losing heart....losing hope...... don't lose hope.....

I have read this book, several times and the chapter on "losing heart" has been highlighted -- marked up ....and well--read and reread and tonight I want to share a part of it.
I am basically rewriting a part of it - if this sticks into your brain and you want to read more -- it is from the book,  "Strong Women, soft hearts" by Paula Rinehart.

She writes:  

...if you want to know real joy in life, then be willing to let pain tutor your soul....

Passion in life is comprised mostly of the stuff that comes from the tutoring process--slowly and mysteriously-- like a phoenix rising from the ashes of despair. I should add that the root of this word passion gives us significant clues as to how we acquire it.  It means "to suffer".  It's as though some wise old souls was trying to let us in on a little secret.  So......you are interested in the passionate life. You want the real thing.  Are you willing, then, to grapple with a bit of pain?   - Paula Rinehart

I thought about that  and read that and reread that...pain has tutored my soul.

Pain has taught me much. 

A crisis of faith is what it took.....for me to become passionate about Christ.  

  Passion is a two-sided coin on which joy is wedded, inextricable, to sorrow, and wisdom is purchased at the feet of suffering.  You won't know many moments of being Cinderella at the ball without sweeping up your own pile of ashes and cinders.  The real prizes are never cheap.   - Paula Rinehart

Again, I thought about that - read and reread it.  

To think that suffering is what most of us have to live through to really learn to trust God..

to really learn to hunger for HIM.....to really have that passion.....

She goes on to write that when we lose heart ..we lose hope and it is easy to lose hope in people...in our flesh!  She gives scripture to remind us:  

"Cursed is the man who trust in mankind and makes flesh his strength...For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant"  

Hope that is pinned to God, rather than to people, has a buoyancy to it because it is grounded not in our own illusion of how our story should read, but in the character of God.  And so, your husband may indeed leave  for another woman, the book may never be published, the business may never get off the ground, but we dare not let go of our hope.  We stay alive to the possibility to encountering someone really good, so that we can welcome it when it comes.  We won't have  our backs turned. - Paula Rinehart

As David wrote in the Psalms,
"I would of despaired unless I had believe that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."  

David expected to see the goodness of God in his life -- at any possible moment, in the most unlikely of situations, because good is simply how God is.  A sense of expectancy rooted in the goodness of God keeps hope alive!

I was purposeful in choosing WHICH paragraph I was going to post here -- I put it in red...
If  you know me, you can understand why I read and reread that.
I read it and was mad at God..."No way....that can't be!"
I read it and thought, "Ok God...I will trust".
And finally I got to a point where I read it and understood it.

We have to put our hope in God.
Our Lord.
Our BEST pal and confidant.

I have learned, probably the hard way, that we can't give up hope.
It takes TIME - God's time!

I wanted to encourage someone  again -- seek God - look to HIM for your hope and don't give up!
It takes time - HIS time.  But I promise you -- in the mean time, you can look for the goodness of the Lord - HE will show you that while HE is making the bigger picture change!!

- in HIm, Michelle