Day 22: Unseen Hope

"Faith is facing reality without being discouraged by it."

Read that again

"Faith is facing reality without being discouraged by it."

They are not my words, but the words of Rick Warren

that pierced my heart with such power

reminding me that

Faith is courage~

Faith is doing what you don't want to do,

and doing what He tells you to do~

despite what your reality is

in the moment.

Faith is courage

because it moves you beyond

What is

to

Who is

HOPE

PEACE

JOY

LOVE.

Those four "Christian-ese" words

that roll off the tongue so easily,

as it is

all we really want

&

all that we really need

especially

when we may have to

face a reality

that we wish wasn't the reality

that we may be facing right now.

What is your "reality" today?

What is your story?

Whatever it may be,

good or not so good,

we all need

FAITH~

"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and

assurance about what we do not see." Hebrews 11:1

Faith takes courage

to take a step

Forward

to

the

HOPE

that

we do not see

because

"Hope that is seen is no hope at all.

Who hopes for what they already have?" Romans 8:24

Hmm...

so if I don't have

or

if you don't have

what we really want to have

then

HOPE

is our only option...

"But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." Romans 8:25

FAITH + HOPE = COURAGE

and

COURAGE

is

what

moves ones

Forward

in the

Middle of Wait

because

COURAGE

is

Faithfully

clinging to

His Hope

His Peace

His Joy

His Love

When reality is dark & gloomy

or

When reality is bright and sunny

because

What we see & What we feel

in the

Here & Now

is not

what our

True Reality

really is

for~

"We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist.

But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright!

We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us,

knowing Him directly just as He knows us!

But for right now,

until that completeness,

we have three things t

o do to lead us toward that consummation:

Trust steadily in God,

hope unswervingly,

love extravagantly. I Corinthians 13:12-13 MSG

Faith + Hope = Courage

Faith is looking discouragement right in the eyes~

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen,

but on what is unseen,

since what is seen is temporary,

but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18

Faith is fixing our eyes

on the

UNSEEN

because of the

ONE

who has

Courageously

gone before us

so that

we can

Courageously

face

whatever our "reality"

may come our way.

So let's

Put Courage into our Story

by

Putting

our

Hope

in the

One

who is writing

our

Story.

From Rags to Riches.