|
 ?and 
I always try to attach the IMF (Incredimail) letter File, and the blank tags for
each Stationery single or set that I use for my daily shares.? If you
do not have the original font I created them with, just write and ask me to
send it to you.? All Information about the Stationery is in the footer credits
at the bottom of each letter.
?
Have a blessed year, 2023.
?
Hugs,
Pastor Karen
DAILY PRAYER
?
Lord we Thank and Praise you for all you do each day to guide, protect, provide, and answer every petition as they make their needs, wants, and the desires of their hearts known to you.
?
Lord please bless, keep, guide, and provide each person this message reaches.? Throughout each day, bless them with perfect health, healing, and the abundant supply to fulfill all they need, want or desire.? Keep each of them safe and secure, no matter the weather, temperatures, or other circumstances that should try to cause their body, mind or our spirits to be tried and tested! Guide each of them as they pray, ask, and require.? (2 Corinthians 5:18-21; Ephesians 6:10-20;Luke 1:1-4; Luke 18:1-8; Colossians 1:9-23; Romans 8:26-30)
?
Dear Lord in sharing the words of prayers and words of wisdom from history, I hope to encourage all my readers of these messages, to show that we are not experiencing anything that others have not, and to show that you always provide.? Let the readers also reflect on the time and circumstances of these prayers and words of wisdom, so they may draw strength and insight from them. Amen
?
God knows us through and through. Not the most secret thought, which we most hide from ourselves, is hidden from him. As then we come to know ourselves through and through, we come to see ourselves more as God sees us, and then we catch some little glimpse of his designs with us, how each ordering of his providence, each check to our desires, each failure of our hopes, is just fitted for us, and for something in our own spiritual state, which others know not of, and which, till then, we knew not.? Until we come to this knowledge, we must take all in faith, believing, though we know not, the goodness of God toward us.
Edward Bouberie Pusey (1800–1882)
?
Have a wonderfully blessed and prosperous day in the Lord today!
?
TODAYS DEVOTIONS
?
(It is not my intent to be a salesperson, just send uplifting and encouraging devotions, so all links are removed, but are in bold print, the attached PDF still should have hot links or you can follow the link at the bottom to view the devotion online)
?
Never Lose Hope
?
Wait?for the?LORD;
??? be strong?and take heart
??? and wait for the?LORD. — Psalm 27:14
We start out every week with an inspirational lesson from the beloved Psalms. For centuries, these ancient poems of King David and others have been the foundation for Jewish and Christian worship.? Enjoy!
Hope is a word that we toss around a lot, but I’m not sure that we always fully understand its meaning. It’s not until we’ve?lived?hope—until we have been in a dark situation and needed to find the light of hope in order to continue—that we can really know what the word means.
Moreover, there are distinct levels of hope.? There’s the basic hope of having faith that things will be all right.? And there’s another level of hope when things haven’t turned out the way we had hoped they would and we’re challenged to be bold enough to hope again.
Imagine that someone is suffering from an illness.? At a certain point, they have hope that their health will improve, but then they receive a bad medical report.? Is it possible to hope again?? Is it possible to believe that God will deliver them from their troubles or give them the ability to withstand them?
Never Lose Hope
This secondary, more challenging hope is what Psalm 27 is describing in the last line,?“Wait?for the?LORD;?be strong?and take heart and wait for the?LORD”.? In Hebrew, the word defined as “wait” is?kavei,?which means “hope”.’
In the Jewish tradition, this verse reads, “Hope to the LORD, strengthen your heart, and hope to the LORD”.? Why does?write “hope to the LORD” twice?? Because there is the first time that we hope and then the second time.? After the first hope, we must strengthen our heart so that we can hope again.
In Isaiah 38, we learn that?had become extremely ill.? We can imagine that Hezekiah, a righteous king of Israel, certainly hoped and prayed all through his illness that God would heal him.? Then the prophet Isaiah visited him and delivered a most devastating message:?“This is what the?LORD says: Put your house in order,?because you are going to die; you will not recover”?(Isaiah 38:1).? Hezekiah’s hopes were shattered!
Yet, the Jewish sages teach that Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, “I have a tradition from my grandfather David—even if a sharp sword rests on your neck, one should not refrain from praying for mercy”.? Hezekiah continued to pray, and he was healed!
Friends, never lose hope, even when your first hopes have been dashed.? Hope, and hope again.? Strengthen your heart and dare to believe—our God will deliver us according to His timing and good plan.
Your Turn:
Where in your current situation do you need an extra dose of hope today? Pray the words of Psalm 27 and dare to hope again!
?
PDF attached:
Never Lose Hope
By: Yael Eckstein?
? | 
Pastor Karen Runbox
