I'm stupid? Why do ya think they call it hope?

Hope was the title of our third lesson last week. We are following Pastor John Baker's format of one lesson every other week, followed by a testimony the next week.

Hope is essential in the mind and heart of the person who wants to be at peace in this world... Real Hope is found here at Celebrate Recovery



Principle 2: Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me recover.
“Happy are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)



Step 2: We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.





Hebrews 11:6 tells us, “Anyone who comes to [God] must believe and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”





To me there is one word that encapsulates this article about hope; EARNESTLY... we must earnestly seek him... we must have earnest hope and earnest prayers





In this world today you hear the word hope a lot. You see posters with our new leader and the word hope underneath. His book about Hope (or the Audacity of it) is what helped get him elected





I think there are different kinds of hope; realistic,and unrealistic(fairy tale hope). I mean, I am the eternal optimist but I still have to keep it real. Sometimes we get impatient with hope, wanting our hopes to become reality now! We verbalize hopes to God in the form of prayer. Some prayers are God's will, and some are not. Some prayers are realistic and some are not. When we pray it is our earnest hope that God hears us. You can be sure God hears every prayer. I think God even answers every prayer. The answer isn't always yes. But don't give up.

My friend Robert has a great way of putting it "in 27 years i have never had a prayer not answered but there are several still in process"

We can trust God to answer our earnest prayers in his time.


What do we mean by Earnest? my dictionary says




1 Marked by or showing deep sincerity or seriousness: an earnest gesture of goodwill.


2 Of an important or weighty nature; grave. See synonyms at serious.

So when we sincerely pray about serious things, He will answer. But in his time.

I pray often. I wake up in the morning and say a prayer, and I usually pray several times a day. Even if it is just a quick "thank you Lord" or "forgive me Lord"

The other day I lost my keys in the middle of moving... after several minutes of looking for them I stopped and asked God to help me find my keys. I really was stressed out and i needed to find them now! I never found them until much later... during the process of searching and continuing in prayer, God answered two other prayers of mine from the past few days. It was pretty amazing and quite humbling too. After answering two other prayers, He gave me a vision of where I had left my keys. At first I lost my patience with God asking Him "Why aren't you helping me find my keys?" Then He answered me in love.

Psa 116:1 I have given my love to the Lord, because he has given ear to the voice of my cry and my prayer.
Psa 116:2 He has let my request come before him, and I will make my prayer to him all my days.
Psa 116:3 The nets of death were round me, and the pains of the underworld had me in their grip; I was full of trouble and sorrow.
Psa 116:4 Then I made my prayer to the Lord, saying, O Lord, take my soul out of trouble.
Psa 116:5 The Lord is full of grace and righteousness; truly, he is a God of mercy

So don't give up on Hope. Keep praying, He will answer you in love. He will answer you when it's time. God is Love