Hope, Pray...and WAIT!

All my life my family has used the phrase, "hope and pray" when looking for the best in every situation.  I'd hear something akin to, "I just hope and pray you don't catch a cold," or "Let's hope and pray everything turns out ok," to "I hope and pray I shut the garage door."  We uttered the phrase rather casually not knowing for years that it is a God-breathed word of encouragement and instruction in scripture!  Romans 12:12 says, "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer."

The hope we have as believers is not a whimsical wish as the world views hope.  Websters dictionary defines it, "to want something to happen or be true and think that it could happen or be true."  The Bible says if this is the only kind of hope we have, we are to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:19). The Christians hope far surpasses that.  1 Peter 1:3 describes a living hope, rooted in the certainty of our resurrection.  In other words, our hope is focused on heaven, not earth.

 I chose the verse in Romans to celebrate our certain hope, which helps us wait on God when we are in trials--difficult circumstances.  The hoping and praying--those are the easy parts of the formula!  It's the patience...the WAITING that gets hard.

Patient in tribulation?  Waiting is harder than we sometimes imagine.  And the more serious our circumstances the harder it is to wait.  So I came up with an acrostic for to help me remember what my time of waiting should look like.

W.A.I.T.  

W=Worship God for who He is in my life.

A = Advance in obedience to revealed truth

I = Imitate Christ before a watching world

T = Thank God in the midst of my need 

If we wait upon God, He has an amazing blessing in store for us.  We will be filled with joy and peace, and the Holy Spirit Himself will fill us with abundant, certain, unfailing hope.  I think that IS awesome!

I used acrylic paints on the left page and paper pieced words from the Seek Him set, and used water-based inks on the right page.  Here are the Sweet 'n Sassy stamp sets I used....all EIGHT of them!  You can find them all right HERE.

Fill Me Up