what Paul is praying for, Paul is praying that we would overflow with hope. Paul is praying that we would experience an abundance of hope— more hope that our hearts can even hold!

Earlier in this chapter, Paul points to one great reason to rejoice and that is God sending His son Jesus as our Saviour.

We have so many reasons to hope!

As we move further into 2024, 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.

Hello 2024!

The year 2023 is over and a new year, as it always does, holds in it potential and possibility.   

On New Year’s Eve, after watching the ball drop in Times Square from the comfort of our cottage, our little group of old friends moved to the couches around the fire. We have a tradition of going around the room and asking the question, “So, what will this New Year bring?”  This year was different.

It was clear — as the men quietly made their way from the circle to the table where they began ‘solving’ some geopolitical matter while nursing their recently poured beverage —that they had no interest in participating in a ‘hopeful 2024 discussion’. The ladies remaining around the circle didn’t have much to add either.  I heard things like, “the last few years have been hard, I can plan all I want but thank goodness I have learned to be flexible!” OR, “well I hope to travel but we’ll see ;)”

Honestly, I didn’t know what to say either.  I have no idea what this year will bring.  Our most recent Christmas plans didn’t go as planned, why would anything else?? I was almost afraid to utter my hopes for fear they would only be dashed by another pandemic or plague of locusts or Lord only knows what!

Earlier in the day I had looked back at my journal and found that my hope for 2023 was not about accomplishing a task or goal but rather pursuing a state of being. My hope for 2023 was to be content in all areas of my life. In hindsight, I am not sure how successful I was that ;)

In this new year my hope is for peace.  Peace in my spirit, even the midst of the unplanned, and to be hopeful and confident that the ONE that I serve will help me navigate whatever this year brings.

I will move into 2024 with confidence and excitement because God was with us in 2023, (and 2022 and 2021 and every year before that) just as God has from the beginning, and God will be there until the end.

Immanuel, God with us, is a promise that endures.

So goodbye 2023, hello 2024!  May 2024 be full of Peace, Potential and Possibilities for all of us!

Proverbs 3:5-6.  Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to God and God will make your paths straight.