He is hope.....

via Pinterest

searching for some words on hope tonight...i turned to God's heart expressed through Ann, and to an old hymn.

i've got a mansion

just over the hill top

in that bright land where

we'll never grow old

and one day yonder

we will never more wander

but walk on streets that are purest gold

 Ann's hope words:

When its hard to still keep on hoping: "We bury our swollen prayers in Him who’s raised from the tomb. We lay our hope, full and tender, into the depths of Him and wait in hope for God to resurrect something good. Good always necessitate long waiting."

Why its worth it to keep on hoping:"When hope is infinitesimal, that God may increase it, and when hope is deadened, that God may enliven it, and when hope is craved that it may be found in Christ alone. How in the world can the hurt produce hope? Simply: Lean into the Lord...(tharr be more)and His heart absorbs the hurt and the hope of forever with Him, this is what heals.  Even when we’ve buried pain deep, refused to expose it, and the gnawing about wears us through, us with no hope for the fruit — there’s a Gardner and there’s a miracle and there’s redemption in the barren places."

The importance of family, what he gives in the dark: "In the dark, on the brink of the unspeakable, there’s a power working in the powerless.....We just have to grab each other’s hands, press into the land of His promises. I lean into his tears. “We don’t know what’s going to happen here, Joshua. God’s got a plan and it’s good, always.” His eyebrows betray his questioning...The power that charges the dark is the grace of family. There is a reason that “God sets the lonely in families” (Ps. 68:6)."